In thinking through the “day after,” Israel must take into account new interrelated geopolitical realities that will likely emerge from the war.
Post-two-state solution
The Gaza war put a decisive end to the two-state solution. This is not due to Hamas’s attack nor to its 72% support rate among Palestinians. It is also not due to Israeli and Palestinian rejection of the template. The two-state solution died due to Western reaction to October 7.
The two-state solution was based on the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state with various restrictions to accommodate Israel’s security needs, such as Israel controlling the Palestinian state’s airspace and border crossings.
The UN, the media, and Western politicians killed the two-state solutionwhen they placed Hamas’s October 7 attacks in the context of the occupation of Gaza. They indoctrinated the world that Gaza was under occupation, in spite of the fact that Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
If Gaza was under occupation, then certainly the future state of Palestine would be under occupation: There would be Israeli military presence, settlement blocks, and ample restrictions. Hence, global public opinion would utterly reject the idea of an “occupied” state of Palestine, which is the cornerstone of the two-state solution.
Some argue that the two-state solution was never a practical template but a utopian idea governed by the notion that the “peace process” is its own objective, irrespective of whether it actually led to peace. Yet even this utopian aspect of the two-state solution died due to the mainstreaming of anti-Zionist ideology by Western media and universities that occurred during the war. Why should the West force the Palestinians to give up their right to Tel Aviv?
Topping it all is the inconvenient fact that the two-state solution contributed to the Gaza war. Hamas’s control of Gaza was a direct result of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal carried out with the conviction that Gaza would never be part of a Jewish state in two-state solution.
While the demise of the two-state solution is a geopolitical earthquake, it pales in comparison to a bigger indirect consequence of the Gaza war.
Destabilization of Europe through anti-Zionism
The mainstreaming of anti-Zionism ideology during the Gaza war awoke the European question. As discussed in “Anti-Zionism is a threat to global stability” (Magazine, December 22), the motto “globalize the intifada” suddenly legitimized Muslim frustrations in Europe, and heightening fears that the next round of mass riots (like those in France last summer) could be inspired by October 7 and include rape, murder, and hostage-taking, especially since Muslim violence in Europe “did not happen in a vacuum,” to borrow UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s words.
Many Europeans will inevitably resort to the rhetoric that Muslim violence in Europe is in reaction to Israel’s actions in Gaza. (Didn’t protesters burning cars in France in the summer of 2023 chant “Ceasefire now”?)
On the one hand, this is creating a dangerous environment for Jews outside of Israel; but on the other, it is accelerating the transformation of Judaism – which, in the long term, will make Jews safer.
Judaism is transforming. Zionism is becoming the primary vehicle for Jews and non-Jews to relate to Judaism – both positively and negatively. Thus, age-old opposition to Jews is now expressed through anti-Zionism. This reality, Judaism 3.0, is now getting broad recognition – ask any college student with a Jewish last name.
1 comment:
There never was nor will there ever be a 2 state solution. Absurb to believe that the Abraham off spring will ever get along. The age old jealousy runs generations. Father GOD will slap some sense into these children in the not too distant future. Accept my SON or else. Neither have accepted Yeshua and both have ignored his teachings. Violated his commandment of love GOD and neighbors. Not to mention all the others as well. Followed up by those that live by the sword will die by the sword. Gets so tiring after a while.
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