Executive Summary
• The Palestinians, divided and chronically rejectionist, have neither built viable institutions nor embraced peace. They must bear responsibility for their actions and poor decisions over the past century, prioritizing violent opposition to Israel over numerous offers for statehood.
• The PA is corrupt, unpopular, and financially dysfunctional, and continues to promote incitement and terror incentives and to educate the next generation in hatred and opposition toward Israel.
• The October 7 atrocities underscored that Palestinian statehood poses an existential danger to Israel. Given Judea and Samaria’s strategic terrain, ceding security control would invite an even more extreme replay of October 7 and a severe rocket threat.
• A Palestinian state would constitute a first-order geopolitical disaster for moderate Arab states in the region, and for free nations around the world. It would align itself with America’s greatest adversaries worldwide, would be an easy target for takeover by Islamist movements, and would destabilize U.S.-aligned Arab states in the region, including Jordan and Egypt.
• The most prudent alternative is localized self-governance for Palestinians as a permanent arrangement. Not an independent state with centralized authority, but a decentralization of control and self-administration at the municipal level. Local self-governance is the alternative to the failed model of the Oslo era, would increase accountability, and offer the best chance for Israeli security alongside a freer, more prosperous Palestinian society.