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October 7 Proved Now Is Not the Time for a Palestinian State
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
The Biden administration and several Arab allies are working on a plan for an immediate “two state solution,” according to an article in The Washington Post on Thursday.
These talks, which don’t include either Israelis or Palestinians, reportedly aim to complete a full proposal prior to Ramadan, which begins on March 10. According to the Post, “The elephant in the planning room is Israel, and whether its government will acquiesce to much of what is being discussed.”
It is true that Israel is not likely to agree to any arrangement that endangers its safety, yet there is a much larger and totally overlooked “elephant in the room”: polls show that most of the Palestinian people don’t actually want a two state solution at all, on any terms, or in any borders.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashal summed up the prevailing Palestinian attitude in a recent interview, “…especially after October 7, there’s a renewed dream of the hope of Palestine from the river to the sea, from the north to the south … we reject [a two state solution], because it means you are required to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist entity [Israel]. This is unacceptable. [This is] the position of Hamas as well as the majority of the Palestinian people.” (emphasis added).
Though Hamas’ leadership is not typically a source of reliable information, in this case, Mashal appears to be correct: according to Arab research sources, 74.7% of Palestinians desire a Palestinian-only state that entirely supplants Israel, while 72% support the October 7 massacre, which, to be clear, included burning Israeli babies, beheading, mass rape, mass murder, and large scale kidnapping.
The Palestinian Authority government (the presumptive leader of a future Palestinian state) has publicly committed to spending at least 2.8 million dollars per month out of its national budget as a cash reward to the individuals (including the terror operatives) who carried out the October 7 massacre. Palestinian support for the total annihilation of Israel and of all its people is, therefore, not limited to Hamas, nor would such support automatically disappear in a post-Hamas world.
To ask Israelis to entrust their safety to the Palestinian Authority, a government that both supported and has committed to funding perpetrators of the October 7 massacre, would be inappropriate and dangerous. To provide such a government with significant resources, including increased funding and international legitimacy, will both plant and water the seeds of more October 7 style massacres in the future.
The West has a long history of willful blindness in the Middle East.
For example, the 1990s saw widespread Israeli and Palestinian support for the Oslo peace process, but there was a critical difference between the two sides. Whereas Israelis envisioned the peace process as bringing an end to the conflict, both Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as well as over 72% of Palestinians did not. To the contrary, the prevailing Palestinian vision at the time was to accept the benefits and resources provided by the Oslo process, but without any intent of actually ending the conflict.
Despite this data being readily available, Western nations, with Israeli support, initiated a massive influx of funding, resources, weapons, training, and international legitimacy, in the naive hope of somehow changing Palestinian priorities. Nonetheless, much of these resources flowed to a variety of Palestinian terror organizations, thus vastly increasing the power and destructiveness of those groups, right up to the present day.
Since that time, decades of academics have sought to explain why Oslo failed, often placing blame on Israel and the West for not providing even more resources, offers, and concessions than they already had. However, history shows that a peace agreement cannot possibly work if one of the sides does not actually want peace. That was the case with respect to the Munich Agreement with Hitler in 1938, a mistake of historic proportions that empowered and emboldened the German war machine.
Some might ask, is there any way at all to ensure a better future for Israelis, Palestinians, and the world at large?
Aggressive dictatorships rarely ever transform into peaceful and prosperous democracies, but there are at least two historical examples: post-war Germany and Japan. Both cases began with complete defeat of the regimes that initiated war, followed by total and unconditional surrender. During post-war “reconstruction,” the pre-existing governments were completely dismantled. Local populations were made to understand, unequivocally, that any dreams of achieving victory through violence would have no possibility of succeeding, ever. Only as these processes began to truly take root, over the course of years, did Germany and Japan gradually rejoin the international community as functional and prosperous independent states.
Less thorough efforts, such as in Afghanistan and Iraq, have resulted in disaster. It is notable that Iran played a role in undermining stabilization efforts in those regions, just as it is presently doing in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and attempting to do throughout the Red Sea shipping lanes and within Israel.
What kind of future does the international community envision for Palestinians? A future resembling modern day Germany and Japan, or alternatively, Afghanistan and Iraq? If the world desires the former, history and common sense demand we take the same steps that achieved it: including total dismantling and reconstruction of Palestinian governing institutions, accountability for all Palestinian leaders who have supported terror, justice for Israeli and international victims of that terror, and an unequivocal demonstration to the Palestinian people that the goal of supplanting Israel and the tool of violence stand absolutely no chance of success. Of course, none of this vision will be possible without first defeating or at least massively deterring Iran and its proxies to the point that they no longer hold any influence whatsoever in the Middle East. This may sound like a tall order, but anything less will result in a danger to Israel, an ongoing threat to the world, and a disaster for the Palestinian people.
Daniel Pomerantz is an expert in international law, an adjunct professor at Reichman and Bar Ilan Universities in Israel, and the CEO of RealityCheck, an nonprofit NGO dedicated to clarifying global conversations with verifiable data. Daniel lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, and can be found on Instagram at @realitycheckresearch or at www.RealityCheckResearch.org.
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US Holds Secret Talks With Hamas on Gaza Hostages, Source Says
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
The Trump administration has been conducting secret talks with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on the possibility of releasing US hostages being held in Gaza, two sources briefed on the conversations told Reuters.
US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has been holding the direct talks with Hamas in recent weeks in Doha, the sources said, confirming a report by Axios.
Until recently the US had avoided direct discussions with the Islamist group. The US State Department designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
Such talks run counter to long-standing US policy against direct contacts with groups that Washington lists as terrorist organizations.
The previous US role in helping to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Gaza war has been dealing with Israel and Qatari and Egyptian mediators but without any known direct communications between Washington and Hamas.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boehler’s office declined to comment.
It was unclear when or how the Israeli government was informed of the talks.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for Hamas.
The sources said the talks have focused on gaining the release of American hostages still held in Gaza, but one said they also have included discussions about a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and how to reach a long-term truce.
One of the sources said the effort includes an attempt to gain the release of Edan Alexander, of Tenafly, New Jersey, believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to return to the region in coming days to work out a way to either extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal or advance to the second phase, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
The post US Holds Secret Talks With Hamas on Gaza Hostages, Source Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kremlin Says Iran’s Nuclear Program Will Be Subject of Future Russia-US Talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that future talks between Russia and the United States would include discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, a subject it said had been “touched upon” in an initial round of US-Russia talks last month.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Russia has agreed to assist US President Donald Trump’s administration in communicating with Iran on various issues, including on Tehran’s nuclear program and its support for regional anti-US proxies.
The Kremlin has not confirmed that but has made clear that Iran is now one of the subjects that will be discussed in more detail by Washington and Moscow.
“So far there is only an understanding that the Russian position really is that this problem of Iran’s nuclear dossier should be solved exclusively by peaceful political and diplomatic means,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We believe that there is potential for this, because Iran is our ally, our partner, and a country with which we are developing comprehensive, mutually beneficial, and mutually respectful relations, and Russia is ready to do everything possible for this. The United States is aware of this.”
Trump last month restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran which includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such intention.
Russia has deepened its ties with the Islamic Republic since the start of the Ukraine war and signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Iran in January.
The Kremlin said that the subject of Iran was touched upon during Russia-US talks in Saudi Arabia last month.
“It was touched upon in Riyadh,” Peskov said. “But not in detail, not in detail.”
Asked specifically about the Bloomberg report, Peskov said: “Look, the topic of Iran was on the agenda, it was touched upon, but at the same time, not in detail.”
The post Kremlin Says Iran’s Nuclear Program Will Be Subject of Future Russia-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Israeli Military Chief Assumes Command With Gaza Ceasefire in the Balance
The new Chief of the General Staff, Major General Eyal Zamir, visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, March 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israel swore in a new commander of its military on Wednesday as a standoff over the fragile ceasefire in Gaza increased the risk of a resumption of fighting without an agreement to bring home the rest of the hostages still held by Hamas.
Eyal Zamir, a former tank commander who had retired after 28 years with the rank of Major General before being called back into service, was promoted to Lieutenant General, before formally assuming command from General Herzi Halevi, who stepped down over the security disaster of Oct. 7, 2023.
“The mission is not yet complete,” he said in an address as he assumed command, saying that Hamas had not yet been defeated.
“We will not forgive, we will not forget. This is an existential war. We will persist in our campaign to bring our hostages home and to defeat our enemies,” he said. Fighting in Gaza has been halted since January under a truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the United States that has allowed the exchange of 33 Israeli hostages and 5 Thais for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
A related war in southern Lebanon, which broke out after Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces launched missile strikes against Israel after the Oct. 7 attack, has also been silenced by a separate ceasefire agreement.
But Israeli ministers and officials have warned that their forces could resume fighting if there is no agreement on bringing back the 59 hostages that remain.
Israeli troops have pulled back from some of their positions in Gaza but talks that were intended to agree to the release of the hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces before an end to the war have not begun.
Israel has called for an extension of the truce until after the Jewish Passover holiday in April to allow the release of the remaining hostages, while Hamas has insisted on proceeding to talks on a permanent end to the war before agreeing to any further releases.
COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
Zamir’s appointment comes as a series of official inquiries have begun to examine the failures that allowed thousands of Hamas-led terrorists to storm Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages in one of the biggest military and security disasters in Israel’s history.
Halevi led the military during the Israeli campaign in Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
But he announced in January, soon after the Gaza ceasefire deal was agreed, that he would step down from his command, accepting responsibility for the military‘s patchy and uncoordinated response to the Oct. 7 attack.
On Wednesday, as he handed over his command, he called for a wider examination of the failures on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The establishment of a state commission of inquiry is necessary and essential – not to place blame, but first and foremost, to understand the root of the problems and allow for correction,” he said.
Both the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency have acknowledged that their failures allowed the attack to take place, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted a more general inquiry that would look at the responsibility of his government.
The post New Israeli Military Chief Assumes Command With Gaza Ceasefire in the Balance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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