Today is the beginning of ‘the day after’

We Israelis and Palestinians are waking up to the first morning in two years when we can allow ourselves to smile. In the coming days, as we see Israeli hostages coming home, we Israelis will be filled with tears of joy as we watch the freed living hostages embrace their loved ones. We will also be filled with tears of pain and sorrow as we see the deceased return for burial. We will share both the joy and the grief.

It is important to understand that on the Palestinian side, too, there will be tears of joy as families reunite with released prisoners – and deep sorrow as Gazans bury loved ones lost beneath the rubble of homes and buildings bombed by Israel. Many Gazans will return to homes that no longer stand, look toward the heavens, and wonder how they can rebuild their lives after the horrors of the past two years. These are difficult times for all of us.

As Israelis, our challenge now is to hold our prime minister and government accountable for their failures. They must answer for their failure to protect us on October 7. Netanyahu and his government must be forced to take responsibility for turning Hamas into an asset and the Palestinian Authority into a liability. They must be held accountable for their dysfunction after October 7.

Their extremism and messianic approach threaten to bring even greater disasters because of their dangerous policies in the West Bank: unchecked settlement expansion, settler violence supported by the army and police, and the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two years. Thousands of olive trees have been cut down by settlers and soldiers. Increasing tracts of Palestinian land are being stolen. The Palestinian economy is in shambles, while the Israeli government withholds more than $2 billion in tax revenues collected for the Palestinian Authority under the Paris Protocol. The only reason, I believe, that the West Bank has not exploded in violence is that Palestinians there do not want to see their towns and villages turned into another Gaza.

Collective national suicide

Palestinians in Gaza understand that Hamas committed collective national suicide on October 7 – without asking whether the Palestinian people were willing to pay the price. They have paid dearly for Hamas’s fanaticism and irresponsibility and are now witnessing the ruin caused by leaders like Yahya Sinwar. My understanding is that Gazans never want to see Hamas in their lives again. They must now face the consequences of Hamas’s delusional belief that it could destroy Israel; instead, Israel has destroyed Gaza.

Despite the absurdity of both sides claiming victory, there are no victors. No one won this war. The people of Israel and of Palestine have all lost. Those who have perpetuated this conflict for decades must now be held accountable by both societies. The main lesson of the past two years must be that we cannot continue to do this to each other. This must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war. Israelis and Palestinians, in nearly equal numbers, live on the land between the River and the Sea. That will not change. We must rid ourselves of leaders who refuse to confront the reality that this land is a shared homeland. We must abandon the illusion of a military solution. There is no viable armed struggle for Palestinians; Palestine will never be free and independent through the killing of Israelis.

Palestinian pollsters should begin asking a second question – not only, “Do you support armed struggle to free Palestine?” but also, “Are you personally willing to pick up a gun, to fight and kill Israelis, or to send your son to do so?” Here, the number of “yes” answers would drop close to zero, and Palestinians know it.

We Israelis must also rid ourselves of the illusion that this conflict can be “managed.” We must recognize that we cannot control millions of Palestinians who seek freedom from occupation by force. The messianic fanatics among us must understand that being connected to the holy land of Judea and Samaria does not mean Israel must control or own all of it. They must know that forcing Palestinians from their land is not only a crime against humanity – it is a desecration of Judaism itself, a violation of the divine humanity they claim to honor. What fanatic settlers do in the West Bank in the name of Judaism and God is an affront to both. They are committing daily, horrendous sins against Judaism and God. They must be stopped by all of us who want Israel to remain a respected member of the family of nations.

This government must be stopped by Israelis who still believe in justice. We once saw ourselves as a country that sought peace. We must return to that path and make peace with all our neighbors.

A vision of peace

Palestinians must disavow belief in armed struggle. Israelis must abandon the belief that we can have all of the land, deny Palestinians their rights, and still live in peace. Israel will never have security if Palestinians lack freedom. Palestinians will never have freedom if Israelis lack security. We will never have peace until we recognize the legitimacy of both peoples’ existence on this land that both claim as their own. As the late Rabbi Menachem Froman often said: This land does not belong to us – we belong to this land. We Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs belong to this land, and we will all remain here.

Our immediate task – Israelis and Palestinians alike – is to hold those responsible for this disaster to account. But even more important is our responsibility to elect new leaders with a vision of peace. When we look at those competing to lead us, we must ask: Do they bring hope for a better future – for peace for us and our children? If the answer is no, or even “I don’t know,” then those people are not worthy of our support. We must never again support so-called leaders who promise us only a stronger gun.

Israelis and Palestinians – look around the region. See what is happening in our neighborhood. Netanyahu describes Israel as “a villa in the jungle.” But that is false. The Middle East is changing rapidly. The future of Israel and Palestine will depend on regional security cooperation and economic development. Our shared future lies here, in a region that wants a safe Israel and a free Palestine. We now have a chance to create peace and security based on mutual acceptance – two free nations working together to build a safe, secure, and prosperous Middle East.

Let us not miss this opportunity. Let us bring new leadership – in Israel and in Palestine – leadership with a vision of peace, leadership that brings us hope.