The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

The war with Iran has sidetracked our attention from the 53 remaining hostages in Gaza for 622 days. According to one of the mediators I spoke with, the negotiations with Hamas are ongoing, and there is no reason to lose hope. When he said that, I thought to myself: What a ridiculous statement! From what I understand, Hamas has not changed its most fundamental demand that the war come to an end and that all Israeli forces leave Gaza permanently. From what we all know, Netanyahu and his government refuse to accept this demand.

While the missiles are falling on Israel from Iran, Israel is busy demonstrating its ability to bring massive death and destruction to Iran. Israel tries to assure the Iranian people that its bombs are not against them, but only against the regime of the Ayatollahs. But all eyes are on Gaza. Israel’s war in Gaza was supposed to be against Hamas, but Gaza is decimated, destroyed and two million Gazans are homeless. There is no infrastructure left in Gaza – no schools, universities, hospitals, public buildings, roads, electricity, sewage facilities, basic governance – a civilization has been destroyed in Gaza while Netanyahu waits for complete surrender. Hamas will not surrender to Israel. Now, Trump is echoing this call for the Iranian regime to surrender completely. That will not happen. The insane and dangerous leaders in Iran, Hamas, Israel, and the White House treat us civilians under their control as pawns on the chessboard, caring much too little if we fall or stand.

No, we don’t want Iran to have a nuclear bomb. Iran is a very sophisticated, scientific and technological giant. Iran has had a nuclear program for more than 30 years. Does anyone really believe that if Iran genuinely wanted a bomb, they wouldn’t already have it? Pakistan and North Korea are far less sophisticated than Iran, and they got it with very little trouble. The assessment by reliable Iran and nuclear military experts is that if Iran wanted a bomb, they would already have it. Instead, these experts say that Iran wants to be at “nuclear breakout capability,” referring to the small amount of time it would take to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, violating international treaties and norms.

Nonetheless, preventing Iran from getting a bomb could be achieved through international negotiations led by the United States. Let’s not forget that there was an agreement that would have prevented Iran from increased nuclear enrichment. It was Netanyahu who convinced Trump 1.0 to leave the agreement, which led Iran to getting closer to nuclear breakout than ever before. Netanyahu, who perceives himself as the great protector of Israel, actually brought Iran closer to breakout than ever before. This war may lead to a settlement that will prevent Iran from enriching fissile materials on its own territory, but that could have been achieved through diplomacy backed by serious military threats.

Netanyahu has successfully diverted our attention away from the failures of October 7, from the remaining 53 hostages, from the continued war in Gaza with Israeli soldiers getting killed every week, from the hundreds and thousands of Gazans getting killed every week, from the starvation and humanitarian disaster facing millions of Gazans, and from the death and destruction that Israel is causing every day in the West Bank. While Israelis seem to be celebrating the so-called Israeli military victories in Iran, demonstrating its clear military superiority over the entire region, I do not feel safer in a region and in a world where Israel is feared and hated more than ever. We Israelis have gotten too used to the idea that we can only solve our problems by using massive amounts of military forces, supplied to us by some countries that have serious issues with how we use that force.

Over the weekend, several leading Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations brought 300 Israelis and Palestinians, including Gazans, to a public meeting in Paris with a clear and resounding call for peace. The Paris meeting was held just as Israel launched its attack against Iran. The French authorities did not grant visas to 33 Gazans who escaped Gaza and are in Cairo now. Three Gazans were granted visas. The 33 who were denied visas met together and called on their Palestinian brothers and sisters to attend the meeting and to send a clear message that they want the conference to be a big success and that they want to send a message to the 150 Israelis there that they want to live in peace. This was a public meeting, and no one hid behind closed doors. The message from Paris is: now is the time to end this conflict, to end these conflicts. Now is the time to move us forward to the two-state solution. No more wars, no more bloodshed. Now is the time for regime change – not only in Iran, which will set the Iranian people free. Now is the time for regime change in Palestine and in Israel, which will set us free as well.

So, reverting back to the message of the mediator that I heard just yesterday, yes, there is reason for hope. Wars come to an end. Good endings are agreements that are monitored and verifiable. That is what we want now for the wars in Iran and in Gaza. We Israelis will not forget the damage that Netanyahu has done to our country. The Palestinians will not forget the damage that Hamas has done to them. The Iranian people will not forget the damage that their regime has done to them. Now is the time for all of us to reach across the borders and send a clear message that we want these wars to end now. Iran must be given back to the Iranian people, who have no real conflict with Israel. Palestine and Israel must fully recognize each other’s national existence and right to self-determination. Sanity requires us all to demand ceasefire now! I signed a call together with several other Israelis and several Iranians calling for a ceasefire now between Israel and Iran. The call ends with these words: “We refuse to accept the inevitability of violent conflict as the only way forward between our nations, Israel and Iran, or their positioning as eternal arch-enemies. The endless and senseless wars of this region won’t benefit our people, all of whom have the right to live in peace and security”.

From the River to the Sea, on two states we agree!

That is the only path to peace and security for us all.