A Palestinian State in Name Only

The diplomatic tsunami has finally reached Israel’s shores. Newspaper headlines scream warnings to Israeli travelers abroad: stay away from danger, speak less Hebrew—and Jews in general are advised to conceal any outward signs of their identity. This comes in light of the images coming out of Gaza, which leave little room for doubt: Israel is starving the population.

From the first day of the war, humanitarian aid was turned into a legitimate weapon by Israel’s right-wing government, while the Israeli public remained preoccupied with its wounds, its pain, and its hostages. An entire nation is living in post-trauma—not only due to the October 7 massacre, but also in light of recent events, when Iranian half-ton missiles were aimed at Israeli cities and leveled entire neighborhoods.

The world did not settle for condemnation alone but took active political steps, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who rushed to recognize a Palestinian state. Macron, along with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, responded to Saudi Arabia’s call and helped organize, under UN auspices, a conference with 125 participating countries that voiced support for the two-state solution. True, the UN had previously recognized a Palestinian state, and the head of the Palestinian Authority had already declared himself “president” and referred to his autonomy as a “state.” But this time, the recognition takes on a more serious tone—because it comes from so-called “Israel-friendly countries,” and that small detail makes a significant difference from the Israeli perspective.

Already in March 2011, then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that “come September, we are facing a diplomatic tsunami most of the public is unaware of. There’s an international movement to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. It’s a mistake not to acknowledge this tsunami. The delegitimization of Israel is on the horizon, even if the public can’t see it. This is extremely dangerous and demands action—a political initiative would reduce future risks.”

But the diplomatic tsunami never came. The nations of the world accepted the status quo. The Palestinian issue was pushed to the margins, overshadowed by the Arab Spring, which toppled regime after regime. Europe—the same Europe that has now awakened, perhaps too late—continued to indirectly finance the Israeli occupation, whether by supporting the Palestinian Authority or indirectly aiding Hamas via humanitarian aid organizations.

To remove any doubt: A Palestinian state will not be established — not only because the Israeli right opposes it, but because the Palestinians themselves have proven incapable of establishing and running a state. International recognition, like the one we saw at the UN, is nothing more than an empty declaration — and everyone knows it. Yet the absence of a state does not absolve Israel of responsibility: Between the Jordan River and the sea live two peoples whose destinies are intertwined. As long as there is no equality — political, civil, and economic — for both sides, no secure future can exist here.

Since 2007, when Hamas violently ousted the Palestinian Authority from Gaza, two rival—if not outright hostile—entities emerged: Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in control of the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza. Both cooperated with Netanyahu: Abbas received income tax revenues from the employment of Palestinian workers in Israel and security backing from the Shin Bet; Hamas received Qatari cash, Israeli shekels funneled to Gaza banks, and a flow of goods sold in the markets that generated extra revenue.

Thus, the Palestinian state vanished. Abbas proved incapable of managing even his meager autonomy, while Hamas traded with Israel even as it declared, loudly, “We will never recognize Israel,” and used the proceeds to dig tunnels.

In 2016, instead of a diplomatic tsunami, Trump entered the White House. Netanyahu and the Israeli right mocked Barak’s warnings, and the Israeli left was reduced to a useless rag. Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, and in 2020 handed Israel an unimaginable gift: the Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. The circle was complete: the Israeli right proved the Palestinian issue is not at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and that “peace for peace” is preferable to “land for peace.”

The Palestinian state thus became irrelevant. Right and left in Israel agreed that the conflict with the Palestinians is unsolvable and all that remains is to manage it. Toward the end of Biden’s term, relations with Saudi Arabia warmed to the point that normalization between the two states nearly materialized. Due to its strategic power in the region, Israel served as a security umbrella for the Gulf states against Iran. Mohammed bin Salman was even willing to drop his core condition for normalization: recognition of a Palestinian state.

Yet everyone remained blind to what was unfolding around them. Iran and its proxies decided to overturn the table. While Israel and its Gulf allies enjoyed the fruits of a false peace, Hamas carried out a massacre in Israeli border communities and abducted civilians indiscriminately. Hezbollah opened fire from Lebanon. Iran launched ballistic missiles from its arsenals. Peace turned overnight into a nightmare—a nightmare that still haunts not only the region but Israelis and Palestinians alike.

And now, a twist: after two years of war, as Israel flexes its military muscle, neutralizing threats from Lebanon, Syria, and even Tehran, and in Gaza eliminates Hamas’s leadership, kills 60,000 residents, and destroys 75% of homes, schools, and hospitals under which tunnels were dug—only now do 125 countries convene under UN auspices, led by Saudi Arabia and France, and call for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In the conference’s concluding document, the states demand that Hamas lay down its arms and relinquish power, transferring control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. And to that one might say: the height of hypocrisy. Israel did for them what the German chancellor described as “the dirty work”: it carried out “genocide,” starved, destroyed, and eliminated—effectively removing Hamas from the equation.

Now Abu Mazen condemns Israel, along with Macron and Starmer, as do Saudi Arabia and its Gulf satellites. But that doesn’t stop them from trying to reap the fruits of war. Saudi Arabia is trying to deflect the rage of the Arab street, which views Arab regimes as collaborators with Israel—regimes that legitimized the occupation and did everything to erase the Palestinian issue. Now those same regimes condemn Israel and once again—who knows for the how-many- times—declare their support for a Palestinian state.

Let there be no doubt: a Palestinian state will not be established. Not only because the Israeli right opposes it, but because the Palestinians themselves have shown they are incapable of establishing or managing a state. In 1994, under the Oslo Accords, Arafat effectively gave up on statehood and settled for limited autonomy in Gaza and the West Bank. He left sovereignty, the economy, the currency, customs, and even the issuing of IDs and driver’s licenses—both in Gaza and the West Bank—in Israel’s hands.

The funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority by donor countries financed its corruption. The money in Gaza funded Hamas’s corruption and the tunnel industry—even though Hamas knew full well that war with Israel would bring Gaza’s destruction. The familiar slogans — “from the river to the sea,” “apartheid,” “the Zionist entity”—were meant only to entrench Palestinian leadership and suppress any possibility of criticism, democracy, freedom of speech, or civil organization.

The Palestinian state recognized at the UN does not exist in reality—and everyone knows it. These are formal declarations with no path to implementation. But the mere fact that no Palestinian state will arise does not absolve Israeli society of the responsibility to seek a solution. Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean live two peoples, whose fates are intertwined. October 7 was a day of colossal disaster for Israelis, but it also became a Nakba day for Palestinians.

There is only one way to prevent such appalling disasters from recurring—and it does not depend on military might. Israel managed to intercept Iranian missiles and fend off Hezbollah’s threats, but on the day of reckoning—when thousands of Palestinians breached the fence and slaughtered civilians—it failed.

It is still hard to say how the war will end, but one thing is clear: sooner or later, Israeli society will have to engage in soul-searching. The Palestinian issue is not a foreign one—not Lebanese, not Syrian, not Jordanian—but an internal one. By effectively giving up on establishing their own state, the Palestinians have become an Israeli problem.

Back in 1994, we asserted that the Oslo Accords buried the idea of a Palestinian state deep in the earth. For saying so we were dismissed by the left and liberals as fringe fanatics who oppose peace. Today, after supporting the war against Hamas and refusing to join the hypocrites that accuse Israel of committing  “genocide,” we reiterate: it will be impossible to live here unless we build a new society in which the Palestinians are granted equal rights—political, civil, and economic.