Dr. Einat Wilf discusses the history of Palestinian violence against Jews in Israel, including the fall of the Ottoman Empire, efforts to establish a Palestinian Arab State, and the Second Intifada. They explore the mindset of Palestinian leadership and the challenges of reaching a ceasefire. They also touch on the hope for Israel's future and the potential for transformation in Arab and Muslim identity through the Abraham Accords.
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insights INSIGHT
Stated Goals Match Actions
Wilf found Palestinians consistently stated a maximal goal: Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
She argues their actions repeatedly aligned with that stated goal, contradicting Israeli wishful interpretations.
insights INSIGHT
Violence Shaped State Formation Timetable
Arab violence in the 1920s–30s aimed to prevent any Jewish state in the mandate area.
Wilf argues this sustained violence and British concessions delayed Jewish statehood and closed immigration at a critical moment.
insights INSIGHT
Partition Fulfilled Israel's Core Aim
UN Partition (Nov 1947) granted a truncated Jewish state but still fulfilled Jewish top priority: sovereignty.
Arabs rejected partition and went to war because any Jewish state violated their top priority.
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Today we look back at the history of Palestinian violence against the Jews in Israel (and in the pre-state Yishuv) -- from the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1917 through the myriad efforts to establish a Palestinian Arab State alongside a Jewish State in the 1930s and the 40s. In our discussion today, we follow this pattern all the way through the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, and now today. Each time a war or wave of terror is launched, and Israel perseveres, the Palestinian leadership tries to dictate the terms of what comes next, as though they were the victors in this defensive war, rather than the aggressors and the defeated.
Why? And are we seeing that same mindset play out right now? Did Hamas actually think it would defeat Israel with this attack, and Israel would fold to its demands, or possibly even just disappear?
To help us understand this important history, Dr. Einat Wilf joins us. Einat was born and raised in Israel. She was an Intelligence Officer in the IDF. She has worked for McKinsey. She was Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and an advisor to Yossi Beilin, who was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Wilf was a member of the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) in the early 2010s, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
She has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. She was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and is a lecturer at Reichman University in Israel.
Einat is the author of seven books that explore key issues in Israeli society. “We Should All Be Zionists“, published in 2022, brings together her essays from the past four years on Israel, Zionism and the path to peace; and she co-authored “The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace”, which was published in 2020.
"THE WAR OF RETURN" -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-war-of-return-adi-schwartz/1131959248?ean=9781250364845
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