The Palestinians and their representative Hamas, as well as their lunatic supporters in the West have made it clear that there can only be one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—which state would you want it to be?
The last five weeks have led to extraordinary changes in the way we look at “peace in the Middle East”. For decades, there was a constant push for a “two-state solution” that would somehow have Israel and a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace, security and prosperity. The events of 10/7 have shown why the endless efforts to push for such an outcome have never succeeded for over four decades: the Palestinians are hellbent on destroying Israel and killing the Jews. During the recent protests in the West that have involved hundreds of thousands of Islamists, students, and leftists, nobody has held a sign for a two-state solution. Rather, they have pushed for one state, a new Palestinian state, “from the river to the sea”. Mahmud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) have vanished along with the two-state solution. From now on it’s Hamas and one Palestinian state without Jews. Period. Nothing to negotiate.
As there currently is a state between the river and the sea, namely Israel, one has to ask who would you want running a country in that space? Israel has always been a great friend of the US. While the countries can disagree, Israel has always supported the US and worked toward advancing US interests. During the first Gulf War, Israeli planes sat ready, with pilots in the cockpit, fully fueled, and waiting for approval to fly to Iraq to find the Scud launchers. President George H. W. Bush beseeched Israel not to get involved so as not to lose Syrian and other Arab coalition partners. Israel begrudgingly agreed and took 39 Scud hits, while the US took upon itself to find and destroy the mobile launchers.
There are in Israel thirteen 9/11 memorials in various cities in the country. That is actually more than in any other country in the world. If you drive just outside of Jerusalem, you can visit the Kennedy Forest next to one of the larger memorials. If you ask an Israeli where he or she would like to travel, the US is usually at the top of the list. Nobody seems to know how many Israelis live in the US; estimates range from 100,000 to over 600,000. In short, Israelis love the US and have been partners with the US since Israel’s founding in 1948.
Now, what about the Palestinians? We are no longer talking about a future secular Arab country like Iraq under Sadaam or the Syria of Hafez Assad. Those countries were run by Baath parties, similar to what the PLO was under Yasir Arafat. Just as those countries are no longer what they once were, so a new “Palestine” from the river to the sea would not be a secular country where women could go to university and become lawyers. It would be more on the line of ISIS-Iran-Afghanistan. Hamas is a thoroughly Islamist organization run according to their reading of Koranic law. They would run their new country in the same way. Women would have no part in society, and of course gays would be thrown off of the tallest building in the new Palestinian Tel Aviv. This new country would be fast friends with America’s enemies such as Iran and would support terror activities in the US and Europe to further the reestablishment of a caliphate.
One of the biggest problems for the US and other Western countries in dealing with Muslim countries like Iran or groups like the PA is that the Westerners project their values onto people like Arafat and Abbas, and those folks do not hold those Western, enlightened values. Americans assume that a future Palestine would grant equal rights to women, would respect homosexuals and trans, would support the freedom of speech and press, etc. And just as the Taliban do not support any of the above, neither would a Hamas-run Palestine. The PA is no better in any respect, but the 75% support of Palestinians for what Hamas did on 10/7 means that the Palestinian Authority is all but forgotten going forward. Hamas is the real deal, and if it were to run the space between the river and the sea, the US would have one more Islamist enemy like ISIS, Iran and Afghanistan to deal with.
Last week, an interesting fellow was interviewed by the local Israeli press. He grew up in an Arab home in Lod. Eventually, he ended up in Gaza where he was brought up in a Hamas-run school. The discipline was brutal and there was no room for violating rules. He said that one day he came to school and the heads of a boy and girl who apparently had had an unapproved relationship were on the floor of the classroom. He told his shocked host that that was how things are done in Gaza. There is no tolerance for violations of the Koran. Period. He also said that 99% of Gazans think like Hamas. The high support among Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank for the barbaric 10/7 pogrom would suggest that he is right. He eventually returned to Lod, was thrown out of the house, and after a Jew looked after him, he converted to Judaism.
The two-state solution and the Palestinian Authority have gone the way of the Edsel, though the behind-the-times Biden administration is suggesting that the PA should run Gaza after Israel is through with it and is still chirping about a two-state solution. The PA in Gaza is definitely a non-starter with Israel (and the Gazans who threw them out), as the PA is little different than Hamas and is probably jealous of what the latter did in southern Israel. The river-to-the-sea crowd wants a Hamas theocracy that would be an enemy of the US and the West. The time has come for the US to make it clear that if there is only going to be one state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, it will be Israel. Virtually every country in the UN was formed by war, revolution or conquest. Israel is no different other than its birth occurred less than 100 years ago and it was founded by Jews. It’s time to drop the two-state Kumbaya nonsense and tell the Palestinians that they get nothing as long as they want everything.
A fellow who was at the rave is a witness to a woman being gang-raped by Hamas terrorists, having her breasts cut off and then being shot in the head. In a parallel manner, Jewish students on campus have described their fellow students talking about killing Jews, and not just those here in Israel. Going forward, do you expect Israelis to get along with Palestinians? Do you expect Jewish students and those who wished for their death to suddenly be friends again? That which was born on 10/7 will have implications for years to come not only in Israel but in the US and the West.