Opinion | Israel Cannot Boycott the Whole World - So It Must Listen Instead

On Thursday, people hold placards during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Leiden University in The Hague. Credit: Yves Herman /

What will the [Israeli] government do in the face of a chain reaction
of countries recognizing a Palestinian state?
Scold all their ambassadors?
Boycott the entire world?
Isolate itself as punishment?

Israel is at a historic crossroads. It faces two roads that have never been more apparent, and one must be chosen. The world has gone out of its way to depict the alternatives: One of the roads leads to a Palestinian state, with Israel saying yes to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, to normalization of relations with the latter, to a military alliance, to ending the war and reaching a deal for getting the hostages back, with Gaza transferred to the Palestinian Authority. As a bonus, the legal proceedings in The Hague against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant are suspended.

The second road leads to The Hague. If Israel rejects the Saudi move it will abandon the hostages, the war will continue, Itamar Ben-Gvir will repeatedly return to the Temple Mount compound in an attempt to open new fronts and will ultimately succeed. The settlers will establish outposts in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu and Gallant will become personae non grata around the world and Israel will be condemned as a criminal state, and begin a downward spiral.

Israel's elites will leave, military service will be extended, the middle class will be shattered. Terror attacks will spread to the country's cities, the West Bank will burn, Jewish-Arab tensions will erupt, Kahanism will spread, armed militias will roam the streets, crime will surge, American Jews will turn their backs on Israel and the U.S. will lose its political interest in this country. When people think of Israel, they'll conjure up characters such as Ben-Gvir and Limor Son Har-Melech. After a while, pictures of contemporary Israel will look like pictures of Tehran before the revolution. The Israeli way of life will disappear.

The first path is called the Oslo road. The slandered and battered Oslo Accords, with their courageous architects having been turned by the right-wing into criminals, with the dream of peace and compromise turned into a moral aberration. But this time, this path will be pursued to its conclusion, without settling for intermediate agreements. A clear determination will be made: Up to here is our country, from here is yours, with a clear border between the two, including the dismantling of settlements. This time, with the Saudis in the picture as well as other Arab countries, with international forces ensuring the secure separation into two states.

The second road would include, if possible, Dr. Baruch Goldstein as minister of health and Yigal Amir as Herzl. A fully-right-wing government, with a second Nakba and a third intifada. We'll bomb Iran, Lebanon and Syria, maybe even Yemen. Alone against the entire world. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz already started to examine punitive measures against Norway, Ireland and Spain, which recognized a Palestinian state, in yet another diplomatic tantrum of a country behaving like a 2-year-old toddler. What will the government do in the face of a chain reaction of countries recognizing a Palestinian state? Scold all their ambassadors? Boycott the entire world? Isolate itself as punishment?

The countries now recognizing a Palestinian state are doing so out of loyalty to a two-state solution to the conflict. They are taking a step that undermines the wishes expressed in calls such as "from the river to the sea." This is the exact opposite of rewarding terror since the terrorists want the entire country. Countries recognizing Palestine are for us. "We have to keep alive the only alternative which offers a solution for both Israelis and Palestinians, namely two states living side by side, in peace and security," explained Norway's prime minister. So did the Irish government, according to which recognizing Palestine would fulfill aspirations for achieving peace, through its support for a two-state solution. This is how friends talk.

Netanyahu's big deception, which appealed to many, was to delude Jews and Israelis that it was possible not to walk either of these roads. There was good reason for U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to say, "With Bibi, there isn't going to be normalization with Saudi Arabia." There is no going back to the Netanyahu-inspired illusion. "There's an opportunity for Israel to become integrated in the region, to get the fundamental security it needs and wants, to have the relationships it's wanted since its founding," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Israel must listen to the world.