On Yom Kippur this year, over 1,000 rabbis and Jewish peace activists shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. As stated in the ABC News article, “Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, also known as the ‘Day of Atonement.’” 

By protesting on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, these activists transformed spiritual reflection into a moral statement about accountability and justice in the conflict.

This conflict manifests across New York City, from college campuses, ongoing Pro-Palestinian street protests and even the 2025 mayoral race.

President Trump’s new peace plan and multiple nations recognizing Palestinian statehood at the U.N. suggest solutions and even peace are within reach. However, the gap between symbolic gestures and actual problem solving remains substantial.

The geographic realities further complicate the path to recognition. Gaza sits on the coast while the West Bank lies inland, with Israeli territory separating them. For a Palestinian state to function as a coherent entity, these regions need territorial connection. 

International recognition cannot address the geographic reality that keeps Palestinians stateless and disenfranchised.

There are no prospects of real peace when Israel proudly rejects Palestinian statehood, and the U.N. lacks the means to implement the two-state solution. Israel already achieved statehood in 1948 while Palestine’s remains in question. Statehood for the Palestinians is not a reward or negotiating chip but rather the actual solution required for regional stability.

Just weeks earlier, a mass walkout occurred when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the U.N. General Assembly to deliver a defiant speech against the existence of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu states that, “Every time [the Palestinians] were offered a Palestinian state, but were required to end the conflict with Israel and recognize a Jewish state, every time over the decades they turned it down.” 

While Netanyahu presents this as clear Palestinian rejection, historians debate whether these offers constituted genuine pathways to statehood or were structured in ways designed to be refused. Even if Palestinians rejected past proposals, this does not diminish Palestinian entitlement to self-determination and sovereignty as a fundamental right.

Israel must understand that genuine security and integration into the Middle East requires accepting Palestinian statehood. The Israeli-Palestinian relationship functions as a reflection of Israel’s relationship with the entire region. Decades of military action have not changed the perception of Israel as a threat to neighboring countries because it has shown a willingness to take all measures in the name of defense.

Each military operation, regardless of its immediate security justifications, reinforces regional hostility and confirms the narrative that Israel will always choose force over diplomacy. It suggests that Palestinian lives carry less weight and enforces that the occupation will never end. 

According to a Guardian report in August 2025, “Fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total, which indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians.” 

Further down, the report states, “Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, including Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed starvation. The Israeli military did not dispute the existence of the database or dispute the data on Hamas and PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] deaths when approached for comment.”

These numbers expose the military strategy’s failure and fuel the international opposition that further isolates Israel. 

Killing civilians at this scale does not eliminate threats, it manufactures them. Israel cannot achieve security through methods that generate justified rage across the entire region.

Indefinite occupation, periodic military campaigns and growing international isolation offer no path forward. It may provide tactical security in the short term, but it guarantees further turmoil in the long term.

The voices within the Jewish community understood that Israeli security and Palestinian dignity are not opposing forces but interconnected necessities. 

For Israelis and Palestinians to live as neighbors rather than occupier and occupied, Palestinian statehood is not optional but foundational to any future peace.