By Alon Ben-Meir
The international community has rallied behind the Palestinians in support of their aspiration for statehood. The question is, will the Palestinians seize this rare opportunity and adopt a new strategy critical to realizing their national goal?
I do not recall a period since the 1967 Six-Day War when the international community has expressed such overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause. This global coalescence and outpouring of support represent an unparalleled precedent, which they cannot afford to miss, compounded by Trump’s just-announced peace plan.
Ironically, it is Hamas’s heinous October 2023 attack and Israel’s devastating retaliatory war in Gaza that have injected new life into the two-state solution, bringing it back into focus on the global stage.
To capitalize on this focus, the Palestinians, especially the extremists among them, must reassess their stance on three major psychological and/or strategic self-imposed constraints that have prevented them from realizing their national aspirations over the past several decades:
- the failure of violent resistance,
- demanding justice to remedy the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), and
- their religious right to the land.
The Strategic Failure of Violent Resistance
Although the temptation for revenge and continued violent resistance against Israel, especially in the wake of the Gaza catastrophe, overshadows the prudence of adopting a new strategy that could better serve the Palestinian cause, Hamas must ask where the strategy of continued violent resistance has led to.
The Palestinians are more despairing and despondent now than any time before. The Palestinians in Gaza are devastated, and those in the West Bank are being choked and suffering under brutal Israeli occupation.
Clearly, violent resistance has failed in the past and will NOT succeed in the future. It had further played into the hands of the right-wing extremist government led by Netanyahu, who has been in power for nearly all of the past 18 years. He has always preferred, and often instigated, continuing violent hostilities with the Palestinians, which pushes them to react violently. This allowed him to justify the occupation, claiming that a Palestinian state poses an existential threat while making incremental territorial gains in the West Bank that he could not have attained at the negotiating table.
It should be noted, however, that although the Palestinians have the right to defend themselves when physically threatened or attacked, the overarching strategy of violent resistance has failed.
If the history of violent resistance has taught the Palestinians anything, it is that they cannot now or at any time in the future prevail over Israel by force. Palestinian statehood will be possible only under the framework of independent Israeli and Palestinian states living in peace and mutual security.
Hamas and all other radical Palestinian groups should have come to this conclusion years ago; instead, they reveled in the illusion, rooted in religiosity, that they can destroy Israel when in fact they have invited self-destruction.
They have failed over the years to heed the voices of many notable moderate Palestinians, including that of Edward Said, who, at various points, argued that while the armed struggle had failed, Palestinians should consider peaceful ways to achieve their goal of statehood. Sari Nusseibeh, a celebrated Palestinian philosopher, has also spoken about moving away from force and finding peaceful avenues to achieve statehood.
Hamas must remember that it is dealing with a country obsessed, rightfully or wrongly, with national security, which will always maintain military superiority against any perceived or real enemy. It will react with disproportionate force to crush any threat to its national security.
For the Palestinians, abandoning violent resistance is not surrender. It is a change of strategy that would make it possible to realize statehood with the overwhelming support of the international community, which they can never attain on their own by force.
Remedy Past Injustice
While the Palestinians’ past injustices painfully linger, they can heal only by pursuing a practical, peaceful, and fair way grounded in what can be achieved today, rather than trying to reverse the injustices of the past. Indeed, achieving justice means focusing on practical solutions that improve people’s lives today. For how many more years must the Palestinians endure inhumanity and displacement, clinging to the false hope of the “right of return” to their original homes in today’s Israel?
Hannah Arendt once emphasised the importance of addressing the present matter rather than being trapped by historical grievances. “Our past will be for us a burden beneath which we can only collapse for as long as we refuse to understand the present and fight for a better future.” In other words, justice must be rooted in what we can achieve today.
To be sure, justice is about establishing fundamental rights based on present circumstances and finding terms of cooperation here and now, rather than trying to correct every past wrong. What the Palestinians need today is peace, security, economic stability, and hope for a better future, not empty promises of a better tomorrow that hinges on their “right of return,” which can be addressed only through compensation and/or resettlement in their own homeland—the West Bank and Gaza.
Indeed, only dialogue and reckoning with the reality of peaceful coexistence allows us to find present-day, fair measures that offer the only way forward to make up for the injustices the Palestinians have endured, especially in reference to their exodus (al Nakba) in 1948.
The Religious Connection to the Land
Both Jews and Palestinians have a historical and religious connection to the land and any resolution to their conflicting claim would need to acknowledge that there are layers of religious significance that must be explored to find common ground.
Reconciliation between the two claims is possible only by embracing the principles of shared humanity, mutual respect, and coexistence of Judaism and Islam, as well as Christianity, whose practitioners are a small but important minority. What is needed is a public dialogue between devout Jews and Muslims exploring and explaining each other’s ties to the land; through ongoing conversation, a path can be found.
Some Rabbis who advocate for peace have argued that the biblical promise to the Jews of the land can be understood in a way that respects the dignity and rights of all inhabitants living here today. The revered Rabbi Menachem Froman, who was deeply involved in interfaith peace efforts, emphasized that the shared belief in one God means Jews and Muslims are divinely called to live together in peace. He argued that the religious imperative is to respect each other’s humanity and find a harmonious way to coexist.
Many Islamic scholars have held that the concept of “Waqf” means that the land (in Palestine) is held in trust for the entire Muslim umma (community), and should be protected rather than relinquished. However, a religious endowment can be interpreted in a way that allows for shared stewardship and coexistence rather than exclusive ownership.
Imam Shamsi Ali, a well-known figure in interfaith dialogue, discusses the shared roots and values of Judaism and Islam in his book Sons of Abraham (co-authored with Rabbi Marc Schneier), urging that with Judaism and Islam’s shared values, heritage, and connection to the land, Muslims and Jews can find a way to honor both people’s connection to the land.
Similarly, the esteemed Imam Yahya Hendi pointed out Islam’s clear message of interreligious collaboration and connection, and that all People of the Book are meant to come together and collaborate. The religious teachings themselves encourage both communities to live side by side as a fulfillment of God’s will—Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike.
Realizing the Palestinians’ Opportunity
The Palestinians must not miss this unprecedented opportunity to realize their aspiration for statehood by resolving all of their conflicting issues with Israel through peaceful negotiation. Hamas in particular should accept the proposed plan of Trump, which grants amnesty to those who lay down their weapons and safe passage to those who want to leave, and under which it will relinquish control of Gaza.
In so doing, they will put Netanyahu and any future Israeli government that opposes a Palestinian state on the defensive, and the Palestinians will continue to enjoy strong international backing.
My Message to the Palestinians
The current Netanyahu government is now basking in the belief that they have dealt you the final blow, destroying, once and for all, your prospect of statehood. They are dead wrong! Netanyahu’s merciless Gaza war has only put your cause front and center on the global stage, firmly uniting much of the international community behind your national aspiration like never before. In that sense, you have triumphed.
You must now persevere; your cause will outlive Netanyahu. However, you ought to forsake violent resistance, find justice by focusing on improving the quality of your life today, and respect the shared heritage of Jewish and Islamic traditions and ties to the land.
Your journey to liberation is in your hands if you only will it.
- Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
