With the announcement this past week by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that  elections will be held on April 9 for a new Knesset, I hope that the words by Tamir Pardo, a former head of the Mossad (Israeli’s intelligence services), will be uppermost in the minds of a majority of Israelis when they cast their votes. He said:

“Israel has one existential threat. It is a ticking time bomb … Israel must deal with the demographic reality and [decide] which state we want to be. Life with alternative facts harbors a disaster for the Zionist vision. The key to saving the state requires brave leadership.”

The alternative facts he warns against is a one-state solution as the answer to Israel’s Palestinian conflict. But a one-state solution will compromise Israel as both a Jewish and a democratic state that the founding generation envisioned. The only credible alternative is a negotiated end-of-conflict two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.