Someone needs to brief the Biden administration that beyond the strong support for the war goals, there is currently national consensus in Israel on two other issues: The first – that after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to step down (on that the Americans are actually well-informed); the second – a Palestinian state poses a grave danger to Israel. The fact that Netanyahu has chosen to rile up against this threat at this moment (Saturday night) does not mean that the wall-to-wall opposition to this vision will go with him once he is no longer in office. It runs across the board; it's here to stay.
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The broad opposition among Israelis to a Palestinian state – it would be good for the Americans to know – stems not only from the fact that it takes chunks of biblical land and the historic homeland from the Jews, to which many here are bound with every fiber of their being. The settlement enterprise, in which half a million Jews now live, is a clear expression of this. But the broad opposition to a Palestinian state is not, despite what the Americans wrongly assume, a function of any particular Palestinian leadership leading the Palestinian Authority. This rejection is on a much more fundamental level.
Video: The Hamas attack on Zikim Beach on Oct. 7, 2023 / Credit: Usage under Israeli Intellectual Property Law, Section 27a
The opposition to a Palestinian state stems first and foremost from a deep understanding – shaped by decades of terror, attacks, and bloodshed – that the hostility, hatred, and commitment to perpetuate the struggle against the Jews and the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people comes from the grassroots level, from the Palestinian public en masse.
The Palestinian leadership is a reflection of Palestinian society, which rejects our very existence here. Hundreds of surveys and thousands of statements over many decades attest to this. The Palestinian public has been wedded to the notion of a "right of return" to Lod, Ramla, Acre, and Jaffa, which means the elimination of the State of Israel and refuses to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people.
There are large swaths in Palestinian society who cling to the most extreme interpretation of Islam, and find there an obligation, justification, and permission to murder Jews for being Jews and "infidels." These are only some of the reasons why 72% of Palestinians in the West Bank (according to Dr. Khalil Shikaki's latest survey) support the Oct. 7 massacre, and most of them, despite everything they know today, still support Hamas.
The doctrine that prevails in the Palestinian education system, from kindergarten to universities, of a world without Israel, without a Jewish state, a doctrine that sanctifies "martyrs" and glorifies terror, is first and foremost a reflection of what the Palestinian household espouses today. Palestinians absorb hatred, distortion, lies, and incitement with their mother's milk. This too comes from there.
Therefore, changes in leadership in the Palestinian Authority or a renewed Palestinian Authority are irrelevant. What do we care if it's Mahmoud Abbas or Salam Fayyad if, in the streets of Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm, the crowds want to hand over their weapons to Hamas? Why should we care if there is an old or "renewed" Palestinian Authority, if, with every slaughter and killing and shooting in our streets, they dance and celebrate on the roofs and hand out sweets?
Sometimes they do calm down, but it's always temporary, always driven by a fleeting, usually material interest – employment or living conditions. Then they return to wickedness, evil, blood terror incitement, and hatred. After all, the Palestinian public cannot be replaced, nor do we aim to do so. It is what it is. This is what we have to deal with. But a Palestinian state in our backyard, a stone's throw from Kfar Saba, Netanya, Lod, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv? Inside us? No thanks; and this has nothing to do with Netanyahu.
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