Recently, the world watched in horror as Hamas militants in Gaza paraded in glee what were supposed to be the bodies of four Israeli civilians—three of them a mother and her two infants. [Editor’s Note: The mother, Shiri Bibas, was not included in the handover; her body was returned to Israel the following day.]
Rather than universal condemnation, we saw cheering children encouraged to revel in the spectacle, and an atmosphere of triumph that shattered any last illusions we might have harbored. The barbarity left Israelis, global Jewry, and many others who were already familiar with the depravities of Palestinian nationalism around the world in a state of renewed shock. Yet, for many of us, it should force an overdue conclusion: the Palestinian national cause, as conceived and developed over the last half-century, has become irredeemable.
A year ago, I allowed myself the optimistic thought that perhaps a different Palestinian identity might yet emerge: one divorced from the antisemitic vitriol, the revolutionary Third-Worldist fanaticism, and the nihilistic death-cult threads introduced in the 1960s by global leftist intellectual currents. I tried, despite my doubts, to imagine a future in which Palestinian communities could somehow find a new identity built on pragmatic coexistence or even form a civic ethos of their own, unshackled from the destructive impulses that have repeatedly manifested in violence. Today, those hopes reach their end.
The Crumbling Legitimacy of “Palestine”
The concept of a sovereign Palestinian state was, at its inception, interwoven with big ideas: anti-imperial liberation, the romance of revolution, global anti-capitalism, and the quest for national self-determination. But subsequent decades have shown that the Palestinians never grasped the viable political path. Instead, an identity was cultivated on an endless cycle of grievance, victimhood, and, all too often, terror as a method of expression celebrated and vaporized by the most depraved elite Western intellectuals, including Western, Arab, and Jewish radicals sitting at the summit of the Western culture and education. But now it should be clear that when your primary currency is kidnapping civilians and parading their remains to public cheers, you forfeit whatever moral capital a national struggle might once have enjoyed.
For decades, outside observers believed that nationhood was the necessary answer to the dispossession experienced by Palestinians after 1948. Liberals held on to the “Two-State Solution,” the way one holds on to a protective magic spell rather than a proposed solution. In principle, that argument had some merit. Yet, it has failed in practice. The repeated wars, the refusal to disentangle themselves from regional power struggles or global revolutions, the refusal to accept peace deals that might have led to an orderly autonomy, and the cultural glorification of martyrdom have created a toxic personality structure that has a flag. Any attempt at constructive state-building has been ground into dust by corruption, murderous factionalism, and the unabashed worship of violence.
Why Dissolve the Project Entirely?
Some might say it is drastic, even cruel, to declare that a people’s aspiration to statehood should be abandoned. But the events we just witnessed—children paraded around corpses in broad daylight—are not an isolated atrocity but the peak of a long march of destruction. They reflect a deeper moral and cultural collapse: no meaningful leadership capable of guiding Palestinians toward a humane, tolerant society appears to exist. Indeed, the only consistent leadership visible keeps cycling back to incitement, illusions of conquest, and pride in acts that defy basic human decency.
To argue that Palestinians should be absorbed into existing states is not to remove their communal identity; it is to acknowledge that the formal structure called “Palestine” has, in practice, become a source of destruction for themselves and for the region. If the dream of a stable, rights-based Palestinian sovereignty were within reach, it would have emerged during at least one of the diplomatic windows over the past decades. Instead, repeated attempts have collapsed into bloodshed.
Relieving the Burden on Generations
The idea of “Palestine” has, tragically, turned into an ideological snare that captures each new generation from birth, seeding them with the promise of “liberation” that only ever seems to produce more suffering. In many Arab countries, Palestinians have lived as second-class refugees for decades, denied meaningful integration or citizenship by the very governments that proclaim solidarity. Today’s technology-rich, globally interlinked world offers other paths to personal and communal flourishing. Yet those remain blocked as long as Palestinian leadership and outside advocates keep stoking the fires of “resistance” while funded and cheered by narcissistic Westerner liberal elites and Qatari conspirators, forever condemning Palestinian children to a cycle of violence and perennial displacement.
By integrating Palestinian populations into established nation-states—be it Jordan, Egypt, or other countries where many already reside—families might finally break from the cage of perpetual grievance. They could obtain stable legal rights, access real economic opportunities, and choose to build a future unshackled from militant dogmas. Rather than continuing as pawns in a moribund dream, they could become citizens of actual countries, with all the responsibilities and privileges that status entails.
Part of the reason we see no way forward is the entrenched antisemitism that permeates the very core of Palestinian identity. While it is true that hatred toward Israelis—especially in an entrenched conflict zone—can be complex and cannot be reduced to simple bigotry, it is impossible to ignore the endless incitement that treats Jewish life as disposable. This is the twisted Fanonian logic, the one where using saved funds so one’s children might learn at school: the colonized exacting violent vengeance upon the colonizer without moral restraint or a constructive end goal. Murder for the sake of murder. That worldview has been the mother of a catastrophic reality. After so many “martyrdom” operations and kidnappings, it is painfully clear that the ideological well is poisoned beyond hope.
A Somber Necessity
None of this is an endorsement of annexations or expansions at Palestinian expense. Nor is it a call to dismiss the suffering of everyday Palestinians, many of whom have been themselves victimized by corrupt local rulers and fanatical militias. Rather, it is a reflection of the reality that “Palestine” as a political project has only led to more tragedy. If the region wants peace, if the Palestinian people want a chance at normal life, perhaps the best route now is to end the destructive chimera.
We might think of this as a kind of post-mortem: “Palestine” had its chance, repeatedly, and it devolved into the macabre spectacle we witness now. The costs—to both Palestinians themselves and their neighbors—have become too high. A sober reading of events suggests we let the final illusions drop and move on.
To reemphasize, abolishing the dream of a Palestinian state does not equate to denying people’s dignity. On the contrary, the correct path forward—if moral seriousness prevails—is to uphold Palestinians’ right to assimilation and citizenship wherever they can be accommodated under already stable and willing Arab states. The young generations, unburdened by a hopeless and nihilistic quest, can invest in education, families, businesses, and cultural life without being shackled to the hateful leftist, liberal, and Islamist illusions of “national liberation” that keep them pinned to an endless conflict.
Far from a triumphant decree, this is an elegy for what could have been a positive dream but deteriorated into a nightmare beyond salvage. Seeing Hamas parade the corpses of a mother and her babies underscores how monstrous the situation has become. The illusions of a reformed Palestinian nationalism, free from antisemitism and glorification of violence, have receded. What is left is a moral and political catastrophe.
Perhaps the most merciful and responsible course is for the Palestinian identity—as a state-bound ambition—to be gently laid to rest. At the same time, families find refuge in the more concrete structures around them. The cost of perpetuating a vision that repeatedly descends into cruelty is too high. Suppose we genuinely care about the lives of Palestinians, Israelis, and their neighbors. In that case, it may be time to walk away from the fantasy of “Palestine” and offer every real opportunity for inclusion and a dignified future elsewhere.
That is not a stirring or sentimental conclusion. Instead, it is a sober statement of what now seems unavoidable. The events of recent days have pushed this argument from a desperate speculation to an urgent moral claim: There should no longer be a separate Palestine. Let us absorb these populations into viable national frameworks, stop feeding the cycle, and let us, at last, move on.
