What Israel can do to combat growing isolation after two years of war in Gaza - opinion

Honestly and painfully, it is already difficult to keep track of the barrage of harsh messages raining down on us in the international arena.

In hindsight, it must be said that when Israel launched a justified war against Hamas bases and operatives in Gaza, it received clear and decisive public support from many countries around the world.

There was a kind of international consensus that Israel was fighting a war forced upon it, a war initiated by a despicable terrorist organization, and that it was striking Hamas and its people justly, proportionally, and in accordance with international law.

Yes, Israel responded quickly and forcefully and defined publicly its primary goal, as well as its secondary objectives so that the world would understand the rationale behind our response.

It is hard to understand how this reality flipped within two years. Every international relations expert ponders how we transformed from the “attacked” into the “attacker,” and how we went from being “Ukraine” to being “Russia.”

The world translated its frustration and anger at Israel into a series of political steps, at the heart of which stands the decision to unilaterally recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Never before has there been such broad international agreement on this move. It seems that even the Palestinians themselves were astonished at all this “good fortune” that befell them. Now they whisper to themselves, “After October 7, after the mass slaughter, kidnappings, abuse, and rapes?”

Israel was caught by surprise, again, and obviously underestimated the huge damage. Dismissing it as “just” another expression of antisemitism is a big mistake or, more accurately, political blindness.

We, Israelis and Jews, know. This is a call to wipe Israel out. The State of Israel is out; the Palestinian state is in. No more Israel between the “river” and the “sea.”

When world leaders, foremost among them President Emmanuel Macron of France, conveyed the message to Israel that they would support a Palestinian state, with a Jewish one alongside it, the message was that internally, Jews must reach a resolution within themselves.

The two-state solution is not new. One can go back all the way to the 1947 UN Partition Plan. From then until now, there has been talk of two states – one Jewish and one Palestinian.

Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was once ready to accept this solution. He declared it in his 2009 Bar-Ilan University speech, though he no longer supports the concept.

This leaves Israel trapped.

We wonder how world leaders can push, unconditionally, for a Palestinian state without coordinating with Israel or without demanding demilitarization. We wonder why they don’t foresee, like we do, rockets and terror raids coming from Judea and Samaria into Israel.

As the political defense lines collapse, Israel must instead launch an international campaign to return to the original outline of two states for two people.

Right now, even though the hostages have been returned, such a notion is inconceivable in Israel. Its government is being pushed in the opposite direction, toward the ill-advised solution of annexing Judea and Samaria.

Even if it happens in part, it will worsen Israel’s situation and deepen its isolation.

As we watch the war winding down and hopefully a new chapter in the Middle East unfolding, we should not miss an opportunity to come up with new constructive and creative policies and ideals to tackle this issue.

Even if we do not like it too much, we must show restraint – a quality hard to find in our region. We must calmly and wisely consider how to extricate ourselves from the trap we have entered.

What is truly needed now is judgment, patience, and reintegration into the international community and back to international organizations; because without that, we could lose them.

We must rebuild trust between Israel and its friends around the world, a step vital to our existence.

We have lost so much recently on a variety of fronts, except militarily. Let’s transform our formidable military achievements into recovery and rehabilitation, both internally and externally.

Now, with the start of a regional process and the beginning of a Jewish new year, Israel should also be starting anew. That is the only direction to go.■