Israel at the crossroads: occupation, genocide, and the death of a vision

The ineptitude of the opposition parties

The opposition political parties continue with their squabbles, occasionally agreeing on foreign and domestic issues, but they have not once reached a consensus on how to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They played into Netanyahu's hands via their dismal failure to challenge Netanyahu's strategy to crush the Palestinians. Instead of galvanizing the public behind a peace agreement based on a two-state solution, which would offer the ultimate national security, they settled for empty criticism of Netanyahu's policy and character while the war continues to grind, and the prospect for a solution is dissipating, to Israel's detriment.

The Israeli public's disastrous apathy

No one is to blame for the tragic state of affairs engulfing the country more than the Israelis themselves, who are ironically both the culprits who allowed the continuation of the conflict as well as the victims who must live under constant threat of war. They have been lied to and misled to believe that Palestinians are irredeemable and can only be contained by brutal force. They impetuously swallowed Netanyahu's false argument that a Palestinian state poses the ultimate existential danger and that it must be prevented at all costs.

For the vast majority of Israelis, the occupation has become a way of life. After all, 80 percent of all Israelis were born after 1967. For them, Palestinian bondage, suffering, deprivation, and humiliation under the occupation has had little or no effect on their daily lives.

For six months, they demonstrated en masse against the so-called judicial reforms; they have been demonstrating day in and day out, demanding the return of the hostages, but never demonstrated en masse to demand an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To this day, they still cling tightly to the false narrative of Netanyahu and his criminal gang that an independent Palestinian state poses an existential danger. Not once have they demanded from their government an alternate mutually accepted peace agreement short of a two-state solution to end the most violent and longest conflict since World War II.

One would think that following Hamas' attack and Israel's war of retaliation, the Israelis would pause and demand a solution to this horrifically consuming conflict. Instead, they double down and resign themselves to living by the gun because they were persuaded that there is no solution. They conveniently forgot that 90 percent of all living Palestinians were born under occupation and have little left to lose, and will not cease to violently resist Israel until the day of salvation.

It is a time of reckoning

When will the time come for the Israelis to realize that Israel will never be able to dominate the Palestinians against their will? They should first wake up to the chilling demographic equation. Seven million Jews in Israel live side-by-side a total of seven million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and in Israel proper, and they cannot indefinitely enslave the Palestinians, no matter how harsh and brutal military rule might be and how many Palestinians are incarcerated, killed, or expelled.

Second, unlike any other violent conflict in the past, the magnitude of death and destruction inflicted on Gaza and the West Bank has given rise to a new generation of Palestinians who will live to avenge what has befallen their people. For every Palestinian militant killed, two will rise to replace them.

Third, although Hamas may be decimated, Israel will never eliminate it as an idea and movement. Israel's genocidal military operation in Gaza and Netanyahu's plan to reoccupy it have only validated Hamas' claim that Israel is determined to destroy the Palestinians as a people, which would only intensify their violent resistance for as long as it takes.

Every Palestinian will remember that if the women, children, and the elderly who were killed in this vicious war were to form a single line, it would be 15 miles long. Ninety percent of Gaza lies in ruin, nearly the entire population is displaced time and again, they are deprived of food, medicine, and drinking water, and thousands are on the verge of starvation. This is a tragedy being inflicted not only on the Palestinians but also on Israel itself, which is destroying the very foundation on which it rests.

Every Israeli should remember that their country, which rose from the ashes of millions of Jews who perished, will not survive on the ashes of the Palestinians. Only two independent states, living in peace, will save Israel--the Jews' millennia-old dream.