Israel Must Take a Bold Step Toward Peace
The key is for Israel to acknowledge the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for negotiations, which it has not previously done.
Give peace a chance.
Photographer: Abid Katib/Getty ImagesHamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel was intended to do more than murder Israelis. It’s now evident that the horrific acts of extreme brutality, recorded on GoPro cameras, were calculated to elicit an Israeli response in Gaza so extreme and overwhelming that it would derail the possibility of a comprehensive regional peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia that would provide for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine struggle. Hamas knew it could not defeat Israel. Its objective was to induce Israel to defeat itself by precluding a lasting peace.
Seen through the lens of this perverse logic, the harder Israel hits Hamas in Gaza, and the more Palestinian civilians die, the more Hamas wins a strategic victory.