Someone recently asked me: ”so what do you think is going to happen with Israel and Gaza?” Usually, I have an answer to any question like this, even if my answer is “I don’t know”. ”I don’t know” is of course an answer. But with regard to this question, “I don’t know” seems like a cop-out. Since I don’t have any other answer, but I don’t want to be accused of avoiding a substantive answer to an extraordinarily important question, I just become flummoxed (I should keep a record of each time I use a new word on this blog – I know I have never used flummoxed before).

What does seem clear is that, at least over the next several millennia, the Arabs won’t kick out all the Jews, and the Jews won’t kick out all the Arabs. What does not seem clear is whether or not these two important groups will ever stop distrusting each other, or killing each other. But between these extremes, there is a lot of gray, and what is normally a possibility – let’s just keep the status quo – is not possible here. Nor is the status quo ante.

Let’s look at some of the possibilities (I erased a word that I had originally typed in: “likely”). Israel destroys Hamas and determines the fate of Gaza. Hamas outlasts Israel and retains control of Gaza. An outside country, or a combine of outside countries, take control of the situation and tell both parties what to do, and the parties comply. Etc. etc. etc.

But perhaps there are other possibilities, possibilities that can only be identified by “thinking outside the box”. If you allow your imagination free reign (or something approaching it), what could you come up with? 

With this in mind, we attended a presentation by a mixed Israeli-Palestinian group called A Land For All (or ALFA), a relatively new organization which has an “out of the box” vision for the future of Israel and Palestine, even if they have note quite figured out how to get there. Actually, I think I should have omitted the word “quite” from the last sentence. And, I should add, if they have truly envisioned what their vision would actually look like, I missed that in their explanation. The evening was sponsored by the New Israel Fund and held at Adas Israel.

What I understand ALFA to be suggesting is a different sort of two state solution. Yes, there would be Israel and there would be Palestine, and their borders would be based on the June 1967 borders, but that would be unimportant, because the citizens of each could live anywhere in the two states, and be subject to the local laws of wherever they live, but vote in the national elections of whichever of the two countries with which they identify.

Okay, take a deep breath.

This is a great idea, I guess, if it promotes peace, but does it even do that? And how do you even know what it does, if you don’t know much more than what I have told you?

I should say that there were at least 200 people in attendance and that Aaron David Miller moderated. He is a former US official, now with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, a CNN pundit, and a NIF board member.

There are so many questions. For example, does this mean that the population of Gaza City can decide to move to Kfar Saba, or to West Jerusalem? Or a current resident of Tel Aviv could buy beachfront property in Gaza. Does this mean the 600,00 Israel Jews who live beyond the Green Line would live in Palestine but vote for the Knesset? And what about non-Arab non-Jews? To which country do they owe national allegiance? And children of mixed parentage?

I must admit that once again, I was flummoxed when I tried to understand what they thought was possible.

But bad times gives rise to desperate proposals. Years ago, we heard a presentation by Martine Rothblatt, well respected CEO of United Therapeutics, on her book “Two Stars”, where she proposed her way to achieve peace in the Middle East – make Israel and Palestine the 51st and 52nd US states. She was serious, too, and the setting for her speech was Ben Gurion University in Israel.

You’ve heard of one step forward and two steps back, right? How about zero steps forward and zero steps back?