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Learning From the Wise Men of Chelm: Israel and a Palestinian State
Supporters and family members of hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, hold lit torches during a protest ahead of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem
A boy had been given money to buy things at the grocery store. On the way, he lost the money. Someone saw him looking for the money: “Did you lose it here?” the man asked. “No,” said the boy. “Then why are you looking here?” “Ah,” said the boy. “Where I lost the money it is dark, but here it is light.”
The Wise Men of Chelm (a Jewish folk tale)
Israelis have good reason to be worried about the current Hamas ceasefire. On the terrorist side, there is every intention to continue the jihad.
Reciprocally, Israel will soon feel renewed pressured to accept a Palestinian state. Still, like the boy from “Chelm” — who looks for lost grocery money only where it would be most visible — the Jewish State would be looking for peace in the wrong place.
A core principle of all civilized legal systems — one reaffirmed at the post-war Nuremberg trials — is nullum crimen sine poena or “no crime without a punishment.” Today, even following “perfidious” terror attacks on Israeli civilians, much of the world is apt to blame Israel for cumulative regional harms.
Though Israel’s counter-terrorist war in Gaza had been unintentionally harming Palestinian civilians, this war of self-defense was indispensable for national survival, and Israel-inflicted harms were entirely collateral. Altogether unlike the precipitating October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack, these harms were not the result of “criminal intent” or mens rea.
In these ongoing matters, logic must be paramount. To begin, the self-justifying Palestinian narrative of an Israeli “occupation” has always been founded on a flimsy edifice of legal falsehoods.
In essence, this narrative is a contrivance of structured propaganda. Even if the contrivance were not so blatant, Palestinian insurgents would lack any law-based right to intentionally harm Israeli noncombatants. In law, all war, even a “just war,” must be fought by “just means.”
Under international law, rape, murder, suicide-bombings, and hostage-taking can never express a permissible path to “self-determination.” Under law, these ends can never justify the means.
There is more. For the most part, Hamas and other jihadi killers are not “lone wolves.” They are spurred on by organized Palestinian incitements to barbarous terror-violence. Though generally overlooked, these determined criminals remain captivated by the Islamist promise of “power over death.” This is a delusionary power reserved for “martyrs.”
Among other inglorious traits, jihadist terrorists (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, etc.) are markedly unheroic in their search for Palestinian statehood.
More precisely, they are consumed by an elemental or primal cowardice. Should there be any doubts about this, one need only remember that the jihadist kills himself or herself in order not to die. This wanton murderer expects to suffer little more than a transient inconvenience on the path to “life everlasting.” Nonetheless, for themselves, jihadist leaders typically prefer luxury hotel suites in Qatar or Turkey to Islamist heaven.
Does the jihadi “foot soldier” truly believe in such a blessedly eternal life? To answer this question, one must first understand that religious faith can easily trump logic and science, especially in the Islamist Middle East.
A personally reinforcing point can be offered by the present writer, who many years back, interviewed a failed Palestinian suicide-bomber. When I inquired of this young man (face to face, with an Israeli captor-interpreter) how he felt about failure as a “martyr” (i.e., as shahid), the would-be terrorist replied without hesitation: “Devastated, because now I will surely have to die.”
Back to current jihadi criminal plans for Israel. Can there be a lawful “ceasefire agreement” between a genuine national government (Israel) and an inherently criminal organization (Hamas)?
Whatever the overall merits of each side’s position, the immediate effect of any ceasefire agreement is to bestow on a criminal-terror organization a legitimate position under international law and formal legal equivalence with a sovereign state. Among other things, the inherent illegality of Hamas as a “self-determination” organization can be extrapolated from the explicit criminalization of terrorism under both codified and customary international law.
What about “Palestine?” Though the name would seem to signify extant “sovereign equality” with Israel, the legal reality is different. There has never been a state of Palestine, nor does such a state exist today. For those willing to examine this time-urgent matter in appropriately legal context, the place to begin is the Convention on the Right and Duties of States (Montevideo, 1933). Among other things, this governing treaty on statehood dispels all prevailing falsifications regarding an alleged “state of Palestine.”
In the next year, and without a scintilla of objective legal verification, the global community could become convinced that Palestinians deserve an independent state and that fulfilling this presumed right would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians. Accordingly, there would be assorted incentives to interpret the Montevideo Convention as a validation or justification of Palestinian statehood. Bolstered by such faux reasoning, this jihad-based Arab state would accelerate its pre-independence program of war and terror against Israel.
From the standpoint of every operational Palestinian faction, all present-day Israel would be designated “occupied territory.”
Though openly genocidal, “From the river to the sea….” is already the pre-state Palestinian war cry. Should there remain any doubts about wrongful Palestinian definitions of an Israeli “occupation,” one need only to check official Palestinian maps. On each map, “Palestine’s” borders are drawn to include all of Israel. One should recall here that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO, forerunner of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas) was founded in 1964, three years before there were any “occupied territories.”
So what exactly was the PLO attempting to “liberate?”
During the many years that Palestinian terrorists were slaughtering each other as well as Israeli civilians, Israel’s law-based warnings about Palestine were widely ignored or harshly condemned. Not even after 9/11, when Fatah and Hamas celebrated America’s jihad-triggered misfortune, did the United States and its allies even bother to re-evaluate their traditional support of Palestinian statehood. We should expect, therefore, especially after the current ceasefire agreement, that Israelis would feel pressured to consider “Palestine” as a longer-term solution.
On the Arab side, theology could be determinative. For all jihadist forces in the Middle East, the conflict with Israel is never authentically about land or geopolitical advantage. Rather, it is always about God and variously derivative promises of “power over death.”
For Palestinian terror groups, the true enemy is never Israel as such. This enemy is “The Jews.”
The young Palestinian terrorist who strikes with axe or blade (both used for beheading Jewish children on October 7, 2023) is expecting to be rewarded as a “martyr.” Prima facie, this means an incomparable reward.
For Israelis, it’s time to learn from errors of the “wise men of Chelm”
It is time to look for solutions where “it is dark.” Plainly, Hamas and all other Palestinian jihadi organizations still seek a “One State Solution” for their “Jewish Question.” In principle, at least, certain earlier declarations of support for Palestinian “self-determination” might not have been unreasonable, but only if the Palestinian side had been committed to a genuine “Two-State Solution.”
Whatever their current differences, all jihadi groups agree that Israel is by its very nature intolerable (because any Jewish state, by definition, represents a religious abomination in the Dar al Islam) and that Israel is “Occupied Palestine.”
From the 17th century onward, the world political system has operated in a “state of nature.” In the corrosively anarchic Middle East, considerations of raw power have routinely trumped any binding expectations of authoritative international law. On particular matters concerning Palestinian statehood, it is high time to understand that everyone’s true enemy in the region is not Israel, but a persistently sordid mix of jihadist criminal forces.
Though counter-intuitive, any tangible advances to Palestinian statehood would disadvantage Arabs as well as Israelis. As a complicating factor, an irredentist Palestinian state would weaken Israel in its potentially survival struggle against a near-nuclear or already-nuclear Iran. For the Jewish State, the Palestinian threat (expanded anti-Israel terrorism) and the Iranian nuclear threat are never separate and distinct. Instead, they are intersectional and mutually reinforcing.
Finally, we may learn from the historic Nuremberg Tribunals and Nuremberg Principles an elementary pillar of justice first drawn from ancient Jewish law: “No crime without a punishment.”
In the end, if world leaders should choose to betray this “peremptory” principle (one that is per se inviolable), Palestine could wind up as Israel’s “last straw.” It follows that absolutely any post-ceasefire incentives to accept a Palestinian state should be rejected by Jerusalem. Recalling the boy’s lost grocery money in “Chelm,” Israel should never be tempted by any seemingly gainful advantages of “light.” In Jewish literary “Chelm,” the “Wise Men” was an ironic designation.
Prof. Louis René Beres was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the author of many books and scholarly articles dealing with international law, nuclear strategy, nuclear war, and terrorism. In Israel, Prof. Beres was Chair of Project Daniel (PM Sharon). His 12th and latest book is Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016; 2nd ed., 2018).
The post Learning From the Wise Men of Chelm: Israel and a Palestinian State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.