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The Ezra Klein Show

A Radical Vision for Israelis and Palestinians

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

News, Government, Society & Culture

4.314.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2026

⏱️ 86 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The old solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict don’t seem to fit the present reality. A two-state solution feels increasingly impossible, given the scale of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Palestinian determination for a right of return. And a one-state solution, in which Israelis and Palestinians would live as equal citizens in a single state, is hard to imagine, given how strongly both peoples seek political self-determination. But what if those aren’t the only options? A Land for All is an Israeli-Palestinian initiative that is proposing a confederation model: two sovereign states, structured to allow freedom of movement between them. It’s a theory of peace based on neither separation nor unification. It holds, first, that both peoples have a relationship to and claim on all the land and, second, that both peoples want to control their own political destinies. I have been — and am — skeptical of solutions to a conflict that is so devoid of the political conditions for a settlement. But even if you’re far from your destination, it’s worth knowing where it is you hope to go. So could this be an answer for both peoples? How would it handle the problems that have bedeviled previous solutions, from security and violence to religious extremism? Rula Hardal and May Pundak are the executive directors of A Land for All. Hardal is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who received her doctorate in political science from the University of Hannover in Germany, and Pundak is an Israeli lawyer, activist and social entrepreneur. They joined me to explain how A Land for All would work and why they think it might succeed where so much else has failed. Mentioned: A Land for All plan Rula Hardal’s Book Recommendations: The Holocaust and the Nakba, edited by Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg States of Denial by Stanley Cohen Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov May Pundak’s Book Recommendations: Tomorrow Is Yesterday by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers The Moomin series by Tove Jansson Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris and Kelsey Lannin. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Johnny Simon. Our recording engineer is Johnny Simon. Cinematography by Marina King and Eric Laplante. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin and Emma Kehlbeck. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser. Transcript editing by Filipa Pajevic and Marlaine Glicksman.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The

0:07.0

The So I've been reluctant on the show to talk too much about imagined solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

0:33.1

I don't think any of the underlying conditions for political solution are present.

0:37.0

19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

0:39.8

More than 81% of Gaza's buildings are at least partially damaged.

0:43.6

So many other Palestinian families are living with the threat of demolition.

0:48.4

We're in a pre-solutionary space, and I worry about it as a form of escapism.

0:56.8

It's more comfortable to debate two-state models or one-state imaginings rather than confront the realities of what is happening right now.

1:02.6

But the other problem, the other reason I have kind of backed off of these conversations,

1:08.8

is that the old solutions don't fit the present reality.

1:12.2

I don't see how a two-state solution is still possible, given the number and size of Jewish settlements

1:17.2

in the West Bank. They're not going away. Or the insistence on a right of return for Palestinians.

1:23.6

I don't think a one-state solution is plausible or likely.

1:30.8

The Jewish people in Israel and around it, they want self-determination and sovereignty.

1:32.5

So too do the Palestinians.

1:38.0

Neither side, given their history, is going to give the other willingly that kind of power.

1:42.9

But a number of people, people I trust, have been to be saying, I should look at the Land for All plan.

1:44.0

Land for All was

1:44.6

founded in 2012 by a group of Israelis and Palestinians, and it's attempting something different,

1:48.9

something I find in some ways beautiful, not a two-state model of separation, not a one-state model

1:53.5

of unification, but this confederation model that centers both people's connections to the land

1:59.6

and tries to combine the free movement of people

...

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