By: Yuval Nemirovsky
For many years, I was part of an Israeli ideological conception that projected Western values onto the Palestinian reality. We believed that if we helped improve the quality of life of the Palestinians, if we facilitated their economic and social development, and offered them a promising future, the violence would cease. We thought that, with time, the attacks would diminish and the tensions would be resolved. We naively believed that if we built together, if we offered them a better future, they would not attack us.
This vision led us, among other things, to reduce the size of the army, to seek peace agreements and to commit to the creation of a shared future, based on the hope that, one day, two states would live in peace. But what we saw on 7 October shows us that this conception was wrong. The massacre perpetrated against Israeli civilians is not only an act of barbarism, but a clear sign that the strategy we have followed for years has been insufficient, and in many aspects, wrong.
This brutal blow forces us to rethink our ideas about coexistence, the creation of two states and the possibility of peace. It is important to clarify that, when I talk about rethinking the idea of ‘two states’, I am not referring to tactical issues, such as the granting of land or the construction of settlements in Gaza or Judea and Samaria. These are legitimate and tactical debates that can be discussed in due context. What I want to highlight today is a profound reflection on the very ideology that has guided us this far.
The reality, which we can no longer ignore, is that today there is NO Palestinian partner willing to negotiate peace. Not only is there no will to reach a political solution, but, unfortunately, the ideology that prevails in many Palestinian sectors continues to be one of confrontation and violence. We cannot continue to project our own conceptions of peace and coexistence onto a people who have a completely different vision of the world.
This does not mean that we abandon the dream of peace. We will never stop fighting for it, but our conception of the world cannot continue to be a utopia based on the idea that Palestinians think like us. The ideology that predominates among them is deeply rooted in values that differ radically from our own, and that difference must be understood in a realistic and honest way.
That is why we must start teaching this realism to our chanichim. We cannot afford to be innocent again, nor can we expect that, with good intentions, everything will be resolved peacefully. Our approach must be based on a deep understanding of the situation and on the critical education that, as a youth movement, we have always promoted.
We are facing a complex reality in which, although we always aspire to peace, we must recognise that the path to achieving it does not necessarily involve the illusion of an immediate agreement with a Palestinian partner that does not exist today. This lesson in realism is fundamental if our young people are to form an opinion based on the truth of the facts and not on illusions that can cost us dearly.
The critical education that we have always advocated is more necessary than ever. Our chanichim must understand that peace is not achieved through wishes alone, but through a clear analysis of the reality that surrounds us. We must teach them that, although hope and the struggle for peace are part of our being, we cannot live under the assumption that those with whom we wish to share the future have the same aspirations as us.
Today, more than ever, we must train and educate ourselves with a realistic approach, because only in this way can we be prepared for whatever comes, defending our values and protecting what we love most: our land, our people and our security.
Chazak Veematz
