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It has become a truism, and is perhaps understandable, that Israelis are too traumatized by the October 7 terrorist attacks, too wary of their neighbors’ weakness or malign intentions, and too anxious about their own security to ever talk seriously about Palestinian statehood. The more Israeli politicians say this and their supporters repeat it, the more likely it is to be forever true.
To be clear, few in America at this point expect any Israeli government to come out as champions of Palestinian statehood, desirable as that may be. But Israeli leaders who value sustaining a close partnership with the United States – including whoever aspires to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu – should recognize that the estrangement from Israel by American Jews, and young Americans more generally, now well-documented in polling, relates in large measure to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem.
That is obviously not the whole story. There are certainly failings within the Palestinians’ own society and government And, sadly, antisemitism too often plays a role in Israel’s declining standing in the United States. But at the center of that growing American disaffection with Israel are the Palestinians – the impression, far too often real, of their harsh and indiscriminate treatment at Israeli hands, and Israel’s effective foreclosure of any viable path to Palestinian self-determination and equality.
And, so, while the next Israeli government won’t support Palestinian statehood, it should not take steps – as the current government has – to try to foreclose the possibility. And perhaps more importantly, it should not pursue an approach that not only dangerously demoralizes the Palestinian population, but also further alienates the Americans whose support Israel needs, but is fast losing. In short, when you’re in a hole, first stop digging.
None of this is likely to change as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s prime minister. He is too beholden to his extremist coalition for his political and legal survival, and seemingly too comfortable with the fanatics in that coalition. He also appears confident that President Trump simply doesn’t care or doesn’t notice what is going on in the cities, villages, and........