A New Middle East Is Possible—If Israel Steps Up

For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the right-wing coalition he leads have danced around the question of Palestinian statehood with all the sincerity of a bad-faith negotiation. They posture, they stall, they punt the can down the road, all while insisting that “now is not the time,” “conditions aren’t right,” or “we have no partner.” But the truth is staring everyone in the face—Israel will never know real, lasting, sustainable peace until there is a viable, sovereign Palestinian state. And pretending otherwise is not only delusional; it is dangerous.

The latest push from Faisal J. Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News, underscores just how absurd Israel’s political paralysis has become. When a leading Saudi journalist publicly says that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House presents a “rare opportunity” for Israel, if it can “seriously commit” to a path toward Palestinian statehood, you know the ground has shifted. The Arab world is no longer uniformly hostile. Moderate regional powers are not only open to normalization with Israel; they see it as strategically smart.

But they also aren’t stupid. They want stability. They want economic integration. They want a region that looks more like the EU—interconnected, mutually invested, predictably peaceful. And they know that none of that is possible while millions of Palestinians live stateless, disenfranchised, blockaded, humiliated, and increasingly radicalized because they see no future.

Israel knows this too. Or at least it should.

Yes, Hamas must go—but that’s not the same as rejecting a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s favorite deflection is that because Hamas exists, a state cannot. That talking point crumbles under even modest scrutiny. Of course Hamas needs to be dismantled. No one—Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, American—believes peace is possible with a genocidal terrorist organization governing Gaza. But the destruction of Hamas is a precondition, not a substitute, for statehood.

Once Hamas falls, what then? Another occupation? Another indefinite military presence? Another generation of Palestinian youth growing up resentful, jobless, hopeless? Israel cannot kill its way out of this conflict. As U.S. and regional leaders have repeatedly warned, failing to pair military operations with a political horizon only guarantees that another Hamas will emerge from the rubble.

The right-wing fear of a Palestinian state is outdated and cowardly.

Netanyahu and his ministers love to talk tough, but on this issue they act like frightened politicians afraid of their own fringe base. They have conditioned Israeli politics to believe that any step toward statehood is capitulation, weakness, or suicidal naïveté. Meanwhile, countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt—actual players in the region—are saying openly: We can help you build a moderate Palestinian leadership. We can shape a trustworthy governing structure. We want this. We need this.

What is the Israeli right so afraid of?

That Palestinians might actually get a functioning government?
That normalization with the Arab world might require concessions?
That their dream of eternal settlement expansion might get interrupted?

Strong nations make hard decisions. Weak nations cling to fantasies. Israel is not a weak nation—unless its leadership insists on behaving like one.

The moderate Arab world is the key—and Israel refuses to use it.

Moderate Sunni governments want a stable Middle East. They want investment, tourism, trade, and security cooperation. They want Iran contained. They want U.S. support. But they also want dignity for Palestinians—and they won’t burn their own credibility by publicly supporting normalization with Israel while Palestinians remain permanently stateless.

A Palestinian state built with Saudi, Emirati, Jordanian, Egyptian, American, and Israeli cooperation could be transparent, demilitarized, internationally monitored, economically supported, and genuinely accountable. It could be the most stable government Palestinians have ever had.

But that requires Israeli leadership that isn’t perpetually terrified of upsetting Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Netanyahu’s government needs to grow up—or step aside.

Israel is on the edge of the biggest diplomatic breakthrough in decades. The path to normalization with Saudi Arabia—the crown jewel of Middle Eastern diplomacy—is wide open. The only price is a pathway to Palestinian statehood, not a state tomorrow, not a unilateral declaration—just a real, credible, monitored pathway.

This is not radical. This is not reckless. This is not 1990s idealism.

This is reality.

A future with two states is the only future where Israelis and Palestinians both survive and thrive. A future without one? Endless war, endless fear, endless funerals.

Netanyahu and his right-wing government can either face that truth or be remembered as the leaders who were too cowardly, too self-interested, and too ideologically rigid to seize the greatest opportunity for peace the region has seen in half a century.

The bullshit needs to end.

The pathway needs to begin.