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 destruction upon Gaza and trauma upon Israelis and Palestinians alike. Israel did not destroy Palestinian nationalism through overwhelming military force. After tens of thousands dead, entire neighborhoods erased, and generations traumatized, the Palestinian people are still there, demanding freedom, dignity and statehood.

The lesson should be obvious. Violence can kill people. It cannot kill national identity.

Too many leaders on both sides remain prisoners of slogans that no longer correspond to reality. On the Palestinian side, there are still those who speak as if Jews are foreign colonialists with no legitimate connection to this land. On the Israeli side, there are ministers and rabbis who speak openly about expelling Palestinians and permanently controlling all of the territories. Both camps are detached from reality. Both are leading their people toward endless catastrophe.

The hardest truth for Palestinians is that Israel is not a temporary phenomenon. It is a deeply rooted society with millions of people who were born there, built their lives there, buried their parents there and have nowhere else to go. The hardest truth for Israelis is that Palestinians are not a demographic problem to be managed or removed. They are a people with national rights, collective memory and a profound attachment to their homeland.

The future will not belong to those who dream of exclusive ownership of the land. It will belong to those who understand that two peoples are destined to share it.

For me, this still means two states for two peoples. Not because it is perfect, but because every other option leads either to permanent war, apartheid-like reality, ethnic cleansing, or the destruction of the national aspirations of one people by the other. None of those outcomes is moral, sustainable or realistic.

But if two states are ever to emerge, something even more important must happen first: both peoples must abandon the idea that justice can only come through the defeat and humiliation of the other side.

Peace will require Palestinians to give up the fantasy of destroying Israel. Peace will require Israelis to give up the fantasy of permanent domination over Palestinians. Peace will require moral courage greater than the courage required for war.

It will also require new leadership. Leadership that speaks honestly to its own people instead of feeding them comforting lies. Leadership that prepares both societies psychologically for compromise instead of permanent mobilization against eternal enemies.

The international community also has to stop indulging fantasies. Empty declarations, selective outrage, performative diplomacy and endless management of the conflict have all failed. The world should stop financing the continuation of the conflict and begin investing seriously in ending it.

And yes, there must be accountability for crimes committed by all sides. But accountability without a political horizon simply becomes another weapon in the continuation of the conflict.

What is needed now is not more revenge, but political imagination grounded in reality.

The reality is simple: neither people is going anywhere.

It is time to stop teaching our children that the highest form of patriotism is dying for the land. The highest form of patriotism should be building a future in which children on both sides can live normal lives without fear, hatred and endless war.

That will not happen through military victory.

It will happen only when both peoples finally understand that their freedom, security and future are inseparably linked to one another.