The Day After, An Issue Demanding Attention

Dahlia Scheindlin
The Guardian
March 26, 2026

"Gaza is stuck in purgatory; Israel occupies more than half of the land, and the rest is controlled by a resurgent Hamas, battling armed gangs supported by Israel. More than 100 children had been killed since the ceasefire began last October and January; but Israelis have convinced themselves that war had ended.

"The Palestinian issue will not go away. Until Israelis see through the convenient perspective that toppling Iran’s regime will solve all of its problems, and refocus on addressing actual Palestinian claims to self-determination through diplomacy, no stunning outcome in Iran will give Israel the peace it claims to want…

"No one can claim that Palestinian statehood will somehow solve all problems. But ending this miserable cycle through the natural right to self-determination for Palestinians, enjoyed by other nations of the world, will go a very long way to ending the greatest source of hostility against Israel..."

Dahlia Scheindlin is a Tel Aviv-based political analyst and author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel.

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