Solomon D. Stevens
The unspeakable horror of the attack by Hamas on innocent men, women and children on Oct. 7, 2023, was part of their long-term goal of seeking the destruction of the Jewish people. But Hamas and Iran, its sponsor, miscalculated.
Yes, their attack ended many beautiful lives and caused unbelievable suffering for the hostages themselves, their families and Jews everywhere. The pain is unbearable. And it has (inexplicably) encouraged an unprecedented rise in antisemitism. The world is more dangerous today for Jews than it was before Oct. 7. And Jews have suffered and continue to feel the pain of loss every day. But two very important things have happened: Jews have come together as never before, supporting one another and giving one another strength, and the so-called “two-state solution” has been revealed to be an absurd, misguided dream.
The Gaza experiment was well-intentioned, but as my grandmother often said, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Ariel Sharon, the architect of the creation of an independent Gaza, hoped that it would encourage the development of a healthy, new society, even though the Arab population there had no actual claim to the land. He was hopeful that a gift of land that Israel had taken from Egypt in its 1967 defensive war would reduce tension in the region and lay a foundation for peace. Clearly, he was wrong. And the implications of his mistake are staggering.
As Jews, we want peace. We long for peace. But it should be clear to us now that supporting the creation of a Palestinian state is not reasonable. Hamas is not a liberation movement; it is not a group that longs for peace in its own land. Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy Jews — in Israel and wherever they live. This is clearly stated in its founding covenant, but we don’t need to read their covenant to know this. All we have to do is see what they did on Oct. 7. No one who is longing for a peaceful coexistence with Jews could have slaughtered and tortured innocent people like that — and enjoyed themselves doing it.
Israel will not chart a path to peace by trying once again to support the development of an independent country for the Arabs who have come to call themselves Palestinians. That approach is dead. It died with the victims on Oct. 7 and with the horrible way the hostages were treated and continue to be treated. It is time for a new direction for Israel, and it is time for the world to support a new direction.
President Donald Trump has made what I believe to be an unworkable and deeply flawed proposal for Gaza, which is to forcefully relocate the population and develop the area as an American resort. I do not support this. In fact, I don’t think that Trump has actually given his proposal much thought. However, it has the merit of rejecting the idea of starting all over again and trying to establish a Palestinian state.
But the real problem is Iran. As long as it maintains its stranglehold on the region and continues to provide financial and military support to terrorists there, Israel can never be safe. Trump needs to shift his attention from treating Gaza like a real estate deal and focus on the source of strength for terrorism in the region: Iran. If a regime change can take place there — and there is significant internal support for regime change within Iran — the dynamics in the region change. The leading Arab states — Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — have never really supported a Palestinian state; they just paid lip service to it in order to placate elements within their own countries. But if the threat of Iran is eliminated, they will be free to change direction as well.
Trump needs to do more than offer Israel quiet, behind-the-scenes support for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He should join Israel openly in any military action against Iran. Trump needs to make change in Iran a major foreign policy objective of his administration, and this would involve dramatic financial pressure on Iran. But to do this, he needs the European allies that he has made the mistake of alienating since he took office. We need friends in the world in order to effect fundamental change in the Middle East. The U.S. can lead the way, but it cannot stand alone if it is serious about changing the Middle East.
We need to make a dramatic break with the approaches of the past, all of which were based on the flawed and dangerous idea of a two-state solution, which died on Oct. 7.
Solomon D. Stevens has a Ph.D. in political science from Boston College and is the author of a book on the Middle East.
