The Jaffee Center has, in cooperation with many other institutions, provided an intelligent, thorough, and very valuable report on the options facing Israel with regard to the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel's Options systematically takes up the six major alternatives currently on the Israeli agenda: staying with the status quo, annexing the territories, imposing autonomy, withdrawing unilaterally from Gaza, seeking a Jordanian-Palestinian federation, or agreeing to an independent Palestinian state. It convincingly shows that none of the six are attractive, though some (notably annexation) are even less attractive than others.
Toward a Solution is a pamphlet that offers, in a mere eight pages, the Jaffee Center's ideas (without any of the first volume's cosponsors) for breaking Israel's impasse. It calls for Israelis to deal with Palestinians in ways that will change the two peoples' "most fundamental perceptions." On the Israeli side, this means taking such steps as accepting the possibility of a Palestinian state; on the Palestinian side, it means accepting a 10-15 year transition stage and a much-circumscribed sovereignty.
Together, the two reports establish a new clarity for thinking through the Israel-Palestinian confrontation. The main problem with them is that they, like so much of the conventional thinking this year, assume that the Palestinians are the only Arabs facing off against Israel.
