The Palestinian state is the natural outcome of an international and regional conflict. The war between the Arabs and Israel has gone on for more than seven decades. Without such a state, the conflict will neither end nor fade into the background, no matter how much the ideologues and delusional parties in Israel and parties with Islamist ideology conspire to validate the other side’s narratives. The Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza will not vanish from the face of the earth simply because Netanyahu or his far-right allies wish it, nor will the Palestinian state disappear because of their apocalyptic myths.
Throughout history, Saudi Arabia has been the strongest supporter of the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people. Today, Saudi Arabia is reaffirming its historic stance in support of this just cause, not through slogans and empty rhetoric, as so many Arab leaders once have, draining the cause, squandering the rights of the Palestinians, and undermining justice with their infighting and their exploitation of this struggle for personal or political gain. Today, Saudi Arabia seeks nothing from Palestine except for the Palestinian people to obtain an independent, internationally recognized state.
Israel cannot annex the West Bank and Gaza. President Trump cannot support Israel in such an annexation. Were he to do so, he would be allowing Israel’s extremism to weaken US power and its alliances around the world. The two-state solution, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and many of its Arab and Islamic allies, and is now receiving unprecedented international support from numerous European and global partners and organizations, is the centerpiece of the “Arab Peace Initiative” that has been unanimously supported by the Arabs since 2002, through a Saudi-led campaign. This initiative and these exceptional, historic Saudi efforts cannot be obstructed or Israeli policy that goes against history, to reason, to politics, and to its own interests.
President Trump has repeatedly affirmed that Israel will not be annexing the West Bank, and that no one should worry about this scenario. If Israel does not change its arrogant policies toward the region and the world - ongoing assaults on Syria and Lebanon, increasingly fanatical stance toward the Palestinian Authority, its future state, and its people - it would be breaking with political logic and the pursuit of a realistic solution to the oldest and most entrenched conflict in the Middle East.
Instead of being part of a bright future, Israel chooses to hide behind the delusions of the past and the absurdities of ideology and myth; that is not politics.
Neither the United States nor any other global power can recognize the Israeli policy passed by the Knesset, with the support of Netanyahu’s government, despite its efforts to distance itself from it. The vast majority of countries around the world support the two-state solution. Moreover, as reported by the media, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Djibouti, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, Gambia, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have all strongly condemned the Knesset’s approval of two draft laws aimed at imposing what it calls “Israeli sovereignty” over the West Bank and the illegal Israeli colonial settlements.
Many Arab and Islamic countries will add their names to this statement and show clear support for its positions; many more nations across the five continents will follow. Israel’s reckless and shortsighted misadventures will have a powerful impact on the policies of countries around the world toward the region and this longest conflict in modern history. Israel will find itself isolated, with no ally but the United States. The United States will not go along with delusions, nor will it abandon its vital interests and global alliances to serve a few extremist politicians in Israel.
Peace remains the best option for all the countries of the region, including Israel. Great Israeli leaders once pursued it: Menachem Begin with Egypt’s President Anwar al-Sadat in the 1979 Camp David Accords; Yitzhak Rabin with the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat in the Oslo Accords of 1993, and then again with Jordan’s King Hussein in the 1994 Wadi Araba Agreement.
Shimon Peres was a supporter of peace and peace treaties; he was a partner to Rabin in many of his efforts in this regard. Even Ariel Sharon, the hardline former Israeli prime minister, withdrew from Gaza and dismantled the settlements there in 2005, compelling Netanyahu to resign from Sharon’s government in protest.
Today, Netanyahu seeks to undo all the peace agreements of the past, rejecting their realism and killing the hope they create for the future. He forgets that history does not move backward, and that retreating from historical achievements and accords would bring uncertainty to the region and the world, which no one can bear.
In the end, there is no alternative to the two-state solution. It is the only solution to the Middle East’s longest crisis, whether Israel likes it or not. The Palestinian cause is a just cause, and the Palestinian people are living on their land. No matter how hard the extremists try, they cannot be erased.
