Why the promise of a two-state solution empowers terrorism - opinion

And how do the West’s governments react? Australia, France, and New Zealand have committed to recognizing Palestine at the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly, days away, in September. Canada and the United Kingdom have announced that they, too, are ready to recognize a state of Palestine if the war has not ended by the time the UNGA commences.

What a gift this is for Hamas, which has now been informed that to ensure that the UK and Canada recognize Palestine, the war must continue. Certainly, this is no incentive for Hamas to end the war or return the hostages held in captivity for almost two years.

Can it be that those consistently calling for a two-state solution have not understood – or choose not to understand – who is against this concept and has been since the UN voted for the partition of Palestine in 1947?

Israel accepted the small part it was allocated, but the Arabs rejected outright the opportunity to have their own state. Instead, they chose to be part of five Arab countries that attacked Israel the moment David Ben-Gurion declared the coming into being of the State of Israel in 1948.

Are the millions calling for the recognition of Palestine today unaware that “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” translates into the reality that Israel will be eliminated?

Hamas’s charter calls for the total annihilation of Israel.

The PA conceived a different route by which to abolish the one Jewish state. They insist that any future peace negotiations with Israel must ensure that those Arabs who in 1948 became “refugees” in other lands must be allowed to return to Israel together with their successive generations. A figure of seven million returnees is quoted. It does not take a mathematician to recognize that this would translate into the end of the one Jewish state.

Before, during, and following the 1948 War of Independence, some 750,000 Arabs fled the newly created State of Israel with encouragement from their leaders, who promised their safe return together with the commitment to ensure the imminent destruction of Israel.

At the same time, some 850,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries where Jews had lived continuously for 2,500 years. The newly created State of Israel accepted and integrated these Jewish refugees, many arriving with only the clothes on their backs.

Conversely, the United Nations founded UNRWA specifically to ensure that those Arabs who left Israel would retain refugee status, irrespective of which country they relocated to in 1948.

Exactly 58 years ago, on August 29, 1967, eight Arab heads of state participated in a four-day conference in Khartoum, Sudan. The conference called for the continued struggle against Israel. It adopted the dictum of no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. Unsurprisingly, the conference became known as “The Three Noes Conference.”

July 2000 saw the Camp David Summit, initiated by then-US president Bill Clinton with the participation of prime minister Ehud Barak and PA chairman Yasser Arafat. It ended with Arafat walking away and then initiating the Second Intifada, resulting in the barbaric murder of some 1,000 Israelis – primarily civilians – with women and children being the prime targets.

On August 10, 2025, London saw a different demonstration than the usual weekly anti-Israel groups supporting Iran, Hamas, and anyone who is against a Jewish state.

Mirvis spoke of the two Horn brothers, who were seized by Hamas on Oct. 7. While one brother, Yair, was released after some 500 days, Eitan is still in captivity. Yair had described the horror of their incarceration with increasing concern for his brother, who is in a severe state of weakness due to starvation.

Mirvis slammed the British government, which had only recently met with the families of the hostages and released hostages, promising to leave no stone unturned to secure the release of those still in captivity. He asked how this government could live with itself, especially after seeing the emaciated bodies of two hostages on a video released by Hamas.

Mirvis noted that a prominent Hamas leader had expressed thanks to the British government for its intention to recognize Palestine, stating it was one of the fruits of Oct. 7. Mirvis said that if a terrorist organization, as proscribed by the UK government, is congratulating it, there is something seriously wrong.

August 29 marks 128 years since Theodor Herzl organized the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. He said, “Here I have created the Jewish state.” Herzl viewed antisemitism as resulting from the Jews’ unique national identity, which created a sense of “otherness” among non-Jews.

He envisaged a Jewish state as the answer to antisemitism. He believed that by creating a state with a Jewish majority, the Jewish people’s status within the international community would be normalized, leading to acceptance as a nation among other nations.

How would Herzl view today’s world, where antisemitism is spreading like wildfire, totally removed from his concept in 1897? However, while Herzl was wrong in thinking that Jews would be accepted when having their own homeland, he was right in recognizing that a Jewish state was vital for the survival of the Jewish people.

It is timely to recall the 1930s, when Jews were unsuccessful in finding a country of sanctuary from Hitler’s Germany. Too many Jewish lives ended in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other concentration camps, not only because of Hitler and the Germans but also because of the “passive” collaboration of numerous countries that refused to give them refuge.