The two-state solution

What it is

The two-state solution means one Jewish state and one Arab state in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, each sovereign, each recognizing the other.

The shape is older than Israel. On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions, recommending that the territory be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state of roughly equal size and natural resources, sharing currency, roads, and certain government services, with Jerusalem set aside as an international city. ¹ The Zionist leadership accepted it, reluctantly, because it delivered sovereignty and control over immigration. ¹ The Palestinian Arab leadership and the surrounding Arab states rejected it outright. ¹

Four questions have to be answered for any version of it to work, and they are the same four every time.

Borders. Where the line goes, and what happens to Israeli communities built past it. Jerusalem. Who holds which neighborhoods, and what happens to the holy sites. Refugees. What becomes of Palestinians who left in 1948 and their descendants. Security. Who guarantees that a Palestinian state does not become a launching pad, and who is allowed to stand where.

The most detailed answer any American president has put in writing came on Dec. 23, 2000. The Clinton Parameters proposed Palestinian control of 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank, with a territorial exchange giving Palestinians the equivalent of another 1 to 3 percent of Israeli land, while Israel kept the settlement blocs holding about 80 percent of settlers. ⁴ Jerusalem was to be divided on the principle that Arab areas go to Palestine and Jewish areas to Israel, with special arrangements for the Historical Basin. ⁴ Refugees would be repatriated to the Palestinian state, with other countries, Israel included, taking a limited number by their own choice. ⁴ Security rested on international forces, Israeli early warning stations in the West Bank, and an Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley for three years. ⁴ Both sides responded with reservations rather than acceptance, the parameters and those reservations became the basis for talks at Taba in January 2001, and no agreement was reached. ⁴

On March 12, 2002, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1397 by 14 votes to none with Syria abstaining, recalling Resolutions 242 and 338, calling for an immediate ceasefire, and endorsing the Mitchell Report and Tenet Plan. ² It was the first UN resolution to explicitly call for two states, Israel and Palestine, to live side by side within secure and recognized borders. ³

Why it still matters

Because the formula is still the default of nearly every government that has an opinion, and it is now less popular among the two peoples who would have to live in it than at any point anyone has measured.

Gallup surveyed 1,000 adults in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between June 26 and July 30, 2025, and 1,001 adults in Israel between July 3 and Aug. 25, 2025. ⁷ Support for a two-state solution ran 33 percent to 55 percent against among Palestinians, and 27 percent to 63 percent against among Israelis. ⁷ In 2012 the same question drew 66 percent support from Palestinians and 61 percent from Israelis. ⁷ Pew, working face to face with 998 Israeli adults from Feb. 5 to March 11, 2025, found that 21 percent thought Israel and an independent Palestinian state could find a way to coexist peacefully, the lowest reading since Pew started asking in 2013 and down 14 points from spring 2023. ⁶ Among Jewish Israelis it was 16 percent; among Arab Israelis, 40 percent. ⁶

The Israeli political system got there first. On July 17, 2024, the Knesset passed a resolution 68 to 9 declaring that it firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan, calling such a state an existential danger that would perpetuate the conflict and destabilize the region. ⁵ Only lawmakers from the Arab-majority Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al parties voted against it; Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and the Labor Party walked out of the plenum rather than vote either way. ⁵ The resolution carried most of Netanyahu's coalition plus right-wing opposition parties and some members of Benny Gantz's National Unity party. ⁵

In 2025 France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Portugal announced recognition of a Palestinian state, joining more than 140 UN member states that had already recognized one. ⁸ President Trump rejected the move, arguing it risked "rewarding Hamas." ⁸ The Israeli objection ran along the same line: recognition granted now reads as a prize for the Oct. 7 attack and strengthens Hamas's hand rather than any negotiating partner's. ⁸

The case for recognition is that Palestinians cannot be asked to wait indefinitely for sovereignty that depends on the consent of the government occupying them, and that a state is the only structure anyone has proposed that ends the arrangement. The case against is that a state conceded under fire teaches that mass murder moves borders, and that no Israeli government can hand security responsibility to an authority that has not shown it can or will stop attacks. Our own view: the two-state shape remains the only one on offer that keeps Israel Jewish, democratic, and not permanently governing millions of people who did not choose it, and none of that makes it available on any timeline the current numbers support.

The words you'll hear

Resolution 181. The UN General Assembly's Nov. 29, 1947 partition recommendation, adopted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions, dividing the territory into a Jewish and an Arab state with Jerusalem internationalized. ¹

Resolution 1397. The Security Council resolution of March 12, 2002, passed 14 to 0 with Syria abstaining, the first UN resolution to call explicitly for two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. ^{2 3}

The Clinton Parameters. The December 2000 American proposal setting out concrete numbers on all four core issues, including 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank for a Palestinian state and land swaps of 1 to 3 percent. ⁴

Final status issues. Shorthand for the four questions left for the end of any negotiation: borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and security. The Clinton Parameters are the clearest single illustration of what an answer to all four looks like on paper. ⁴

Land swaps. The mechanism by which Israel keeps settlement blocs and compensates a Palestinian state with equivalent territory from within Israel. ⁴

Recognition. A state's formal acknowledgment that Palestine is a state, separate from any negotiated agreement with Israel. More than 140 UN member states had done so before the 2025 wave that added France, the UK, Canada, and Portugal. ⁸