Editors note: This column is part one in a two-part series.

President Obama will be hosting a meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about peace options.’

Israel is building settlement housing for its citizens on what would be considered Palestinian land, making them illegal and a threat to peace.’

Israel does not call these settlements illegal because this territory was never occupied by Palestine.’ President Obama disagrees with Israel’s policy, and this will probably be an issue that will be discussed between the parties in New York City.’

Obama has called for a freeze to all settlement building; the Israeli government has ignored Obama on that point. The Israel government said the reason for expanding the settlements was to accommodate the growing Israeli population, but some say it was to gain control of an area that is occupied heavily by Palestinians.’

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and turned full control over to Palestinian authorities; but growing attacks to Israeli cities from rockets and bombs launched from Gaza yielded heavy attacks from Israel in December 2008, killing thousands.’

This type of violence will not bring peace between these two factions. Terrorism and humanity are not interchangeable, but each side depicts the other as ruthless killers and aggressors of the innocent.’

Terrorism is terrorism; it does not matter what flag is worn on the arm of the soldier.

On Sept.6, former President Jimmy Carter wrote an interesting op-ed in the Washington Post about a peaceful solution to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.’ Carter has championed many issues while serving as president and after with his Carter Center, a non-governmental organization focused on global peace and health issues.’

Probably most important is his work in the Middle East.’ Cater maneuvered the Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed in Washington on March 26, 1979 that brought an end to violence between Israel and Egypt.

Humanity is the key theory in this debate. President Carter called for a one-state solution under Israel.’

Even if this solution was ideal, it leaves the Palestinian people to fight for power within a democracy with the Israeli citizens.

This would grant full citizenship to the approximately 3.5 million Palestinians in the occupied territories and put an end to the Jewish state.

Carter wrote in the Post, ‘By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbors and then demand equal rights within a democracy. In this nonviolent civil rights struggle, their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.’

The struggle and fight of those civil rights activists was because of serious injustices and oppression in their counties that were sanctioned by their government.’

Palestinian leaders would need a structured agreement that disallows any such aggression.’ Israel ought to be prepared to cope with sharing power in the government with Palestinians.’

The one-state solution is a good one and it might be a starting point for President Obama, but it is not the best one.

Cratic is a senior studying political science.

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