The worn slogan “there is no partner” is heard again and again. We are told that the Oslo Accords collapsed because the Palestinians chose violence and terror, because Arafat reneged and turned to terrorism. We are told that the Palestinian people chose Hamas and its ways rather than leaders who seek compromise and coexistence. That after the brutality of October 7, there is no one left to talk to.
While there is some truth to these claims, they do not reflect the full picture – they twist it.
Our commentators seize on polls from the past year showing high levels of support for Hamas among Palestinians, but they fail to speak with the pollsters who show a direct connection between Israeli policy and the rise in support for Hamas.
Since Netanyahu’s current right-wing government took office and was accompanied by increasing settler violence and provocation on the Temple Mount, Hamas’s support has risen accordingly.
However, the long-term trend has been consistent and clear: Whenever there was a political horizon and diplomatic moves delivered results, Hamas’s support dropped to the true size of Islamists in Palestinian society – less than 30%.
The goal of Zionism was to transform the Jewish people from an object of history into a subject of history. To turn from a people who cope with enemies and troubles imposed upon them, to a people who choose their own path. This challenge facing the founders of the state did not end with the establishment of the state.
It must guide our path as a nation even now – to lead and take responsibility for our future, to be proactive and not just reactive. To understand that our actions and failures significantly influence the behavior of the other side.
We still have hostile enemies, but they are not 100% to blame
Our neighbors, certainly our enemies, are not Zionists. Many of them are hostile. Too often, the Palestinian leadership chose the path of violence and terror. But placing the entire blame on them is not only incorrect, it is also dangerous. It covers up our own failures, normalizes the lack of political action, and empowers the forces within us that do not seek peace – a peace that would necessarily require territorial compromise.
Over the years and at too many junctures, Israel preferred the use of force over dialogue. In many cases, the choice of force was driven more by internal political needs than by deep strategic thinking about the path to a stable solution. This approach has significantly contributed to the deterioration of the situation. Military power can win battles, but it cannot end conflicts.
Even now, the focus on force rather than on creating a real political horizon leads us to continue the war on various fronts without a clear exit strategy.
Israeli hasbara (public diplomacy/propaganda) has seized upon blaming the other side as a central talking point in their messaging toolbox. To skeptical listeners, it sounds like blaming hurricanes or the sun for the current climate crisis instead of taking responsibility for humanity’s impact on environmental decline. Blaming the other side does not help, nor does it succeed in persuading others.
In this futile blame game, which perpetuates and fuels conflict, Israel’s hands are not clean. Israel’s long-standing dismissal of the Arab Peace Initiative sends a message to the Arab world and beyond that Israel is not interested in a peace that would end the occupation.
“We tried to make peace and weren’t good at it. But we’re also not great at war, and that doesn’t stop us from doing it again and again,” said professor and renowned author Yuval Noah Harari at It’s Time – The Great Peace Conference held on July 1 in Tel Aviv.
The two parts of the sentence are interconnected because without a genuine willingness to pursue peace, it’s hard to succeed in achieving the goals of the war. Alongside military strength, Israel lacks now – as it has for long periods in the past – a clear and realistic political vision for an endgame. Without such a vision, we will continue to flounder on the battlefield and stall in the political arena, with no better future in sight that we can hope and strive for.
The notion that “there is no partner” is the greatest danger to our future, and it is entirely false. The Jordanian foreign minister reminded the world of this in a brief speech lasting less than two minutes on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
There are many Arab and Muslim countries willing to normalize and make peace with Israel, provided that Israel advances toward peace with the Palestinians. In other words – it is possible and essential that we test this and actively strive for an agreement and peace.
Instead of entrenching ourselves in victimhood, we must ask ourselves again and again: How can we take responsibility and improve the situation? What is required of us to ensure a peaceful future, even if it seems distant? Let us remind ourselves that our national anthem is “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”) and not fear or victimhood.
It is time to look at ourselves as well as the other side – and act on a diplomatic initiative that puts us back on the path toward a sustainable peace.
The writer is J Street Israel’s executive director. He has served as an Israeli diplomat in Washington and Boston and as a political adviser to the president of Israel.