In the quarter-century since the collapse of the Oslo peace process, support for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians has fallen away. Left-wing parties now control only a handful of seats in Israel’s Knesset. The country is governed by the most right-wing coalition in its history, including officials who, far from seeking a deal with Palestinians, have publicly stated their desire to impose Jewish supremacy on the West Bank.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and a public opinion expert who has advised on nine national campaigns in Israel, delves into the rise of the Israeli peace camp after the Six Day War in June 1967 to its fall after the Second Intifada in 2000.
“The Israeli peace camp basically suffered its domestic delegitimization. A majority of Israelis began to sour on the idea that Palestinians should have their own independent state which they viewed as inherently focused on the destruction of Israel,” said Ms. Scheindlin, a regular columnist at Haaretz newspaper’s English edition and the author of “The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel.”
Although most Israelis are bitterly unhappy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that does not mean they embrace left-wing politics or a two-state solution as the war in Gaza approaches its anniversary. Even before the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, a Gallup poll found that only 35% of Israelis believed their country and a Palestinian state could peacefully coexist.
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SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: What is intifada?
