It is increasingly clear that the leaders of Israel’s center-left political parties have no intention of speaking seriously about the Palestinian issue or Israel’s regional future before the elections. They have apparently concluded that addressing these questions will cost them votes rather than win them. Perhaps they are right. But what may be understandable as an electoral calculation would be disastrous as a governing strategy.
If the parties seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeed in forming the next government, they will have an enormous amount of urgent work to do. They must establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7. They must begin reversing the damaging legislation and policies of the outgoing government, restore the independence and authority of democratic institutions, and begin repairing the deep divisions within Israeli society.
But they must also do something that successive Israeli governments have avoided for far too long: articulate a clear political destination for Israel.
That destination must include a credible strategy for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and creating a new regional order in which Israel is fully integrated, at peace with its neighbors, and no longer condemned to fight endless wars with the Palestinians.
The central lesson of October 7 should be unmistakable. Managing the conflict is not a strategy. Maintaining the status quo is not a strategy. Military superiority, however essential, cannot substitute for a political vision. Israel can defeat armies, destroy military infrastructure, and eliminate terrorist leaders, but none of that answers the fundamental question of what political reality will exist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
For decades, Israeli governments have avoided answering that question. The result has not been greater security. It has been recurring violence, growing international isolation, and the perpetuation of a conflict that continues to threaten Israel's future.
A regional opportunity that must not be wasted
The alternative is neither mysterious nor impossible. In my upcoming book, The Deal That Could Change the Middle East, I describe the outlines of a comprehensive regional agreement that could fundamentally transform Israel’s future.
Such an agreement would require American leadership and the active participation of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, and other regional partners. It would combine normalization and regional integration with robust security guarantees, economic cooperation, the reconstruction of Gaza, and a credible, irreversible political process leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Saudi-Israeli normalization would be a central component of this transformation, but it cannot be separated from the Palestinian issue. The idea that Israel can achieve full regional integration while indefinitely denying Palestinians their right to self-determination has repeatedly collided with political reality.
A regional agreement would offer Israel enormous benefits: expanded security cooperation, new economic opportunities, closer strategic relationships, and a place in a Middle East defined increasingly by shared interests rather than permanent hostility.
It would also provide Palestinians with something they have been denied for generations: a credible path toward freedom, independence, dignity, and control over their own future.
This would not be an Israeli concession made out of generosity. It would be a strategic decision based on Israel’s long-term national interests.
The United States and its regional partners would have to put a comprehensive package on the table, making clear both the benefits of reaching an agreement and the consequences of rejecting it. Israel and the Palestinians would each have to make difficult decisions. Neither side should be expected to accept an arrangement that compromises its fundamental security or national rights.
The missing Palestinian partner
There is, however, an essential obstacle that cannot be ignored. Real progress toward ending the conflict will require a new Palestinian leadership with democratic legitimacy, public confidence, and the willingness and ability to make historic decisions.
That leadership cannot be appointed by Israel, Washington, or the Arab states. It must be chosen by the Palestinian people themselves. The recent decision by President Mahmoud Abbas to postpone the Palestinian elections is therefore deeply troubling. Palestinians have been denied national elections for approximately two decades. An entire generation has reached adulthood without ever having the opportunity to elect its representatives.
The postponement perpetuates a political system that has lost much of its legitimacy and deprives Palestinians of the most effective democratic mechanism for changing their leadership and political direction.
The next Israeli government should declare unequivocal support for the earliest possible Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. It should also make clear that Israel will not obstruct those elections. Jerusalem, the largest Palestinian city between the river and the sea, cannot remain a permanent excuse for preventing Palestinians from voting. Practical arrangements can and must be found.
There are serious questions that Palestinian voters themselves must answer. Do they want leaders who seek to end the conflict through negotiations and establish an independent state living alongside Israel in peace and security? Or will they support political movements committed to continuing armed confrontation?
These questions cannot be answered by opinion polls alone, by Israeli intelligence assessments, or by Palestinian leaders who have not faced their voters in 20 years. They must be addressed through a genuine democratic process, with meaningful political alternatives and the freedom to choose between them.
Democratic elections will not automatically produce leaders committed to peace. Nor should Palestinian rights depend on electing candidates acceptable to Israel. But elections can provide the legitimacy necessary for a new Palestinian leadership to negotiate, make compromises, and implement agreements on behalf of its people. If Palestinians choose leaders committed to a negotiated peace, they must find an Israeli government equally committed to making that peace possible.
From Gaza to a regional agreement
The first practical test of the next government's strategy will be Gaza.
The continued absence of effective, legitimate Palestinian civilian governance cannot be allowed to become a permanent condition. A Palestinian technocratic administration, supported by a professional Palestinian police force and an international stabilization presence, should form part of a transitional arrangement that enables reconstruction, Israeli military withdrawal, and the end of Hamas's armed control.
Demilitarization, deradicalization, reconstruction, security guarantees, and the restoration of Palestinian civilian authority must be implemented as interconnected obligations, not as excuses for indefinite paralysis. The same principle applies to the West Bank, where settlement expansion and violence undermine the possibility of a negotiated political future.
The next government should begin consultations with Washington and regional leaders immediately, establish a diplomatic team with a clear mandate, and publish the principles of its proposed strategy. It should also be prepared to tell the Israeli public what difficult choices such an agreement will involve.
Israelis deserve that honesty.
Changing the government must mean changing the direction
The day after the elections, a government seeking a new direction will have to move beyond the language of replacing Netanyahu. It will have to answer a much more important question: replacing his government with what?
Israel does not need another government that manages the conflict until the next explosion. It needs a government with the courage to articulate where the country is going and how it intends to get there.
The principle is simple: Israel will never have security until Palestinians have freedom, and Palestinians will never have freedom until Israel has security.
Replacing Netanyahu may change Israel's government. Ending the conflict and building a new regional order would change Israel's future. That must be the destination.
The writer is the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization and the co-head of the Alliance for Two States.