JRV1297

“Saudis Demand U.S. Commitment to Palestinian State, an Unthinkable Scenario for Israel”

#1297 November 23, 2025

With Israel being bashed worldwide worse than ever, we US Jews must stand with Israelis in uncompromisingly calling the land of Israel Ours.  Our adversaries don’t call Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria “disputed.” They call them “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” i.e., Theirs.

Why We Must Reject “Two-States” as Unthinkable

I put that title just above in quotes because, though I agree with it completely, it’s not me who’s saying it.  It was a headline Thursday, 11/20/25, by Israel National News. 

Focus on that word “Unthinkable” – Webster: “not to be considered or thought of; impossible.”  If you wonder whether Israelis, led by Bibi, really mean it, here’s Times of Israel Friday, 11/21/25, Netanyahu: ‘There Will Not Be a Palestinian State,’ Even at Cost of Ties With Saudis.  Lede:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that there will not be a Palestinian state, even at the cost of normalization with Saudi Arabia, during an interview aired on Thursday evening.

“‘There will not be a Palestinian state. It’s very simple: it will not be established,’ the premier said in the wide-ranging interview with Abu Ali Express, a popular local Telegram channel.

“Asked by the interviewer if his opposition holds even if it jeopardizes normalization with Riyadh — which insists on a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood in exchange for such ties – Netanyahu said: ‘The answer is: a Palestinian state will not be established. It is an existential threat to Israel.’”

And this is not just Israel’s “right-wing government” speaking. Israel International News reported Monday that 73% of Jewish Israelis “oppose the creation of a Palestinian state even in return for normalization with Saudi Arabia,” while “56% of Arab Israelis support the idea.” (INN, 11/17/25, Poll: 70% of Israelis Reject Palestinian State on 1967 Lines).

In 23 Years, Saudi Arabia Hasn’t Budged

Don’t let that INN headline qualification “on 1967 [i.e., 1949] lines” throw you.  Here’s INN last Sunday (11/16/25): Saudis Have Not Given Up on a Palestinian State. Sub-head: “Source in Saudi royal family tells Israeli media that they would not normalize ties with Israel without a ‘two-state solution based on the 1967 borders’” [emphasis added, but they were just 1949 ceasefire lines, not “1967 borders.”] Note that there’s zero Saudi mellowing here from what Saudis had demanded back in 2002.  Here’s Google:

“The 2002 Saudi Middle East peace plan is known as the Arab Peace Initiative, proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and endorsed by the Arab League. It offered full normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel in exchange for Israel’s complete withdrawal from territories it occupied in 1967 (including the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights), the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution for Palestinian refugees. The initiative proposed a “land for peace” formula, but it was largely disregarded by Israel at the time due to ongoing violence.”  [emphasis added] 

“The Land of Israel is OURs” is the Case We Must Make

Don’t rest on Google saying that the 2002 Saudi plan “was largely disregarded by Israel at the time due to ongoing violence.”  The land of Israel – Judea-Samaria and “East,” i.e., historic, Jerusalem the heart & soul of it – is OURS.

Indeed, a Palestinian Arab sovereign state inside the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan, would be an existential threat, but we have to emphasize more than that.  Focusing entirely on the very real existential threat calls to mind the “pro-Israel argument” the media used to cite for Israel’s opposition to Palestinian Arabs’ claimed “right of return” – that it would terminate Israel as a Jewish state.  Of course it would, but I could just see media readers shaking their heads, “Well, if the Palestinians do have a right of return to what’s now Israel, then that’s just too bad for the Jews.”  And now we, Israelis and Diaspora [meaning American] Jews, have to make crystal clear, as House Speaker Mike Johnson recently answered after Trump declared “Israel will not annex the West Bank,” that “Judea and Samaria belong to Israel,” that as Bibi himself put it in explaining building in E-1, “This place belongs to us.” 

With Israel today being bad-mouthed and battered worldwide worse than ever before, we American Jews must stand with Israelis in not just saying “two-states” is an existential threat, which it is, but that the land of Israel in its entirety – historic Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria biblical hill country heartland at its very core – is historically, legally, equitably our people’s homeland, not that of Arabs, including Palestinian Arabs, huge majority of judenrein Jordan, sitting on three-quarters of Mandated Palestine.  We have to have it, secure and Jewishly meaningful, not a Jewishly meaningless nine-miles-wide in the lowland middle Jewish national ghetto.     

It Has To Be Us Grassroots

This has to be the united consensus of grassroots Jewish Americans in our own interest, not just that of Israelis.  Jacobs & Goldwasser’s Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership is a compilation of essays by Jonathan Tobin, Caroline Glick, Alan Dershowitz and others, including one on “The Hijacking of the American Zionist Movement” by the left.  But, alas, even among the best of our US Jewish organizations is sentiment not just to imagine but implement “two-states.” E.g., here’s AIPAC’s website even today.  Though hedged a bit with “a viable two-state agreement is only attainable if America’s support for Israel is ironclad,” enabling Israel to “take risks for peace,” AIPAC’s website even today states

“America can play a central role in helping create the conditions for a lasting peace—including a negotiated two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”  [emphasis added]

Today, even in the GOP, such pro-Israel stalwarts as President Trump and Senator Graham have made statements recently more than “imagining” Two-States. So when I titled last week’s “Now Is the Time For Grassroots Jewish Dems To Fight for the Soul of Their Party,” I didn’t intend to leave us GOP Jews off the hook. We have our work cut out for us too.

Here’s One Grassroots US Jewish Organization Standing Up and Offering Help

Philly ZOA, proudly parading a truck with “Just Say No to a Palestinian State” through Philadelphia, is offering an in-person “History and Contemporary Events Crash Course” to grassroots Philadelphians, us.  See the excerpt from its email this week below.  If you’re interested in this course, even hosting a session, email Philly ZOA, office@zoaphilly.org.