Malcolm Cupis: The truth about the two-state solution and why it will never work

Malcolm Cupis is a public relations consultant, strategist and writer. He stood as a Reform UK candidate in the 2024 general Election and was a constituency chairman. He resigned from Reform UK in February 2025 and has since rejoined the Conservative Party. 

Reading debate about the proposed “two-state solution” for Israel and Palestine on Conservative Home this morning is deeply frustrating to someone who has lived in the Middle East and to a significant level understands the complexity of the situation there. The whole “Palestinian” argument is based on some fundamental untruths.

Here are some salient facts. When you understand this, you will understand why there is no realistic prospect of a two-state solution in the region.

Firstly, and vitally, there has never, in the history of the world, been a country called Palestine.

Palestine is a region. The name Palestine was given by the Romans.

When the Romans arrived in the region – about the time of Jesus – Judaism had already been established for about 1500 years. Judaism originates in Judea. Jesus was a Jew. The capital of Judea was Jerusalem.

This was 400-ish years before the Prophet Muhammed and the founding of Islam.

In addition to the Jews in Judea the region of Palestine was home to Arab Bedouin tribes. They didn’t own land, they constantly travelled throughout the region. It was also home to various other Abrahamic Christian groups.

After the Romans left the Turks seized control of the region and it all became subsumed into the Ottoman empire, which covered much of the Middle East and North Africa. The Jews and Christians were brutally oppressed and expelled from the region.

The break-up of the Ottoman empire was overseen by the British and culminated in the creation of Arab countries and one Jewish state. This process was started with the Balfour declaration and not completed until after World War 2. The Jewish state is Israel. The Arab states include Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, among others.

It is vital to understand that Islam is not one homogenous thing.

The Bedouin tribes all waged war on each other. Sunni and Shia Muslims strongly dislike each other. The leading Sunni state in the region is Saudi Arabia. The leading Shia state is Iran. Iran had a moderate pro Western Shah in charge until 1979. He was overthrown in the Islamic revolution and replaced with a hardline theocracy. From that time Iran has sponsored terrorism in the region in an attempt to overthrow the partitioned countries and turn the region to a Shia dominated Islamic state.

There are also hardline Sunni extremists who also want to overthrow the partitioned countries but create a Sunni dominated Islamic state. They are known as Daesh. Or ISIS.

Iran has military and economic backing from Russia and China. Saudi and the Sunni countries have military and economic backing from the US, Britain and other western countries.

Israel actually has good relations with many of the Sunni governments – and has daily flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv. They have a common enemy in the Iranians and Shia extremists. There are millions of Arab Muslims living in peace in Israel. There are also Arab jews living in peace in Bahrain and the UAE. This is not a war between Jews and Muslims.

The problem is the extremists, most especially the Shia, sponsored by Iran. The people who call themselves Palestinians are Shia extremists. Most of them are Jordanian, Lebanese and Egyptian nationals who have made themselves stateless and insist the whole region should be united as a Shia state of Palestine. They will stop at nothing to destroy Israel and the partitioned countries.

They fomented war in Jordan and in Lebanon and were expelled. None of the Sunni countries will accept them for obvious reasons.

Recognising a Palestinian State is giving them exactly what they want.

There is no way they will accept a two-state solution with Israel. They exist to destroy Israel. Anybody suggesting this demonstrates a complete lack of understanding. If you argue that Palestine should be recognised you are arguing for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Israeli people. If you think that Israel should not be armed then you are complicit in this. Israel has to be armed in order to defend itself from constant attack from people who seek to destroy it.

Gaza and the West Bank were previously created as a gesture to give these people their own home. They simply then used it as a base to attack Israel. Giving them a state that is internationally recognised will simply create a bigger problem with internationally recognised support.

The answer to this is for the Western governments to support Israel and the Sunni states and not to give in to the Iranian/Russian/Chinese backed terrorists who call themselves Palestinians. You cannot appease them. They will not accept a two-state solution. They will not live peacefully alongside Israel and the other countries in the region.

If you do not recognise this, you do not recognise the truth.