“Israel From The River To The Sea” — Netanyahu’s Threats Foretell His Own Demise

Updated Jan. 31, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.

-Analysis-

BEIRUT — “The ‘day after’ is not only the day after the war, but the day after Netanyahu,” writes the Israeli daily Haaretz. “Netanyahu is obligated to end his historic and catastrophic role as soon as possible and allow others to attempt to repair the disaster he has left behind.”

Yes, the day after the war is the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and here lies one of the difficulties that is delaying the end of the war. Israel has one task before the war, which is to end the bitter experience it has undergone with Netanyahu since 1996, and the possibilities that will result from this end.

Perhaps the one that concerns us most is “the two-state solution.” At the moment of his political demise, Netanyahu began to utter what he says is his program: “Israel from the river to the sea”! Do you remember this phrase (Palestine from the river to the sea) when it was uttered by Palestinians, and it was criticized as ‘an extension of their anti-Semitism?’”

The phrase “Israel from the river to the sea,” which sparked controversy, turned out to be a “mistranslation.” What Netanyahu meant was “security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River.” Perhaps it is a betrayal of rhetoric on the part of the translator, or Netanyahu himself.

Yet Netanyahu had also presented to the UN General Assembly a map of the “New Middle East” back in September, just two weeks before the Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza. In his map, there is neither Palestine nor a Palestinian state, but Israel extending from the sea to the river.

A starting point

“The day after the war is the first day of the two-state solution.” Palestinians must start from that point. That is how tragedy can be turned into a political horizon. The moment requires vigilance and preparation for the post-war phase. Yes, stopping the war is a first, obligatory and urgent task.

But is that enough it in light of all this loss?

The war has killed about 30,000 Palestinian civilians and destroyed all of Gaza’s infrastructure. Ending the fighting is not a single demand. What about the tragedy left behind by the fighting? What about the future of the Gaza Strip and the future of Palestine? Freeing all Palestinians in Israeli jails after the hostage exchange?

Israel will pay the moral price sooner or later.

The price is much greater than this mission. Rushing to seize the moment as a turning point in international conviction concerning the Palestinian issue requires different conditions, and different forces carrying these conditions. Hamas talks about stopping the war and emptying the prisons. That’s fine. But Hamas is not qualified to go beyond that. The two-state solution is not part of its program, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip cannot take place under its authority.

Israel will pay the moral price sooner or later. Netanyahu is not the only one who will pay the price. The army, which is Israel’s icon and idol, will have a share in terms of failures and crimes. The scene in Israel will completely change. It is difficult to estimate the direction of the change now, especially as the polls point towards unestablished forces, represented by the center-right parties, which are not far from the general trends of the traditional right. The position of these parties on the two-state solution tends toward conservatism, if not rejection.

Opportunities amid tragedy

There is opportunity amidst the tragedy. Saudi Arabia, which was moving toward normalizing the relationship with Israel without the Palestinian condition, curbed its momentum, and Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan announced that resolving the Palestinian issue is a condition for normalization. U.S. officials, led by President Biden, reiterate that the war must be followed by discussion of a two-state solution.

The urgent task now is to produce a Palestinian political quorum that can deal with “the day after.”

The “Abraham Accords” group (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco) have not yet joined the Saudi turn, and are waiting for Washington to come for their rescue — but it’s a delayed rescue that awaits Donald Trump regaining the White House.

The urgent task now is to produce a Palestinian political quorum that can deal with “the day after.” Perhaps this is the first time that the Palestinians and Israel are equally intractable. Israel has nothing to say to the world about “the day after” other than Netanyahu’s “from the river to the sea”, which means, among other things, clashing with the entire world.

It also means threatening the Camp David and Wadi Araba treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and settling for the Abraham Accords. But what is more serious is that “from the river to the sea” means open wars and deportation projects on the banks of which will be rivers of blood.

“Israel from the river to the sea” was a statement by a desperate man standing on the brink of a political abyss. But his fall will not save Israel from the intractability of the two-state solution, because the alternative forces do not have a different discourse, nor a clear vision for the “day after.”

The Palestinians’ intractability is less complicated than that of the Israelis, despite the tragedy of Gaza. They need a political quorum between Fatah and Hamas to invest in the growing international conviction that a two-state solution is necessary.