Human Rights and Security (Part 2)

No Israeli will ever forget the terrorist attack of October 7th. We will always remember where we were at that terrible moment when we heard about the beginning of the massacre. We will also always remember how we set aside all our disagreements and worked together with courage to protect our lives and the lives of our children. We refused to allow Jewish history to return to the dark days of the past when our enemies could do to us whatever they wished.

The harsh brutality of the October 7th attack awakened in many of us a difficult and painful awakening. The acts of murder, kidnapping, rape, and looting reminded us of the relentless cruelty of Palestinian terrorist organizations. In a survey published in May 2025 by Palestinian pollster Dr. Khalil Shikaki, it was found that 87% of Palestinians believe Hamas did not commit atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7th, such as killing women and children in their homes. The eleven deaths among Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers who were murdered this week in the attack in Jerusalem and on the Gaza front constitute another painful reminder of our struggle for the right to exist in this land.

A demonstration for the return of the hostages in front of the US Embassy on the 150th day of the war. Photo: Lizzy Shaanan.

In light of this, after October 7th many Israelis shared their sense of awakening. How can we ever establish peace and good neighborliness with the Palestinian nation that cultivated these terrorist organizations from within?! After all, we agreed to the Partition Plan (1947), signed the Oslo Accords (1993), and even withdrew from the Gaza Strip (2005). But each time it turned out that the Palestinians only return and attack us again.

Alongside this, the October 7th attack revealed to us that occupation also cannot protect us. We don't have enough soldiers to defend all borders, and the international community is not prepared to continue standing by our side under these conditions. Israeli society continues to be torn from within, and in the absence of regional partners like Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and even the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government - we will have no security.

In light of this, we must ask ourselves - how can we ensure our future? So far, all our attempts to separate from the Palestinians or to conquer them have not succeeded. We must admit that we have lost our way and extremist forces are now dictating the agenda in Israeli society.

In the previous article in the series, I elaborated on what I consider the correct policy at this time in the Gaza Strip. We must end the war, demand a comprehensive hostage deal, bring the Palestinian Authority into the Gaza Strip, and withdraw to a narrow buffer zone to defend the Israeli Gaza border communities. After that, we will continue to conduct military raids and strengthen the Palestinian Authority's rule in the territory - until Hamas is defeated in a few more years. Although I admitted that this option is very problematic for many reasons, at this time it is the least bad alternative among all the bad options.

However, alongside this, it is obvious that our children's future cannot rely on choosing between bad options. In the long term, we must establish Israel as a secure and prosperous Jewish and democratic state for generations. To do this, we must change something fundamental and deep in our way of thinking.

Deterrence or Hope

Since the War of Independence, through the occupation beyond the Green Line and up to the severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip at this time, there exists a prevalent position in Israeli society according to which we must choose between human rights and security. In light of the cultural veneration for acts of terrorism that characterizes most of Palestinian society, we have no choice but to deter them in order to protect ourselves. Otherwise, they will return and attack us brutally again and again. According to this prevalent approach, the Palestinians must know that every aggressive act against us will be answered with a sharp response - even if this requires us to expel or destroy villages, agricultural areas, and even entire cities. Our many attempts to reach peace with them ended in disappointment because their goal is not to end the occupation but to remove Zionism from the Middle East.

This approach can be summarized in simple words - it's either us or them. Already in 2016, the PEW Research Center in the US found that 48% of all Jews in Israel believe "that Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel". A survey published recently in May 2025 in Haaretz newspaper shows a significant increase in this spirit.

However, this approach constitutes a foundational historical mistake. It harms our national security and undermines the moral foundations of Israeli society. Zionism is a worthy and just national movement, and we must not support these injustices.

Although I have no doubt that in the future too Palestinian terrorist organizations are expected to try and attack us brutally. This was the case in Hebron during the events of 1929 and this also happened now on October 7th 2023. Therefore, under no circumstances must the IDF lose the freedom of action necessary for us to defend ourselves. We must stand behind our fighters who are sent time and again to fight terrorism. Thanks to them, we are here. However, the question is how we should defend ourselves and what is the political and security vision that guides us?

I believe that historical experience proves that Israel becomes more secure and cohesive only when we ensure that Palestinians also receive equal rights. Only when we know how to harness the power of the IDF to promote full equal national rights for the Palestinians - can we stabilize our current situation and provide hope for our children in the future.

Arab Society in Israel

In 1947, there was no cultural or religious difference between the Palestinians who lived in the Coastal Plain and the Palestinians who lived in the West Bank. Between the cities of Kfar Qasem and Qalqilya there was a gap of only 4 hours' walk with no other social difference. However, after two wars in 1948 and 1967, the Palestinians in the Coastal Plain became citizens of the State of Israel and received basic equal rights, while the Palestinians in the West Bank became subjects of a military occupation regime. The residents of Kfar Qasem received Israeli citizenship and the residents of Qalqilya did not.

The Arab society in Israel, Jaffa 2015. Photo: Naeblys, Shutterstock.

Today, one cannot but be amazed by the significant value difference between these two groups. After the October 7th massacre, most of Arab society expressed opposition to these acts of atrocity. On October 12, 2023, a survey was published by the Agam Institute and Hebrew University according to which 80% of Arabs in Israel oppose the Hamas attack. More than 50% of Muslim Arabs even agreed that Hamas's method of attack on Israel is contrary to Islamic values. In contrast, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, completely different voices are heard.

Moreover, in a survey conducted by Prof. Smooha in Arab society in Israel in 2019, it emerged that 56% of Arabs in Israel might support a constitution that defines Israel as a Jewish and democratic state if it guarantees full equality of rights for Arab society[1].

Where did this difference come from? What caused most of Arab society in Israel to oppose the October 7th massacre and to consider supporting a Jewish and democratic state when appropriate conditions apply? After all, it cannot be claimed that their Muslim and cultural roots are different from those of the Palestinians beyond the Green Line. The only historical difference is that Arab society in Israel received a basic level of equal civil rights compared to Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza who are under siege and occupation.

Moreover, the Palestinian population living in refugee camps from 1948, beyond Israel's sovereign borders, has been sending continuous waves of terror toward us for nearly eight decades. Thousands of Israelis have been brutally murdered over the years as a result of terrorist attacks that came from these refugee camps. Similarly, we can expect that if we expel additional Palestinians from the Gaza Strip today, we will get similar results. The expelled population will not disappear but will continue to send terrorist attacks toward us from the Sinai Desert and North Africa, and will even encourage their allies in Jordan and Syria to behave similarly. In contrast, the Palestinian refugees who remained within Israel and received citizenship, whose number is estimated at about 20%-25% of Arab society in Israel, have recovered relatively.

Although it cannot be denied that Arab society in Israel has also produced terrorists and suicide bombings. We all remember the difficult events in Lod and Acre in 2021. But despite this, the number of terrorists who came from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from 1948 to today is dozens of times greater than the number of terrorists who came from Arab cities in Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel do not want to lose their equal rights and their hope for a better future. In contrast, Palestinians under occupation cannot lose rights that were never given to them.

The bottom line - if Palestinians beyond the Green Line receive equal national rights, then their positions toward us will moderate and the amount of terrorism directed against us will decrease. If we persist in this for many years, we will discover that the groups supporting reconciliation in both peoples will expand. For this purpose, we must not give up the IDF's freedom of action against terrorist organizations, but harness its power to achieve this goal. In simple words - human rights create security and reduce terrorism. Only when we walk decisively on this path can we build true partnership and reconciliation between the peoples.

The Oslo Accords and the Disengagement

In light of this, many may rightfully wonder why the withdrawals of the Oslo Accords and the Disengagement from Gaza did not succeed? After all, ostensibly we agreed to give up military occupation and in response received an escalation of terrorism to unprecedented proportions.

To answer this question, we must characterize the unique components of the conflict between us and the Palestinians. Both we and the Palestinians are not satisfied with a struggle for independence, autonomy, or annexation to a third state, but mutually demand to dismantle the very nationality of the other. This demand is expressed mainly in the clash between the Palestinian right of return and the right of Jews to a national majority in Israel[2]. Therefore, Palestinian terrorism does not constitute a response to Israeli occupation but to the very existence of Zionism. On the other hand, Israel also refrains from presenting an independent political vision for solving the Palestinian issue for reasons unrelated to terrorism but rather due to the denial of Palestinian nationality. From the beginning of the British Mandate until our days, both peoples systematically refuse to recognize the equal national rights of the other for intra-national reasons.

The Oslo Accords and the Disengagement failed to dismantle this historical zero-sum game. Only granting basic equal rights to Arab society in Israel succeeded in doing this partially. But the Oslo Accords and the Disengagement were not based on mutual recognition of each other's rights and history. They resembled a divorce process that encountered difficulties and deteriorated into a struggle. From the outset, they excluded most settlement supporters on the Jewish side and most supporters of the right of return on the Palestinian side from the discussion table. Under these conditions, every terrorist incident or expansion of occupation ignited political turmoil and uncontrollable violence. Therefore, even today, we must conclude that another simplistic withdrawal of the IDF from the West Bank or Gaza Strip will generate radicalization and confrontation instead of reconciliation. Peace activists who refuse to recognize this ignore unequivocal facts on the ground.

However, even in the limited reality of Oslo and the Disengagement, the connection between the degree of rights and the degree of terrorism is noticeable. The Oslo Accords, which were based on a political agreement and led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, granted Palestinians somewhat more rights than the Disengagement, which was a unilateral withdrawal. Therefore, in Gaza, Hamas came to power, which suppressed Palestinian rights and produced more terrorism than the Palestinian Authority, which continued security coordination. Without our security coordination with the Palestinian Authority since the end of the Second Intifada (2005), we would not have succeeded in reducing terrorism so significantly in the West Bank. The unequivocal data in recent years proves that as the Palestinian Authority weakens, the terrorism threshold rises. The arrests, house demolitions, and expansion of settlements that we have been carrying out in recent years in Judea and Samaria have not succeeded in changing the long-term trend. These oppressive injustices in their current form will not lead to security but only to deepening the Zionist crisis.

In light of this, the prevalent conclusion in Israeli society according to which the Oslo Accords and the Disengagement proved that we have no partners for peace in the Palestinian nation - is incorrect. The accurate conclusion is that as democratic rights increase, support for terrorism decreases. Therefore, the familiar separation outline between the peoples cannot work. We must replace it with a new outline that recognizes the existence of two peoples between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River - Jews and Palestinians - who have national and religious affinity and security and economic interests in the entire territory. Therefore, we must establish two nation-states side by side, and within them, two autonomous minority communities will exist - Jews in Palestine and Palestinians in Israel. Only thus will political conditions be created that will enable Jews and Palestinians to dismantle the zero-sum game between us and offer new solutions to the four core issues: borders and settlements, right of return, the Temple Mount, and security. Alongside this, the IDF will continue to fight terrorism and we will maintain our independent right to defend ourselves wherever we are required to do so.

Even if at the first stage the Palestinians refuse to join this reconciliation process, nevertheless, we Jews have the obligation to advance it. Only thus can we unite most of Israeli society from right and left and extract Zionism from the crisis into which we have fallen. In my next article in the series, I will elaborate on how we must do this in practice.

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[1] Sami Smooha, Still Playing by the Rules: Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2019 (University of Haifa, 2020), 184.

[2] Alongside the dispute over the right of return, we can add the prevalent Israeli opposition to recognizing the national rights of the Arab minority in Israel, and the prevalent Palestinian opposition to recognizing the right of world Jewry to become citizens in Israel. These disputes express the mutual demand to dismantle the nationality of the other.