The term “one thousand days” is remembered worldwide from the title of a book written about the years late US president John F Kennedy spent at the White House from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
However, this article does not refer to those Camelot-like years at the White House in the early 1960s but instead to a different period in the historical annals of the Middle East and one marked by the systematic Israeli plans for the annexation of the West Bank and the forced or voluntary emigration of the majority of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The thousand days in this context cover the period from 7 October 2023, the day Hamas attacked southern Israel, to the end of June this year. From an historical and strategic point of view, these thousand days have almost buried the concept of the two-state solution and the prospects of lasting peace between the Arab states and Israel.
Even if the October 7 attacks had not taken place, the Israeli actions in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would still have been carried out. In order to grasp this, we have to go back to December 2022, the date the present ruling coalition in Israel was formed. The fact that this included two extremists from the settler movement in the West Bank did not auger well for the new government.
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, later given a role within the Israeli Ministry of Defence in the West Bank, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, were chosen for one objective – the annexation of the West Bank and the resettlement of Gaza.
Smotrich once said that “international law does not apply to Jews – that is the difference between the chosen people and others.” In a closed-door meeting with representatives of the settler movement in the West Bank in the spring of 2024 he said that the Palestinians in the West Bank had three alternatives. The first was to accept to live under Israeli law once the West Bank was under Israeli sovereignty, the second was to choose another country of residence, and the third, the most sinister, was to be killed if they tried to resist.
More recently, he said that the Israeli government wanted to “bring one million settlers to the West Bank so that [Hamas] won’t happen there”, claiming that otherwise Hamas could take over the West Bank. He noted last week that there were plans to build three settlements “immediately” in northern Gaza if the Israeli prime minister and minister of defence gave the green light.
The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom said this week that unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip would be constrained to dwell in what it described as “humanitarian shelters” in future, with the first one being built near Rafah. These shelters would be protected by the International Stabilisation Force, the ISF of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza.
Are there also plans to turn Gaza into a real-estate project?
The answer to this question was provided by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. Kushner spoke of a “New Gaza” with coastal tourism and skyscrapers. The redevelopment of Gaza would be divided into four phases, he said, starting in Rafah and moving gradually to the north towards Gaza City. He added that this plan could be a “hope, it could be a destination [and] have a lot of industry”. One important detail was missing from the plan, however, which was who would take over the huge oil fields lying off the coast of Gaza once the Palestinian population is removed.
Netanyahu was more explicit. Last week, he drove the point home and said that there was no place between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea for a Palestinian state.
Over the past one thousand days, Israel has initiated two wars against Iran, the first in June 2025, the 12-day war, and the second the joint American-Israeli military operations of 28 February this year that ended with a ceasefire agreement on 8 April that was extended to 60 days on 17 June through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
In April this year, the US pushed for a ceasefire in Lebanon, as Israel continued daily attacks on southern Beirut and in other parts of Southern Lebanon, either assassinating Hizbullah commanders or claiming that the attacks were in response to Hizbullah provocations.
The Trump administration succeeded in negotiating a framework agreement in June centred on the disarming of Hizbullah and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territories dependent on the Lebanese army successfully disarming Hizbullah.
Netanyahu said this week that it was normal for powers to rise and fall, but in the case of Israel it is a power that should always rise. This idea is further proof that Israel, like in its past, will always be an aggressor in the region. The last thousand days in the Middle East have proven this beyond doubt.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 July, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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