Last week, the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) passed a resolution proposing the permanent annexation of all Jewish settlements in the West Bank to the State of Israel[1]. This marks the “final death” of the false “two-state solution” that has been proposed by some Palestinian and Arab organizations, imperialist governments, and a portion of the global left [2].
—Alejandro Iturbe
Before discussing the “different deaths” of this false solution, let us analyze the internal crises of the State of Israel and the situation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which we addressed in a recent article[3]. In that article, we denounced the Israeli political regime for its genocidal character and actions against Palestinians (the permanent Nakba). For Israeli citizens, however, it is a bourgeois parliamentary democracy, with the Knesset (a 120-legislator assembly) as its central body.
The current Netanyahu government, formed after the 2022 elections, is based on a coalition of eight parties, totaling 67 deputies. Among them is Shas, a two-party front formed by ultra-Orthodox Jews who are exempt from compulsory military service. Shas has eleven deputies.
Opposition parties have always criticized this privilege and filed lawsuits against it in the Israeli Supreme Court. Last year, the court ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jewish men must be drafted into the military and that the Netanyahu government must enforce this ruling.
A tactical maneuver
Faced with this situation, Shas threatened to leave the parliamentary coalition, which would leave Netanyahu in the minority. Netanyahu opened negotiations to find a “solution” that would be acceptable to this group while also allowing him to avoid a power struggle with the Supreme Court. However, in early July, the army began sending “preliminary draft notices” to ultra-Orthodox youth, prompting Shas to leave the parliamentary coalition.
Thus, Netanyahu became the head of a “minority government,” which can remain in power as long as there is no “vote of no confidence” majority or defeat in a vote on a bill proposed by the prime minister.
This vote was primarily a tactical parliamentary maneuver by “Bibi” to rebuild a majority in the Knesset and avoid a parliamentary defeat. In this sense, he succeeded; the Likud proposal received 71 votes in favor, 13 against, and a significant number of abstentions.
It is interesting to see how this result was reached. Shas was divided; one of its parties, United Torah Judaism (representing Ashkenazi Jews of European origin), supported the resolution, while the other, representing Sephardic Jews, abstained. The resolution was also supported by members of Yisrael Beitenu, a party not in the governing coalition whose base consists of Russian immigrants, including the “settlers” appropriating homes and land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The two main opposition parties, Yesh Atid and Blue and White, abstained, showing that they have no intention of demanding Netanyahu’s resignation for now. Only members of parties supported by the Palestinian minority with Israeli citizenship voted against it: Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al.
The crisis over the occupation of Gaza
However, Netanyahu’s parliamentary victory cannot hide the deep contradictions generated by the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the genocidal methods used by the Zionist state over the past two years: the murder of children and the provocation of extreme hunger among the Palestinian population to force them to leave their territory, not unlike what happened to Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
This has generated two crises. The first is the “silent exodus” of tens of thousands of intellectuals who have settled in Europe and the U.S. because they “feel they no longer belong there”[4]. This “crisis of belonging” is serious for a state built on the ideology that Israel is the “only homeland for Jews.”
More serious, however, are the growing symptoms of a crisis in the “military morale” of Israelis. This is an extremely acute problem for a militarized state that maintains unity through the constant threat of war against its “enemies” (the Palestinian people and Arab-Muslim peoples in general). The crisis in military morale stems from the revulsion that many Israelis feel toward the methods used in Gaza. Let us examine some of the symptoms.
First, there are the thousands of reservists who refuse to return to the army so that they do not have to participate in the occupation of Gaza and its genocidal methods[5]. Some were left with severe psychological trauma from their experiences and committed suicide[6]. This refusal to participate in the occupation of Gaza has also spread to a small but growing number of young Israelis who refuse to join the military, which is a crime in Israel punishable by imprisonment[7].
This revulsion is not limited to young people and adults of military age; it is also shared by older generations of Israelis, leading to events that would have been impossible in the past. In Tel Aviv, thousands of Israeli Jews and Palestinians marched in silence in front of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. They held photographs of Palestinian children killed by airstrikes in Gaza and carried banners demanding an end to the use of hunger as a weapon of war in Gaza. Police dispersed the march by beating protesters and forcing them to retreat[8].
There have also been many expressions of concern in intellectual and university circles. Fania Oz-Salzberger, the daughter of renowned Israeli writer Amos Oz and a history professor at a university, posted the following appeal on her Twitter account: “Soldiers, both regular and reserve, as well as parents and grandparents of soldiers, there is no other solution. Refuse to serve in Gaza. Refuse, refuse, refuse”[9].
In a public letter sent to Netanyahu, university rectors wrote, “As a nation that was the victim of the terrible Holocaust in Europe, we also have a special duty to act with all means at our disposal to prevent and refrain from causing cruel and indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women, and children[10].”Finally, for the first time in the country’s history, two Israeli NGOs, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, accused the Netanyahu government of “committing genocide in Gaza”[11].
These political contradictions are important because they weaken the Zionist state. However, these contradictions have an insurmountable limit. Due to its nature as an occupying and usurping population, the vast majority of Israeli society believes that “it’s okay that we’ve taken the land of the Palestinians” because they’ve built their homes, businesses, schools, and universities on this land. They also believe that it is “okay” to take more Palestinian land. For example, a recent Pennsylvania State University survey of Israeli Jews (reported in Haaretz) showed that 82% support expelling Palestinians from Gaza[12].
The “two-state” proposal is a solution that was dead on arrival
The “two-state” proposal is based on the idea of a Jewish state and a Palestinian state coexisting peacefully alongside each other based on the division of the historic territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. This proposal formed the basis of UN Resolution 181 in November 1947, which “created” the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. The resolution was proposed by the victorious imperialist powers of World War II—the United States, Great Britain, and France—and supported by the Stalinist bureaucracy of the former USSR.
Essentially, the resolution legalized the seizure of land by a Jewish minority (less than 30% of the population, mostly recent European immigrants) who were granted 52% of the territory.
Far from “bringing peace,” the creation of the State of Israel marked the beginning of a period in which armed Zionist gangs employed genocidal tactics against Palestinians, such as the massacre of most of the inhabitants of a village, to expel them from their homes and lands.
Using these same methods, the Zionists appropriated other parts of the territory until they reached 78%. An estimated 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and forced into exile. The Palestinian people call this the Nakba, or catastrophe. The territory allotted to the Palestinians was divided into two parts without territorial continuity: the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Within this framework, the Zionist state has never renounced its project of a Greater Israel, which would incorporate Gaza and the West Bank permanently, as well as parts of southern Lebanon and Syria. In 1967, Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank militarily. The heroic resistance of Palestinian youth and children caused a serious crisis in the morale of Israeli soldiers, forcing the Zionist state to abandon direct occupation.
Based on the Oslo Accords (1993-1994) and at the suggestion of the U.S., the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established[13]. In theory, this was a step toward creating a small Palestinian state. In reality, however, the PNA, controlled by the Fatah organization, acts as a colonial agent of Israeli rule.
Today, Gaza is experiencing a genocidal occupation aimed at forcing the Palestinian population to abandon the territory. The West Bank is surrounded by walls, its border with Jordan is under Israeli control, and it is divided into isolated regions crossed by Israeli roads and checkpoints. Jewish settlers of Russian origin are appropriating more and more houses and land. As we have seen, there is now a proposal to definitively incorporate these territories into Israel.
We believe that the “two-state” proposal advocated by several Palestinian organizations, the global left, and several European governments is a “dead end,” a “carrot” intended to make the Palestinian people abandon their aspiration to reclaim all of their historic land usurped by the Zionist state when they were weak.[14].
This Palestinian mini-state would be unviable in terms of geography, economy, and military power. However, that is not the main issue. Israel has made it clear that it will never accept the creation of such a state. Last year, the Knesset rejected it outright because it would “pose an existential threat to Israel’s security”[15].
It has now voted to annex new parts of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the entire Gaza Strip. During the same session, Deputy Amir Ohana, the Knesset Speaker, declared that these lands are an inseparable part of the historical homeland of the Jewish people and belong to Israel[16]. Given this reality, continuing to propose a two-state solution is harmful because it creates false hope among young Palestinians who no longer believe in it[17].
For the Palestinian people to achieve their aspiration of recovering their historic territory (free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea), they must defeat the Zionist state militarily and politically, just as was necessary with Nazi Germany. The Palestinian resistance must ignite the revolutionary and military struggle of all Arab and Muslim peoples against Israel[18]. This revolutionary struggle and international solidarity will enable the Palestinian people to achieve victory.
Notes:
[1] https://www.infobae.com/america/mundo/2025/07/23/el-parlamento-de-israel-aprobo-una-mocion-para-anexar-los-asentamientos-de-cisjordania/
[2] https://litci.org/en/palestine-on-the-false-two-state-solution/
[3] https://litci.org/es/las-crisis-del-estado-de-israel/?utm_source=copylink&utm_medium=browser
[4] https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/economia/599729/iinflacion-subida-precios-exodo-israel
[5] https://www.france24.com/es/medio-oriente/20250417-el-descontento-crece-en-el-ej%C3%A9rcito-israel%C3%AD-nunca-volver%C3%A9-a-servir-bajo-este-gobierno
[6] https://www.rfi.fr/es/oriente-medio/20250103-r%C3%A9cord-de-suicidios-en-el-ej%C3%A9rcito-israel%C3%AD-desde-el-7-de-octubre-de-2023
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFf5Mj-XLks
[8] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKneeqJM1n-/ y https://www.facebook.com/teleSUR/posts/ciudadanos-israel%C3%ADes-marcharon-con-fotos-de-ni%C3%B1os-asesinados-y-pancartas-con-men/1232820865553614/
[9] https://www.pressenza.com/es/2025/07/fania-oz-salzberger-soldados-rehusen-servir-en-el-ejercito-israeli/
[10] https://www.pagina12.com.ar/845412-una-carta-para-benjamin-netanyahu-que-sacude-a-todo-israel
[11] https://bitlyanews.com/internacionales/ong-israelies-acusan-por-primera-vez-a-israel-de-cometer-un-genocidio-en-gaza/
[12] https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/poll-show-most-jewish-israelis-support-expelling-gazans
[13] Oslo, la paz de los cementerios para la continua Nakba – Liga Internacional de los Trabajadores (litci.org)
[14] Sobre este tema, ver el artículo “¿Cuáles deben ser los objetivos y los métodos de la lucha del pueblo palestino?” en Marxismo Vivo 20 nuevo formato, octubre 2024
[15] https://www.infobae.com/america/mundo/2024/07/18/el-parlamento-de-israel-rechazo-la-creacion-de-un-estado-palestino-al-considerarlo-un-peligro-existencial-para-la-seguridad/
[16] https://www.larazon.cl/2025/07/24/el-parlamento-israeli-aprueba-la-anexion-de-cisjordania/
[17] https://mondiplo.com/la-juventud-palestina-no-se-da-por-vencida
[18] La “cuestión palestina”: punto central de la revolución árabe – Liga Internacional de los Trabajadores (litci.org)
