John Mearsheimer

It's not that unusual to hear that term used in Israel.

This is disastrous for Israel, in my opinion.

And Steve Walton and I said this, by the way, when we wrote the Israel lobby, that Israel is an apartheid state, which is equivalent to Israel as an occupier, is not good for Israel.

And that brings us back to the two-state solution.

But as you and I were talking about a few minutes ago, it's hard to see how you get a two-state solution.

And the end result of this conversation is utter despair.

Well, that plus the fact that the Israeli government is filled with people who have no interest in a two-state solution.

They're ideologically deeply committed to a greater Israel.

They want all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea to be a

part of a jewish state they're just ideologically committed to that and uh and of course as we were talking about before with regard to hamas hamas wants everything between the river and the sea to be a palestinian state and you know when you have two sides with those kinds of views right um

you're in deep trouble because there's little room for compromise.

So what you have to do to get this to work is you have to convince the Israelis that it's in their interest to have a two-state solution.

And you've already taken care of the PA on this front, the Palestinian Authority, but you've got to convince Hamas

that its maximalist goals are not going to work, and it's in its interest to follow in the footsteps of Arafat and accept a two-state solution.

But even if you do that at this point, let's say that there's a lot of willingness intellectually on both sides to do that.

The problem is that the hatred that has been fueled by this recent coup

This ongoing conflict is so great that it's just hard to imagine how you can make a two-state solution work at this juncture.

That's why I've sort of taken to saying, and I hope I'm wrong here, that on the two-state solution, that boat has sailed.

It's no longer possible.

Not probably.