Today is the beginning of the day after
Gershon Baskin
October 11, 2025
We Israelis and Palestinians are waking up to the first morning in two years that we can allow
ourselves to smile. In the coming days, as we see Israeli hostages coming home, we Israelis will
be filled with tears of joy seeing the living hostages embrace their loves ones. We will be filled
with tears of pain and sorrow as we see the deceased hostages coming home to burial. We will
all share the joy and the sorrow. It is important to also understand that on the Palestinian side
there will be tears of joy as families reunite with prisoners returning to their families and so
much sorrow as Gazans bury their loved ones buried underneath the rubble of homes and
buildings bombed by Israel. Gazans will be returning to their homes that no longer stand and
they will look towards the heavens and ask how do they rebuild their lives from the horrors of
the past two years. These are difficult times for all of us.
As Israelis, our challenge is now to hold our Prime Minister and our government responsible for
their failures. They must be held accountable for their failure to protect us on October 7.
Netanyahu and his government much be forced to take responsibility for making Hamas an
asset and the Palestinian Authority a liability. They must be held accountable for their failures
of becoming dysfunctional after October 7. Their extremism and messianic approach will bring
more disasters to us all because of their dangerous policies in the West Bank, with the wild
expansion of settlements, settler violence supported by the Israeli army and police. More than
1000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed in the past two years. Thousands of olive
trees have been cut down by settlers and by the army. More and more Palestinian land is being
stolen by settlers. The Palestinian economy is broken while the government of Israel is holding
more than $2 billion of tax revenues collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority by
agreement (The Paris Protocol). The only reason I can think of that the West Bank is not
exploding with the violence of anger is that Palestinians in the West Bank don’t want to see
their villages, towns and cities turning into the disaster of Gaza.
Palestinians in Gaza understand that Hamas committed collective national suicide on October 7
without asking the Palestinian people if they were prepared to pay the price for their decision.
The Palestinian people paid the price of Hamas’s fanaticism and irresponsibility and now they
are witness to the decision of maniacal people like Sinwar. My understanding is that the Gazans
don’t want to ever see Hamas in their lives again. They now have to deal with the consequences
of Hamas’s irresponsibility and fanatic approach to the conflict thinking that they could actually
destroy Israel. Instead, Israel has destroyed Gaza.
Despite the absurd reality of both sides creating a narrative of victory – there are no victors. No
one won this war. The people of Israel and the people of Palestine have all lost. No one can
claim victory. Those who have been responsible for continuing the conflict for the past decades
must now be held responsible by both peoples. The main lesson of the past two years must be
that we cannot continue to do this to each other. This must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.
There are Israelis and Palestinians of almost equal numbers living on the land between the
River and the Sea. That will not change. We must get rid of our leaders who have refused to
confront the reality that this land is a shared homeland. We must rid ourselves from the belief
that there is a military solution to this conflict. There is no viable armed struggle for
Palestinians. Palestine will never be free and independent by killing Israelis. The Palestinian
pollsters need to begin to ask Palestinians the second question – not only the first question – do
you support the armed struggle to free Palestine? The second question is are you willing to
pick up a gun to fight and kill the Israelis? Or are you ready to send your son to fight and kill the
Israelis? Here the answer will drop to close to zero and all Palestinians know that.
We Israelis need to rid ourselves of the absurd idea that this conflict can be managed. We need
to know that we cannot control millions of Palestinians who want freedom from Israel’s
occupation through the use of force. The messianic fanatics among us need to understand that
being connected to the holy land of Judea and Samaria does not mean that Israel has to control
all of it or own all of it. They need to know that forcing Palestinians from their land is not only a
crime against humanity, it is a desecration of the religion of Judaism and it is against the
humanity of the word of God that they claim that they believe in. What fanatic Jewish settlers
do in the West Bank in the name of Judaism and God is an afront to Judaism and God. They are
committing daily horrendous sins against Judaism and God. They must be stopped by all of us
who want Israel to be a member of the family of nations around the world. This Israeli
government must be stopped by us Israelis who want us to live in a society based on justice.
We once perceived ourselves as a country that sought peace – we must return to that and we
must make peace with all of our neighbors.
Palestinians must disavow themselves from the belief in the armed struggle. Israelis must
disavow themselves that we can have all of the land, deny Palestinians their rights and still live
in peace. Israel will never have security if Palestinians don’t have freedom. Palestinians will
never have freedom if Israelis don’t have security. We Israelis and Palestinians will never have
peace until we recognize the existence and the legitimacy of existence of both peoples on this
land that they both claims as belonging to them. As the late Rabbi Menechem Froman would
often say: This land does not belong to us, we belong to this land. We Jewish Israelis and we
Palestinian Arabs belong to this land and we will all remain here.
The immediate task before us – Israelis and Palestinians – is to hold those who are directly
responsible for our disastrous situation to be held accountable. But more important than that is
it our responsibility and urgent task to elect new leaders who provide us with a vision of a
tomorrow living in peace. We must ask ourselves when we look at people competing to be our
leaders – do these people bring us hope for a better future - for a future of peace for us and our
children. If the answer is no, or even if the answer is “I don’t know” then the conclusion is that
those people are not worthy of our support. We must never again support people claiming to
be leaders who only promise us a stronger gun.
Israelis and Palestinians – look around the region – see what is happening in our neighborhood.
Netanyahu describes Israel as a villa in the jungle. But that is false. The Middle East is changing
There are Israelis and Palestinians of almost equal numbers living on the land between the
River and the Sea. That will not change. We must get rid of our leaders who have refused to
confront the reality that this land is a shared homeland. We must rid ourselves from the belief
that there is a military solution to this conflict. There is no viable armed struggle for
Palestinians. Palestine will never be free and independent by killing Israelis. The Palestinian
pollsters need to begin to ask Palestinians the second question – not only the first question – do
you support the armed struggle to free Palestine? The second question is are you willing to
pick up a gun to fight and kill the Israelis? Or are you ready to send your son to fight and kill the
Israelis? Here the answer will drop to close to zero and all Palestinians know that.
We Israelis need to rid ourselves of the absurd idea that this conflict can be managed. We need
to know that we cannot control millions of Palestinians who want freedom from Israel’s
occupation through the use of force. The messianic fanatics among us need to understand that
being connected to the holy land of Judea and Samaria does not mean that Israel has to control
all of it or own all of it. They need to know that forcing Palestinians from their land is not only a
crime against humanity, it is a desecration of the religion of Judaism and it is against the
humanity of the word of God that they claim that they believe in. What fanatic Jewish settlers
do in the West Bank in the name of Judaism and God is an afront to Judaism and God. They are
committing daily horrendous sins against Judaism and God. They must be stopped by all of us
who want Israel to be a member of the family of nations around the world. This Israeli
government must be stopped by us Israelis who want us to live in a society based on justice.
We once perceived ourselves as a country that sought peace – we must return to that and we
must make peace with all of our neighbors.
Palestinians must disavow themselves from the belief in the armed struggle. Israelis must
disavow themselves that we can have all of the land, deny Palestinians their rights and still live
in peace. Israel will never have security if Palestinians don’t have freedom. Palestinians will
never have freedom if Israelis don’t have security. We Israelis and Palestinians will never have
peace until we recognize the existence and the legitimacy of existence of both peoples on this
land that they both claims as belonging to them. As the late Rabbi Menechem Froman would
often say: This land does not belong to us, we belong to this land. We Jewish Israelis and we
Palestinian Arabs belong to this land and we will all remain here.
The immediate task before us – Israelis and Palestinians – is to hold those who are directly
responsible for our disastrous situation to be held accountable. But more important than that is
it our responsibility and urgent task to elect new leaders who provide us with a vision of a
tomorrow living in peace. We must ask ourselves when we look at people competing to be our
leaders – do these people bring us hope for a better future - for a future of peace for us and our
children. If the answer is no, or even if the answer is “I don’t know” then the conclusion is that
those people are not worthy of our support. We must never again support people claiming to
be leaders who only promise us a stronger gun.
Israelis and Palestinians – look around the region – see what is happening in our neighborhood.
Netanyahu describes Israel as a villa in the jungle. But that is false. The Middle East is changing
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Today is the beginning of the day after