Israeli Democrat party leader Yair Golan gestures as he speaks during a demonstration in Israel in March.Eyal Warshavsky / SOPA Images/Reuters
As Canadian Jews prepared to welcome the New Year on Monday, their Prime Minister spoke to the United Nations about his decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state.
In his remarks, Mark Carney cited famine, the tens of thousands of people killed by Israel in Gaza and the displacement of more than two million people, as well as settlement expansion in the West Bank. He also referenced the “heinous attack of October 7th” and called on Hamas to release all the hostages, disarm fully and play no role in Palestinian governance.
In Gaza, as The Globe and Mail reported, Palestinians reacted with optimism. But for some Canadian Jews, it felt like a dark day, another reason to lose hope: when their own government recognized a Palestinian state as a result, as they saw it, of a brutal terrorist attack nearly two years ago that devastated Israel and the Jewish people, while 48 hostages remain in Gaza, 22 of whom are believed to be alive. Not exactly the makings of a sweet new year. (Also, why is the UN holding its General Assembly during the Jewish High Holy Days?)
While declarations by Canada and other countries may be symbolic – and on Tuesday drew rebukes from Donald Trump – they are meant to revive the possibility of a two-state solution. This is the correct goal. The future of the region must include a Palestinian state and a state of Israel: separate, secure, safe. Self-determination for each.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking at a United Nations conference in New York, said Canada now formally recognizes a Palestinian state. He said for decades, Canada has called for a two-state solution – a Palestinian state existing in peace alongside Israel.
The Canadian Press
One Israeli opposition leader brought this message to Toronto earlier this month, at a conference presented by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where his ideas were warmly received. (Disclosure: I spoke on a panel at this conference, co-presented with New Israel Fund of Canada and JSpaceCanada.)
“We need to end the war,” Yair Golan said. “We need to free the hostages as soon as possible. I would like to emphasize it’s not just about the lives of 48 captives. It’s much more than that. It’s about the soul of the Israeli society.”
Mr. Golan, the leader of the left-wing Democrats party (formed in a 2024 merger between the Labor and Meretz parties), is a fierce critic of the Netanyahu government. He has been vilified in Israel for warning last May that the country, with this war, risks becoming a “pariah state” and saying that “a sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population.”
In Toronto, Mr. Golan turned down the heat, but stuck to his vision for a two-state solution. “Annexation is a disaster for Israel. Separation is the way for salvation,” he said, to some applause. “If we want Israel to remain a free, egalitarian and democratic state, we need to divide the country. No other way. We can do it.”
A former IDF deputy chief of staff, Mr. Golan calls for a return to the road map proposed by the U.S. in 2003. It called for an independent Palestinian state.
He has ideas about how to get there. “Israel is a nation in trauma. There is no great leap over from the current situation to two-state solution.” He called for “civil separation” to lessen the friction between two hostile populations and to keep Israel secure – and keep the vision of a two-state solution alive.
Opinion: Canada recognizes a version of Palestine that exists in only Geneva dreams
Mr. Golan has since said, ahead of the UN gathering, that the Palestinian statehood declarations are premature, denouncing them as “destructive” and “extremely damaging” to Israel.
He blames Benjamin Netanyahu for this.
In Toronto, Mr. Golan expressed strong opposition, even repugnance, toward Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership, policies and plans. He called the current government the most extreme in Israel’s history, aiming to occupy and build settlements in Gaza. “They want the continuation of the war as their own political interests, in order to keep the Israel society under constant emergency,” he told The Globe.
In an interview, he suggested “moderate” countries in the region participate in the physical and governmental recovery of Gaza – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (two countries with the financial resources to rebuild Gaza, he noted), Jordan, Egypt and possibly Morocco and Oman. Hamas must not be involved.
And Israelis, he told the conference, must continue their resistance. “We need to be in the streets all day long, week after week after week.”
Why was he bringing this message to the diaspora in Canada, I asked.
“Because if we want people to become active, we need to provide hope. We need to say, yes, we can take responsibility and we can change, and we can shape the future. And concerning that, I am 100-per-cent positive that we can shape, or reshape, our future in a much better way.”