f principle – that is, the question of their approach to Israel. The Palestinians are facing an existential test. They must recognize the fact that the Jewish people have deep roots in the land that was theirs 2,000 years ago, and that the Jews can further expand this connection despite the Palestinians' violent attacks. Thus, in order to save what remains of Palestine, the Palestinians must completely give up the idea of return to pre-1967 Israel – the return that was promoted over the decades by the UN, via UNRWA, and that means the end of Israel. No other group of refugees has ever had such an idea nurtured in their midst – just the Palestinians.
The Palestinians must change their approach to Israel and the Jews. Even then, their future as a people is not assured. This choice is tough as hell – but what is certain is that if they do not choose it, after nearly 77 years of Israel's existence, they will be lost as a people.
They can learn from the Zionist leader David Ben Gurion, who was ready to accept any partition plan, partial as it was. They can also learn from the Zionist leader Yigal Allon, who maintained that this is our land, but that this does not mean that it cannot be shared or divided, out of humane concerns.
There is an urgent need for this decision. At this very moment, before the war is renewed in full force, will the Palestinians have the strength to make such a decision? Apparently not. The Jews accepted it only after the Jewish leadership – Ben Gurion, Allon – did so because the Jewish people had already experienced 2,000 years of suffering and persecution culminating in the Holocaust, choosing survival and humanity. For Hamas and the Palestinians, as for most of the Arabs, their political culture is one of victory, and Islam is a religion of empowerment and triumph. Survival and humanity are not built into their political and religious culture, as they are for the Jews.
Two weeks after the war began, on October 23, 2023, I published an article titled About the Future. In it, I wrote that the war would continue for about another decade. When asked why I was so pessimistic, I said, "Pessimistic? I am realistic. It could take a lot longer."
As the renowned Moroccan liberal intellectual Tahar ben Jelloun, idol of the left in Europe, put it sorrowfully but truthfully: "The Palestinian cause died on October 7, 2023, murdered by fanatic elements mired in an Islamist ideology of the worst kind."
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