Only a Palestinian Gandhi can save them

I have spent the last two weeks in Israel, my 20th trip over 60 years. The country has changed. The trauma of the Hamas attack of 10/7 is ongoing and hostages are still in barbaric captivity. From merchants to ex-military leaders and global businesspeople, there is a deeply held belief that the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank are holding onto their long-held belief in the destruction of the Israeli state and to their right of return to Israel proper. Evidence shows them Palestinian society believes violence will accomplish that goal. Polls show around seventy percent support the Hamas plan of exterminating Jews. Oddly, Hamas support has increased significantly in the West Bank and decreased in Gaza.

Everything feeds into that misguided belief: the refugee camps even in areas controlled by the Palestinians themselves now sheltering the fifth generation since 1948, endless funerals of Hamas gunman that take on the celebratory air of political rally, PLO leader Abbas saying murders of Israelis will be paid even if is the “last penny” and referring to them as martyrs. In short, not a Palestinian people that are looking for any solution for two states… or even one where Jews can live.

This has given the Israeli political and military establishment (IDF) the justification, and motivation, for whatever action they need to take. If you doubt this, just look at the destruction of Gaza. The entire strip is basically uninhabitable and aptly described by President Trump as “A big pile of rubble.” That rubble is about to expand to the West Bank (or as a law proposed in the Israeli parlement would call it by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria), as the long-time resistance hot spot Jenin was just attacked. Twenty-three buildings were demolished and forty thousand inhabitants displaced. The Tulkarm refugee camp adjacent to suburban Israel and visible from a main highway is also undergoing a massive military action to destroy Hamas and other fighters before they can become a threat. Israeli society will simply not tolerate another cross-border invasion.

Having just witnessed up close the destruction of entire villages in Southern Lebanon, it is clear that IDF is capable of leaving anything in its way uninhabitable, as the million plus Shite Hezbollah supporters who fled north know first-hand. It may take years for them to return as Hezbollah relaying on a broke Iran does not have the funds to rebuild what they caused to be destroyed.

Israel just received an entire new level of lethal ordinance courtesy of the Trump administration. Tens of thousands of ultra lethal bombs that can penetrate underground fortifications. Also in the package are gigantic bulldozers that can destroy a building in one swipe. All told, about ten billion dollars of advanced weaponry.

For decades, the Israelis have believed the world is against them. Ever since the occupation of the former Jordanian territory won in the 1967 war, the goodwill that the world extended to Israels founding in 1948 has recalibrated to the Palestinians. The Israeli public is now immune to anti-Isreal pro-Palestinian marches in London, Paris, and Peshawar. The chants of “From the river to the sea” only reenforce the belief that antisemitism is baked into its detractors. Thus, the Israeli response of “Never again” resonates in each and every mind.

A militaristically successful Israel has demonstrated itself in 1948, 1967, 1973, and several times against West Bank intifadas. Its defenses against Iranian, Houthis and Lebanese rockets are world class. While damage does happen inside Israel, the response to the aggressor is always exponentially far worse.

Lastly, the Palestinians must know that no one is going to really come to their aid. At the height of the destruction of Gaza, I was sent a video of dancing partying Muslims on the rooftop of an Abu Dhabi luxury hotel. Turkey, Iran, and Arab states issue lots of threats and condemnations but remain on the sidelines. The Palestinian cause is more romantic than visceral. While Hamas and the IDF are gearing up for another round of post-ceasefire mayhem, a little-covered but seismic event happened in the region. The PKK, the Kurdish independence movement that used violence for over four decades, resulting in some forty thousand deaths, just announced it is going to use peaceful means to accomplish their goals. The PKK leader asked his men to lay down their arms. Only a political solution with the Turkish government can work.

The Palestinians would be wise to do the same… immediately. To anyone like me that believes all of us should and can put aside religious, ethnic, racial and political differences to make a better world, this is the only way forward. The spiral of violence is a dead end.

If the Palestinians adopted a Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela, or a Martin Luther King, someone who could lead them in a non-violent struggle for recognition of their realistic goals — goals that do not demand the removal of Jews from their homeland — they just might succeed.

On the other hand, it is guaranteed that continuing down the path of violence will only exacerbate their plight and plunge yet another Palestinian generation into utter despair and defeat.