RUTHFULLY YOURS

Jettisoning the two-state solution once and for all, via Israel taking sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, was the theme of the “Middle East Summit: A New Vision for Truth-based Peace,” which drew 500 attendees to Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria on Sunday evening.

Serving as inspiration for the conference was a new book by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman: “One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

While a Bible-based policy may sound far-fetched, Friedman combines realpolitik and sound analysis to argue that applying Jewish rule over Judea and Samaria is where biblical promise and good politics align.

People of faith demonstrate common sense on the issue, arguing that “not one inch” of land be given way, “least of all to enemies of the State of Israel with blood on their hands,” he writes.

“People of faith recognize that the land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. And if God gave this land to the Jews, no one has the right to undo that grant,” Friedman notes.

International institutions such as the United Nations, and many world leaders, on the other hand, continue to pressure Israel to make Judea and Samaria a Palestinian state, “notwithstanding the violence brought about by the Oslo Accords,” he continues.

A significant portion of the book focuses on the so-called two-state solution, which Friedman describes as “truly the definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

The book quickly garnered attention in Israel.

“Ambassador Friedman has presented, finally, an alternative to the two-state solution—[really] the two-state delusion—in his new book, ‘One Jewish State,’ which we hope will become policy following America’s upcoming elections,” said Rabbi Naphtali Weisz, founder of Israel365, an NGO that encourages Christian support for Israel and which sponsored the conference.

Knesset Member Ohad Tal of the Religious-Zionism Party, who chairs the Knesset Caucus for U.S.-Israel relations, hosted the summit. He told JNS that the conference was meant to serve as a launching pad for Friedman’s vision. (The book came out in Hebrew this month.)

“We are hoping to bring many ambassadors, members of Knesset and influencers from basically all over the world, and, of course, also from here, Israel, to listen and to think how we can push these ideas forward,” he told JNS.

Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre has forced Israel to “rethink everything,” said Tal. “For the past 30 years, we were taught about the two-state solution as the ultimate solution for everything, and we’ve learned that it’s not working.”

Lending the book gravitas is Friedman himself, among the most consequential U.S. ambassadors to Israel (2017-2021), having played a key part in transferring the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, bringing about the Abraham Accords, U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and other policy achievements.

Friedman told JNS that he was motivated to write the book by a number of factors following the Oct. 7 massacre. First, the massacre demonstrated that there “can never be a two-state solution,” he said, because when given territory Palestinians turn it into a terror base. Second, more than 80% of Arabs in Judea and Samaria supported Hamas’s attack. Third, the Biden administration called for a two-state solution.

“All that together made me feel like I have to try to move this discussion in a different direction,” he said. As he told the audience, nature abhors a vacuum, especially in the Middle East, where the wrong people inevitably fill it, whether it’s Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza or ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula.

According to Friedman, a faith-based policy will appeal to vast numbers of people. “The Bible still sells 2,000 copies an hour. Twenty million Americans buy a new Bible every year,” he said.

He added that his ideas should also appeal to atheists, or to anyone who cares about the Palestinian Arabs, who will be better off under Israeli rule, just as Arab Israelis are now better off under Israeli authority.

Friedman doesn’t advocate giving the Arabs in Judea and Samaria national voting rights, taking as his model Puerto Rico. The United States has absolute sovereignty over the Caribbean island, while residents of Puerto Rico have extensive rights of self-government, albeit not collective national voting rights.

Friedman said that for his ideas to gain traction they require a wide consensus across the political spectrum. He writes, “God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican … It thus is a mistake to label the movement for Israeli sovereignty as right-wing, left-wing, or otherwise.”

The effort resembles that of the Land of Israel Movement, which emerged after the 1967 war calling for Israel to retain all the territories it captured in that conflict. Its trademark was its ability to attract prominent figures from both left and right, ranging from Zvi Shiloah, a Mapai member and acolyte of David Ben-Gurion, to Shmuel Katz, a former member of the Irgun high command.

The new push has two advantages over the latter movement. Friedman has the ear of the man who might be the next U.S. president, and since 1967 the alternative vision of a Palestinian state has failed again and again, as speakers at the summit pointed out.

The conference, however, was limited to politicians on the right, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister without portfolio Gideon Sa’ar.

Smotrich said that no sane person would propose duplicating the Gaza model in Judea and Samaria. “Such a country would immediately turn into an Iranian forward base, which, just like Gaza, would instantly start preparations for the destruction of the State of Israel,” he said.

“West of the Jordan, from the Jordan to the [Mediterranean] sea, there is room for only one national definition—the Jewish one,” he said, adding that as a minister in the Defense Ministry, he is overseeing changes to make possible the establishment of towns and cities that will permit hundreds of thousands of more Israelis to settle the area.

Sa’ar pointed out that the bloodiest attacks on Israel were carried out after Israeli territorial retreats.

“Israel cannot ever continue a policy based on withdrawals and delusions,” he said, adding that Israel should erect a “political iron wall” against international pressure for a two-state solution, “which is nothing but a stage in the destruction of Israel.”

The conference included several panels dealing with such topics as Arab attitudes to Israel, sovereignty in view of international law, the Iranian threat and Mideast alliances based on shared values and interests.

Among the panelists were JNS senior contributing editor Caroline Glick, Shurat HaDin’s Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Israeli Ambassador to the U.A.E. Amir Hayek, Ran Baratz, former director of communications at the Prime Minister’s Office, Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, and many others.