The majority of Jews in Israel today understand that the two-state solution is not a solution but a disaster. This belief is shared by a majority of Israelis today on the left and the right.
Iranian proxy forces attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7. They didn't attack Jewish settlers who live in ancestral lands of Judea and Samaria, mistakenly referred to as its geographic description, the "West Bank" of the Jordan River, where people claim Israelis live in illegal settlements. No. They attacked Israeli Jews in the Gaza envelope communities in undisputed Israeli territory. And it's worth noting that the vast majority of Israelis that were slaughtered by Hamas were left-wing Jews, who truly believed in peace with the Gaza Arabs, that lived on Kibbutzim.
While people claim they attacked Israel from Gaza because of an occupation, Israel has not had any Jews or Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the Gaza strip since the summer of 2005, when the Israeli government took a huge risk for peace by destroying 21 flourishing Jewish communities in the Gaza strip and expelling close to 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza.
Many Jews in Israel very involved in the protest movement against that 2005 Gaza disengagement plan, warning anyone who would listen that it would bring more terror and bloodshed, and push peace further away.
Let us be clear: There is no "occupation" in Gaza — besides the fact that a nation cannot be an occupier in one's own land, considering Jews have been living in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria on and off for thousands of years.
Hence, many Israeli Jews in Israel today understand that the Iranian- and Qatari-financed Oct. 7 war from Gaza is not because of where we Jews live in our ancestral homeland of Israel, but because of who we are: Jews living throughout our ancestral homeland.
And this terror war against us did not start on Oct. 7. It didn't even begin after we miraculously liberated our ancestral lands of Judea and Samaria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Our Arab Muslim enemies have been killing us while screaming their religious rallying cry of "Allahu Akhbar" since the 1920s, decades before the modern Jewish state of Israel, the third Jewish commonwealth of the Jewish people, was reestablished in 1948.
It has always been a religious war against the Jews and never about a piece of land.
Hence, the two-state solution does not solve the problem, and the constant pressure from the Biden administration to continue forward down this path is reckless and dangerous. The problem is the vast majority of Arab Muslims desire to kill Jews in Israel, regardless of where they live.
Splitting Israel's tiny homeland up even smaller — to appease an enemy intent on killing Jews everywhere — will not bring peace. It will bring more terror and war, because it appeases our enemies and empowers them to continue killing us to achieve their true goal of throwing us into the sea, as they openly scream all over the world "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
Now that we understand how the two-state solution is a disaster and a recipe for more terror and bloodshed, it is time to understand how Israeli sovereignty is the solution.
Very simply, Israeli sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is the solution for two reasons: one, because it does not ignore the reality of the problem; two, because it sends a clear message to our Arab Muslim enemies that their ongoing terror and aggression against Jews doesn't pay and only hurts them. That is how a state entity ends a terror campaign of an enemy, while appeasement — as the two-state solution would reward Iran, Qatar, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority for their aggression against Israel — only perpetuates the terror and bloodshed.
IDF Brigadier General (res) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, recently made a presentation in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, with the three options for Gaza after the war.
Avivi described how there are three different security solutions for Gaza after victory, of which two have already been tried and failed, which leaves only the third option to be implemented.
Avivi said that solution No. 1, which failed, is allowing the Arabs to have self-rule in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. This solution has proven to be a disaster. Both the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samari and Hamas in Gaza have shown that they are interested only in supporting terror; and they use their political power, funded by international aid, to continuously support terror against Israel and Jews. Just the other day, Israel's secret service stopped a huge terror attack that was planned to take place in Tel Aviv.
Solution No. 2, which is also a proven failure, is a military presence alone.
The Israeli experience in Lebanon and the U.S. experience in Afghanistan and Iraq have proven that military presence alone is not sustainable in stopping a terrorist entity. In all three cases, Israel and the U.S. ended up pulling out the military, because having a military presence alone ends up leading to a buildup of deaths and casualties, which leads to eventual public pressure to abandon the area by the military.
This then leaves us with the only remaining solution, No. 3, which is a joint military and civilian presence, as Israel has today in Judea and Samaria.
Israel having a civilian presence in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is very different from the U.S., the U.K., or France occupying a foreign land with a military and civilian presence. Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are our ancestral lands, inherently part of the overall land of Israel, both geographically (if one looks at a map) and historically. Hence, all Israelis living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza have a strong connection to the land.
As Avivi told Israel's parliament, having a civilian presence in Gaza then strengthens the military presence, which then allows for a much better security situation for Israel.
Hence, the only realistic solution for Gaza is a military presence with a return to Jewish resettlement across the Gaza Strip.
And the only way for Israel to properly hold on to Gaza, Judea, and Samaria and establish it as a fait accompli for eternity is to apply Israeli sovereignty over those lands.
That is also the only way for the Arab Muslim world to finally internalize that they can't get away with killing Jews and thinking that they will have the world's support to continue killing Jews.
The application of sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is the way Israel truly accomplishes a total victory to end the Arab Muslim aggression against us, thinking that they will destroy the Jewish state of Israel and accomplish "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
Anyone who does a google search on the word "Palestinian" in newspapers published before 1948 will clearly see that the term referred to the Jews living in the British Mandate of Palestine. There was no nation of Palestinian Arabs with a historic claim to the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. Only the Jews have such a claim, as the U.K. Balfour Declaration established in the year 1917 and confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations, the predecessor the the United Nations, in 1922.
At the time, a two-state solution was actually implemented. The world powers gave the Arabs Trans-Jordan as a state, while leaving Judea, Samaria, and Gaza for the Jewish homeland.
Let us say it again: There is no two-state solution any longer. There is one state, Israel, and that is what the Israeli people want. We suggest the Israeli leaders listen to the will of the people instead of foreign influence that doesn't share an agenda that ensures Israel's safety and security.
And what about the Arabs in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria? Well, all Arab Muslims who want to enjoy the freedom and equality as Israeli citizens will be given Israeli citizenship; but any Arab who supports killing Jews instead of enjoying the benefits of living in the Jewish state of Israel cannot receive citizenship and should be encouraged to live elsewhere, as most Jews in Israel support voluntary relocation.
Would any American want people who support killing Americans and destroying America living in America with citizenship?
Bryan E. Leib is the CEO of Henry Public Relations, a Senior Fellow with the Center for Fundamental Rights and the former Executive Director of the Iranian Americans for Liberty, and in 2018, he was the GOP Endorsed Congressional Candidate (PA-03). He tweets at @BryanLeibFL. Read More Bryan E. Leib Reports — Here.