Israel’s Right Is Repeating the Left’s Biggest Mistake

Let’s look at the left. For decades, they promised peace with the Palestinians. The Oslo Accords and subsequent negotiations were meant to deliver it. But that vision collapsed when Yasser Arafat rejected Ehud Barak’s offer in 2000 and the Second Intifada erupted.

The wave of suicide bombings that followed shattered Israeli trust in the left. Their promise of peace had instead led to the deadliest terror campaign in Israeli history. The left never recovered. Left-wing parties either disappeared (One Nation), or moved towards the center of the political specturm (Labor Party).

Now, history may be repeating itself—just in reverse.

The right, which built its dominance on exposing the left’s failures, is now selling Israelis a new fantasy. Convinced by Trump’s statements, they argue that Gaza can be permanently “solved” by expelling two million Palestinians and rebuilding the territory as an international city.

But this vision is not just a diplomatic and economic disaster—it is militarily impossible. You cannot go house by house and expel two million people. The IDF would face mass resistance, global scrutiny, and logistical chaos. Egypt and Jordan refuse to take them, and no Arab state will absorb them. Even attempting such a plan would collapse into bloodshed, paralysis, and failure long before completion.

The right, once the voice of pragmatic responses to national security challenges, is now trapped in the same illusion that destroyed the left.

For much of the 1990s, the Israeli left was a dominant force. It built its power on the idea that negotiations with the PLO would end the conflict. The Oslo Accords were based on the belief that, with the right concessions, Palestinians would accept Israel, living as peaceful neighbors.

That illusion died at Camp David.

In 2000, Ehud Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state on nearly all of the West Bank and Gaza, with control over Arab quarters of East Jerusalem and sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Arafat walked away without a counteroffer. Months later, the Second Intifada erupted—suicide bombings in cafés and pizzerias, buses blown apart, over 1,000 Israelis killed. There was no peace partner on the other side.

The backlash was immediate. Labor collapsed, Meretz shrank, and Ariel Sharon, a Likud hawk, won the 2001 elections by a landslide. The Israeli public never forgave the left for what they saw as naïve idealism.

The lesson was clear: If you promise the public something and it fails catastrophically, they will never trust you again.

For years, the right mocked the left’s belief that peace was achievable. But now, it is making its own impossible promise: Total victory in Gaza.

Trump’s proposal initially suggested US administration of Gaza after Hamas was removed. But he quickly walked that back, making it clear that Israel would have to “clean it up” first—alone. No US troops, no international support.

That leaves Israel with a choice: Accept the reality of occasional wars and adapt operationally, or chase the illusion of a permanent solution through mass expulsion.

Trump’s rhetoric has fueled a growing movement on the right that advocates for the forced transfer of Gazans—not just defeating Hamas, but erasing Palestinian presence from Gaza entirely. The fantasy is that, by forcibly removing millions and blocking their return, Israel can achieve permanent security.

But this vision is just as delusional as the left’s belief in a two-state solution.

If Israel actually tries to implement this plan, it will face:

This is not a military strategy; it is a pipe dream. No Arab country will absorb millions of refugees, and the world will not accept forced displacement on this scale. Even if mass expulsion were somehow executed, it would not bring peace—only a more vicious, more determined Palestinian resistance that will destabilize Egypt.

The left promised peace and delivered terrorism on a massive scale. Israelis abandoned them.

The right now promises a final Gaza solution—but if it leads to sanctions, economic collapse, and endless war, Israelis may abandon them too.

Israelis do not buy fantasies twice.

If the right insists on pushing a policy of mass expulsion, it may face a political reckoning that reshapes Israeli leadership just as 2000 did.

In Israel, survival is not about ideology—it is about delivering reality. And history has shown that those who promise illusions do not last long. Ask Ehud Barak or Yossi Beilin.