Israelis fear an increasing attack on their own national legitimacy as the Palestinians push for UN recognition of their statehood. In a recent speech to the General Assembly, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas acknowledged the ties that Christians and Muslims have to the Holy Land but left out Jews, blaming Israel alone for the start of the war and the lack of peace. There was a standing ovation for him.

Identification of the key challenges faced

The Israeli demand that the Palestinians acknowledge the validity of a Jewish state has taken on additional importance in the contemporary context. On the surface, Palestinian leaders who are dedicated to peace shouldn’t have any trouble fulfilling that expectation. Ultimately, a two-state solution grants each state the autonomy to define itself according to the culture of its majority. Like other Palestinian leaders, Mr. Abbas maintains that he would never recognize a Jewish state. Palestinian officials have revealed the true barrier to Middle East peace by rejecting the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. This is because most Israelis do not favor the establishment of a Palestinian state, while most Palestinians want.

Political impediments

The idea that Jews are only a religion rather than a country, which is pervasive across the Arab world, is the source of Palestinian rejectionism. After all, a lot of Arabs contend, the Jews endured centuries of religious persecution under Islamic law. They did not reimagine themselves as a country until the twentieth century. Indeed, the Jews never gave up hope of regaining dominion over their ancestral land, viewing their banishment as a passing anomaly. Jews have been identified as practitioners of a certain faith from ancient times. As long as they identify with Jewish history and ideals, the seeming abnormality of Jewish atheists is tolerated by Judaism due to the primacy of peoplehood. Israeli Jews interpret the Palestinian leadership’s denial of their legitimacy as evidence that they are not committed to upholding the principles of a peace accord. Israeli Jews worry that a Palestinian state will turn into a terrorist base from which rocket assaults against Israel’s major cities would be launched. That worry is not without basis, since thousands of missiles were fired at southern Israeli communities following the evacuation from Gaza. Most Israelis desire to protect the Jewish state from the immoral occupation as well as the demographic risks it poses. A Palestinian state is an existential need for moderate Israelis. However, there is a chance that it poses an existential threat.

Israeli settlement expansion

Therefore, in order to bring about Palestinian independence, it is necessary to reassure worried Israelis that their empowerment would not make them more vulnerable. Sadly, historical revisionism persists as standard discourse in Palestinian discourse, affecting both peoples. The path to the establishment of a state named Palestine will be clear if Palestinian leaders recognize that Jews are a people and that Israel is their state. Over 700,000 Jewish settlers are thought to be residing illegally in occupied Palestinian territory. Furthermore, since October 7, the Israeli government and military have supported the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and the colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, since the Netanyahu administration had previously made the expansion of illegal settlements a top goal. It’s a methodical yet uncompromising approach. According to the BBC, an urban center is formed once a few houses are constructed and an RV moves in. Any negotiating plan that does not call for the occupation to cease is inevitably certain to fail in these conditions.

Influence of regional geopolitics

The role of Hamas in upcoming talks between Israelis and Palestinians is an even more difficult issue. Israel wants to destroy this violent Palestinian group that carried out the October 7th crimes, and both the US and the EU have designated it as a terrorist organization. Thus, the predicament is as follows: on the one hand, Israel will use any attempt at negotiation that involves Hamas as justification for refusing to engage; on the other hand, leaving out Hamas, which is backed by a portion of the Gazan population as well as an increasing number of people in the West Bank, will only deepen the rift within the Palestinian leadership. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, It is as easy to envision an endless number of hurdles as it is essential to talk about peace. Without a stronger and more reliable Europe, a more unbiased US, and other rightful parties capable of bridging the gap between Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, imposing peace would appear impossible. The most likely outcome of such an unfair conflict is that Israel will continue to reject any solution that calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that Hamas will win the ongoing conflict, and that the international community will continue to support the two-state solution without actually taking any concrete steps to put an end to the occupation.