The Israeli strategist Yehoshafat Harkabi once observed that in military doctrine, the enemy is a target to destroy, but in statesmanship, the enemy is a political entity to engage. Israel’s tragedy today is that its leaders see only targets. Statesmanship — the work of building a future beyond the battlefield — has all but disappeared.
This is the moment to move on from intense military operations to political statecraft. As this latest round of hostilities with Iran draws to a close after the formidable U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Israel is still mired in a grinding war of attrition in Gaza. This should be a stark reminder to its leaders that only diplomacy can end wars, and that advancing toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a prerequisite to a better future.
Israel and the United States have good reason to confront Tehran, which armed and funded proxies from Lebanon to Yemen while evidence mounted that Iran was marching steadily toward a military nuclear capability. But military strikes alone cannot end this threat. Despite the remarkable Israeli and U.S. military achievements, the odds are long that the two countries can either fully dismantle those nuclear capabilities or remake Iran’s regime. Without diplomacy, there is no path from confrontation to resolution — only continuing conflict or even escalation.
Similarly, it is high time to seek a comprehensive agreement over Gaza. After the 2020 Abraham Accords, Israel bet that it could reshape the Middle East while bypassing the Palestinian issue. That illusion was shattered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the single deadliest assault on Israel ever. Some 50 hostages remain in Hamas’s hands.
Israel’s initial military response was justified. But more than 20 months on, it remains without a political strategy. Who will govern a demilitarized Gaza in need of reconstruction when the war ends? What political horizon exists for Palestinians and Israelis? What framework for security and peace should be put in place to secure better regional harmony? Israel’s refusal to answer these questions has deepened a humanitarian catastrophe, and pushed the country toward diplomatic isolation.
In both conflicts, Israel has failed to define what a military victory looks like. Is the goal to eliminate, destroy, cripple Hamas? Exile its leaders? Erase the threat of Hezbollah? Populate the Gaza Strip with Jewish settlements, as suggested by the radical factions of the Israeli government? Eliminate or just delay Iran’s nuclear program? Eradicate Iran’s ballistic and cruise missiles capabilities? Absent clear policy goals, even successful military operations lead nowhere.
We are particularly concerned about the strategic isolation for Israel that these conflicts have produced. While some Arab nations — Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia — may share Israel’s concern about Iran and Islamist extremism, none will openly align with Israel unless it takes steps toward resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. Its refusal to do so weakens U.S. influence in the region, delays Saudi-Israeli normalization, and nurtures Iran’s aggression against Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a local dispute; it is the linchpin of regional instability. It threatens Israel’s national security, fueling extremism by offering no sense of hope to the Palestinians. It undermines Arab regimes whose constituencies expect progress on the Palestinian issue. It fractures alliances and damages Israel’s international standing, because many in the Western world abhor certain actions by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.
But there is an opportunity. Reviving a credible political process toward a “two states for two peoples” solution would do much more than a military defeat of Hamas. It would remove its ideological fuel. Moreover, it would undercut Iran’s narrative as the champion of Palestinian rights. Over time, it would empower Arab governments to deepen ties with Israel without fear of domestic backlash.
A peace initiative need not start from scratch. In recent correspondence with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signaled readiness to return to negotiations that have stalled for over a decade. And in a letter this week to President Trump, Mr. Abbas signaled a readiness to work with the United States and the international community to build “a region that enjoys peace, prosperity, and integration,” the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa reported.
These declarations could provide a basis — however imperfect — for rebuilding trust and restoring political dialogue.
For Israel, the alternative is clear: continued war, more hostages, more dead soldiers and civilians, increased international isolation, growing antisemitism abroad and a dangerously eroded Israeli democracy at home.
The international community, led by the United States, must reassert diplomatic leadership along with a serious Israeli effort at statecraft. Only a steady, sustained effort to provide a framework for advancing regional security, peace and diplomacy in the Middle East stands a chance of gradually changing the course of the embattled Middle East.
Specifically, this collective international effort should include a regional coalition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf signatories of the Abraham Accords, combined with potential participation from North African nations like Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Such a bloc could serve as both a counterweight to Iran and a vehicle for rebuilding Gaza, reforming the Palestinian Authority, and preparing the ground for eventual Palestinian statehood.
Progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could create the conditions for regional peace, weaken extremists and restore Israel’s status as the democratic home of the Jewish people and a respected member of the global community.
Israel must reclaim its identity not just as a nation of military resilience, but as a people capable of moral imagination and political courage. We need to bring statesmanship back.
Ami Ayalon, a retired admiral, is a former director of the Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and commander of Israel’s navy. Gilead Sher, a reserve colonel, is a former senior peace negotiator and was the chief of staff to Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Orni Petruschka is a social activist and philanthropist.
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