Mainstream politicians in Israel are now prepared to consider the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza and parts of the West Bank. So are their supporters, including both Republican and Democrat politicians in the United States.

The argument for a "two-state solution" can sound fair and realistic. There are two peoples: Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Why not reach a deal where the Palestinians get some land and their own state in return for peace with Israel?

But, as Israeli academic Ilan Pappe has pointed out, "The day Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush declared their loyal support for the two-state solution, this formula became a cynical means by which Israel can maintain its discriminatory regime inside the 1967 borders, its occupation in the West Bank and the ghettoisation of the Gaza Strip."

This supposed "solution" would leave the racist structures of the Israeli state - and therefore the fundamental cause of the conflict - in place. It would confine Palestinians to less than twenty per cent of the British mandate of Palestine in 1947. And it would leave entirely unresolved the situation of Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel.

In its constitution and government routine, Israel is a racist state. While twenty per cent of its population are Palestinians (almost 1.5 million people), the country is defined as a "Jewish state".

Jews from anywhere in the world have a "right of return". They can become Israeli citizens through a simple process. Palestinian Israelis who marry non-Israeli Palestinians are not allowed to bring their partners to live with them.

Judaism is the state religion, but descent from a Jewish mother is more important than religious beliefs in determining who is Jewish. This racial criterion explains why Russian Orthodox churches, attended by "Jews" who migrated from Russia, have sprung up all over Israel.

The school curriculum is shaped by the Zionist conception of Israel. Palestinians make up less than one per cent of the administrative staff of the Israeli department of education.

In other words, there is an apartheid regime within Israel.

Reflecting a growing radicalisation amongst Palestinian Israelis, their organisations have recently challenged Israel's racist constitution, demanding that it become "a state of all its citizens". The most prominent Palestinian politician in Israel, Azmi Bishara, leader of the Balad Party in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) has been forced into exile as the authorities attempt to suppress this movement.

The two-state solution is designed to perpetuate apartheid within Israel and give credibility to a Palestinian Bantustan defined and dominated by the Jewish state.

The territories that Israel's government thinks fit for a Palestinian state consist of disconnected areas, separated by Israeli land, roads and settlements, with few natural resources.

Israel will remain a racist state, with the most powerful army in the Middle East, backed by the world's dominant state, the USA. Decisions taken in Israel will shape the lives of the citizens of an "independent" Palestine far more than their own government.

Palestinians born in what is now Israel and who fled or were expelled, and their descendants, are forbidden from coming back and settling in the country. In many cases, their homes and villages were destroyed and their land was allocated to Jews.

According to the United Nations there are over 4.25 million Palestinian refugees, in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Others live in different Arab countries and beyond. Israel will never agree to allow these Palestinians to return to their land. For if they did, a majority of Israel's population would be Palestinian, undermining the Jewish state.

In 1988, under pressure from Israel, the US and conservative Arab regimes, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation abandoned its commitment to a single state in Palestine. At that time, the PLO, led by Yasser Arafat, represented the main Palestinian parties. This sell-out benefited a thin layer of PLO officials and Palestinian business people who dominated the Palestinian Authority, established in the West Bank and Gaza in 1994.

But the Camp David agreements of the 1990s did nothing to improve the conditions of ordinary Palestinians, and failed to stop Israel from setting up new colonies ("settlements") in Gaza and the West Bank. Those steps towards a two-state solution resulted in Palestinians losing control over most of their water resources. They paved the way for the annexation of even more land by Israel through the construction of the apartheid wall.

Today, the two-state solution means nothing more than formal US and Israeli recognition of the unpopular and corrupt dictatorship of the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

The conflict won't end until the Israeli state is replaced. The only realistic alternative to the current situation is a single, democratic, secular state embracing all those who want to live in any part of Palestine, whatever their religion or culture.