As some of Israel's closest allies declared they were recognizing the State of Palestine this week at the United Nations General Assembly, a string of Israeli opposition leaders lined up dutifully, in lockstep with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to condemn them.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid parroted the government, calling the recognitions by the U.K., Canada and Australia a "diplomatic disaster, a terrible move and a prize for terror." He also went UN-bashing ahead of the recognitions, telling Fox News he supports a secession of democratic countries from the global body to form a new club of democracies only (sounding so confident of Israel's credentials to join this circle).
Israel's furthest left Zionist opposition leader Yair Golan called the recognitions "a destructive move for Israel's security," while nodding to a future demilitarized Palestinian state." Benny Gantz and Avigdor Lieberman intoned on cue: recognition is good for Hamas, supports Iran, panders to the publics of those countries recognizing Palestine. Of the opposition, only Ayman Odeh, the Arab leader of Hadash supported the declarations.
Whether due to ideology or calculations, not a single Israeli Jewish-Zionist leader is offering the Israeli public a fundamentally different vision for the future of Israel. This isn't a call for them to be contrarian just for the sake of it; rather, they are failing to make the case for Israel supporting a Palestinian state – a case that is no less plausible, compelling and evidence-driven than the arguments for Israeli rejectionism.
The opposition won't do it, so it's left to us citizens. Here's what a real Israeli leader would say:
"Israeli citizens, in these grave times, it is all too easy to see the recognitions of Palestinian statehood as a harbinger of dark diplomatic isolation, a reward for violence and terror that will encourage Palestinians to use violence in the future to achieve their aims.
"That is what you have been told – by your political leadership, your political opposition, and your media.
"I am here to tell you that they are wrong. You have been misled. This development offers a historic opportunity, if we drop the cheap political exploitation and look at what's actually driving our allies' actions. Their motives are nothing like what you've been told.
"'The world is always against us' – have we stopped to ask if this is true? Over 20 years after the BDS movement began calling for boycotts against Israel, the EU remains Israel's biggest trading partner. The current proposed EU sanctions arrived only after two years of the bloodbath in Gaza made their position totally untenable. But why are we so upset they want to stop the killing? Even you, the Israeli public, believe the war must end for the sake of bringing our hostages home and our soldiers back from Gaza.
"The countries that recognized Palestine are among Israel's best friends. Do they want a two-state solution because they hate Israel? The opposite. They are waiting to love Israel again, when the war is over and Israel's frenzied annexationist rampage stops.
"The declarations are like waving a great big flag to Israel with the message: Follow this path to end your pariah status so we can get back to business!
"What is that path? Behind the recognitions lie the New York Declaration, which the UN General Assembly adopted earlier this month for how to reach a two-state solution. Israeli leaders are telling you this was terrible for Israel too.
"But the New York plan condemns Hamas, October 7 and terror, and demands the release of all the hostages. It calls for the disarmament and demobilization of Hamas, which should 'end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority,' and says the PA does not intend to become a militarized state. The declaration proposes a 'temporary international stabilization mission,' and the signatory countries are ready to put their own troops into this disaster zone to help get it done.
"That policy worked in Kosovo; it would prevent Israel from its current hellish trajectory of controlling 2 million people in Gaza forever. Fellow citizens – Israel ruling Gaza is a disaster for Gazans, and it is a death sentence for your future.
"Only a religious fundamentalist could want this, because for the fundamentalist no price, no sacrifice of hostage nor soldier, is too high. It's the same logic driving the insatiable annexation appetite in the West Bank – your children's lives in exchange for their rapture.
"The plan calls to revise the 1994 Paris Protocol, the economic arrangement from the Oslo years, so Palestine can have a proper economy. Haven't we Israelis wished for Gaza to be a 'Singapore by the sea?' It calls for the revision of Palestinian school textbooks, something Israeli Jews desperately want. All those countries you've been told hate Israel want many of the same things you want for Israel.
"Finally, recognizing Palestine is not a reward to terror; it is a death blow to Hamas, whose greatest wish was that October 7 would rally all the region's forces to destroy Israel and what was left would become a pariah state. Instead, French President Emmanuel Macron in his speech to the UN on Monday said, "The time has come for the existence of the State of Israel to never be questioned anywhere..."
"The ripeness – even eagerness – of the Arab world for full normalization means Israel will be more globally embraced than ever before, in the Middle East and Europe. It stands to revive the dying bipartisan consensus in the United States as well.
"This path will put 'From the River to the Sea' slogans, and Israel's ubiquitous Greater Israel maps, to rest.
"Fellow citizens, let's be clear: The path toward a Palestinian state for a two-state peace will not be easy; violence will not vanish overnight. I understand why it feels both unjust and frightening after October 7: If they did that without a state, how much worse will it be if they have one?
"Nobody wants to tell you this, but the reality is the opposite. Iran's proxies thrive where states are weak, chaotic or don't (yet) exist: Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine. A state means that the government has a monopoly over the use of force, and a great deal more to lose by using it against Israel.
"You're right, it's tragic that this potential breakthrough had to follow the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in history. Palestinian leaders, as well as Israel's, have had a hand in the failure of negotiations, but both Israel and the international community should have rewarded Palestinians earlier for exhaustive diplomatic, legal and nonviolent activism, instead of letting the occupation fester and spread.
"Apparently, those who ignore diplomatic efforts for freedom will be condemned to reward violent ones later.
"The Palestinian state will be far from perfect. There will be lingering violence, which is also a risk. But for all those years, the far more deadly risk was failing to end this conflict. And we have seen the result: Every Israeli has paid the price, and it would be mad to go back for more.
"Israel does not have to be 'Super Sparta.' Israelis don't have to hear names of the dead 'cleared for publication' over morning coffee or watch videos of skeletal hostages digging their own graves.
"This is not your fate, nor is it your children's fate. One day we can stop dreading the question 'How are you?' And instead of saying 'Shana tova – even though it's unlikely,' we can just say 'Shana tova,' and 'may you be inscribed in the book of life.'"
Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a public opinion researcher and a political advisor who has worked on nine national campaigns in Israel and in 15 other countries. She is currently a policy fellow at The Century Foundation, and she has co-hosted the Election Overdose podcast at Haaretz. She is the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled, published in September 2023. Twitter: @dahliasc
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