One state, two state: What do Israelis and Palestinians really like?

Insanity was defined by Albert Einstein as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Many among those who have been involved in, or at least have followed closely, efforts to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians have a sense of repeating the same approaches and solutions since the Oslo Accords were signed 23 years ago.

In what may become part of the folklore of the never-ending efforts to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, US President Donald Trump recently said: “I’m looking at two-state and at one-state, and I like the one that both parties like.” This real-estate agent-like talk, typical of Trump, ludicrously oversimplifies one of the most protracted and complex conflicts in recent history.

It is nonetheless important to try to figure out how Israelis and Palestinians perceive the current stalemate, and what they see as the way forward. In most cases, public opinion and leaders worldwide are exposed to the rhetoric, some might say demagogy, of Israeli and Palestinian politicians, instead of exploring the views of ordinary people whose daily lives are affected by the conflict.

A very impressive joint effort by the Israeli Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research (TSC) and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) sheds light on Israeli and Palestinian positions regarding the current dire situation and its possible resolution. Their survey highlights divisions between and among both societies.

Jews and Arabs in Israel, or Gazans and West Bankers in Palestine, experience the conflict differently, and so relate to its solution differently. There are further, more subtle divisions within these categories. Unsurprisingly, this diversity leads to some worrying findings, such as the distrust and fear that dominate both societies, and high levels of support for violence among Palestinians, who experience Israeli occupation and blockade daily.

But it is not all doom and gloom. The findings can serve as a source of optimism too. There is a critical mass in both societies that is more interested in a solution than confrontation. Those who think the two-state solution is dead and buried should look carefully at the findings of this survey. A majority of 55 percent of Israelis, and a substantial minority of 44 percent of Palestinians, favor a two-state solution.

A one-state solution is supported by only 36 percent of Palestinians and a mere 19 percent of Israeli Jews, though by a majority of Israeli Arabs. It might not look at first glance like the overwhelming support required for two separate sovereign and independent political entities that one would like to see.

But considering what has happened since the peace process started in 1993, and especially since the collapse of negotiations at Camp David in 2000, followed by a very bloody second uprising, this level of support is a small miracle. It is a testament to the hard-core support for a peaceful solution among both societies. Furthermore, according to the survey, support for the two-state solution increases if new incentives are added to what has been thus far considered the main tenets of a deal.

In more than two decades of negotiations, a clear set of parameters for a deal has emerged, including mutual recognition of Palestine and Israel as the homelands of their respective peoples, Jerusalem as the capital of both, a functional resolution for the plight of Palestinian refugees, and addressing the issue of Jewish settlements, among other challenges at the heart of this conflict.

But these understandings were not enough for either side to reach a lasting agreement, or bring on-board a more sizable segment of Palestinians and Israelis. When new incentives were suggested by pollsters, responses showed a surge of readiness on both sides to reconsider support for a two-state solution among those who initially rejected it.

A number of these incentives address practical matters such as allowing settlers to stay in their homes after Israel withdraws, or allowing Palestinian laborers to freely work in Israel. Others appeal more to the emotional-psychological aspects of the stalemate, which were neglected in the past.

It seems that despite nearly 70 years of independence, Israeli Jews long for Palestinians to recognize the historic and religious links of the Jewish people to their historic homeland. Similarly, Palestinians ask for Israel to acknowledge their historic affinity to Palestine.

For many, both the negotiations and acceptance of a two-state solution demonstrate such acknowledgments. But for those who live daily life under conditions of fear, distrust, violence and occupation, acceptance and recognition have the potential to transform their skepticism into support for peace based on a two-state solution. This is something that anyone who has a genuine interest in reaching Israeli-Palestinian peace should prioritize.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media.