Full Mearsheimer speech

Despite the sweltering heat in the lecture hall, more than 100 University of Wisconsin students and community members listened as a University of Chicago professor argued that Israel’s future is one of apartheid, followed by eventual equality between Palestinians and Israelis.

Professor John Mearsheimer laid out four possible scenarios for Israel’s future, which included creating a two-state system, having a democratic bi-national state, expelling Palestinians from Israel or falling into an apartheid state.

While he said the two-state system is not the most realistic option, it is the most ideal of the possible solutions.

However, Mearsheimer thinks the existence of two separate states – one Israeli and one Palestinian – will not happen because of governmental and ideological barriers

One of these governmental barriers is Israel itself, which Mearsheimer says is opposed to giving Palestinians a state of their own and has continued to build settlements in the West Bank.

“It is difficult to imagine any Israeli government having the political will, much less the ability, to dismantle a substantial portion of its vast settlement enterprise and create a Palestinian state,” Mearsheimer said.

Another governmental barrier he discussed was the United States. Mearsheimer argues every U.S. president in Israel’s existence had the power to stop Israel from building settlements in Palestinian territory, but did not despite the fact they all opposed these settlements. President Barack Obama has followed suit.

He pointed toward the controversial “Israeli lobby in Washington,” which he says has influenced Congress to follow its policy.

For these reasons, Mearsheimer believes Israel will fall into an apartheid state reminiscent of white-ruled South Africa, eventually leading to democratic bi-national rule dominated by Palestinians.

He also claimed Israel is already a pseudo-apartheid state in that there are separate laws and separate roads, among other things, for Israelis and Palestinians.

In addition, he argued the staunch defenders of Israel who Mearsheimer dubbed the “New Afrikaaners,” will support Israel no matter which road it goes down, including the road to apartheid.

However, he said in this scenario, the rest of the Jewish community around the world, and specifically in the U.S., will not support the apartheid system, making apartheid unsustainable.

Without an apartheid system, Israel will become a democracy where both Israelis and Palestinians will co-exist, Mearsheimer said, but by that time, some 20 to 30 years in the future, Palestinians will be in the majority.

UW sophomore Ian Latimer said he attended the lecture because he feels the issue is important. He said he felt Mearsheimer made valid points that even his opponents could not argue with.

While the Madison U.S. Israel Public Affairs Coalition, which advocates a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East, supports bringing speakers such as Mearsheimer to UW, Vice President and UW junior Jonathan Buksbaum said MADPAC would like to see both sides of the argument represented.

“In order to really explore a pathway to peace…you need to explore the issue from both the Israel and Palestinian perspective,” Buksbaum said.

Mearsheimer sat down with The Badger Herald prior to his talk and said he finds the criticism he and his co-author Steven Walt have come under hard to deal with.

“People don’t have to agree with us, but they should listen to our arguments,” he said. “If they think we’re wrong they should come out and show us that we’re wrong.”

Correction: The original copy of this article misspelled Mearsheimer. We regret the error.