From Dangerous Fantasies to Promising Reality |
What both peoples need to understand is that the other side is not disappearing. Not through war, not through terrorism, not through occupation, not through annexation, not through settlements, not through rockets, not through starvation, not through slogans, and not through prayers for the destruction of the other.
There are today roughly equal numbers of Jews and Palestinians living between the river and the sea. Neither people is leaving. Neither people can defeat the national identity of the other. We are locked together by geography, history, religion, memory, trauma and blood. The question is not whether we will live together in this land. The only real question is whether we will continue to die together for it.
For decades, both national movements have nourished themselves on fantasies. Palestinians were taught that armed struggle would eventually liberate all of Palestine. Israelis were taught that military superiority could permanently suppress Palestinian national aspirations. Both ideas have failed. Spectacularly and tragically.
October 7 and the war that followed should have buried these illusions forever. Hamas did not liberate Palestine. It brought unimaginable........