Why two men from opposite sides see Donald Trump as a ‘saviour’

Four months after the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlawi visited Kfar Aza, the scene of one of the day’s worst massacres. At least 62 residents of the kibbutz, which sits just three kilometres from the border with Gaza, were slaughtered and 19 were taken hostage. Standing in front of news cameras, Sinijlawi used his visit to condemn the slaughter to show Israelis, and people around the world, that not all Palestinians endorsed Hamas’ violent tactics.

Born in East Jerusalem, Sinijlawi spent five years in an Israeli prison from the age of 15 for throwing stones at Israelis during the first intifada. Now he is a leading proponent for peace and a two-state solution. Demonstrating his willingness to break with his political tribe, he has firmly rejected the “river to the sea” chant used at pro-Palestinian rallies around the world since the war in Gaza began, declaring it a “dead-end, a dumb slogan, a call for erasing a people that helps no one – least of all Palestinians”. His preferred chant: “Stop the war. Release the hostages.”

Next week, Sinijlawi will travel to Australia for appearances with his friend Gershon Baskin, an Israeli activist and veteran hostage negotiator who has served as a key interlocutor with Hamas. The pair met at a conference in 1996 but soon lost contact; three years ago, they reconnected through their individual work to advance a two-state solution, which would see an independent Palestinian state established alongside Israel. Despite coming from different sides of the conflict, they discovered they had similar perspectives on the way forward. This year they co-founded the Alliance for Two States, an organisation that is trying to create momentum for a negotiated end to the conflict.

Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin with his friend, Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlawi.Credit:

Even in a time of war and inflamed passions (on Wednesday night in Washington, two Israeli embassy workers were shot dead), they are on a mission to show that civil dialogue, and even agreement, between Israelis and Palestinians remains possible. “We have the same voice,” Sinijlawi says in a joint interview before their trip, which has been organised by the New Israel Fund Australia. “When you interview Gershon, it is like you are interviewing me, and vice versa. We represent the moderate Palestinians and moderate Israelis.”

They are aware the visit comes when the prospects for peace, and a negotiated outcome to the conflict, seem as forlorn as at any time in recent history. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has intensified Israel’s war effort in Gaza despite growing international condemnation, vowing to take total control of the strip after almost 20 months of fighting. His far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has spoken of “conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed” while vowing to assert Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. Meanwhile, Hamas’ leaders in Gaza refuse to lay down their arms, and continue to hold about 58 Israeli hostages despite the suffering of the civilian population.

“I think both peoples are experiencing their biggest trauma in the existence of the State of Israel,” Baskin says. “What Samer and I are doing is challenging the myth that there are no partners for peace on the other side.”

Both have been alarmed from afar by what they’ve observed in Australia since the war began, from protesters celebrating the October 7 attacks on the steps of the Opera House to the firebombing of synagogues. And they say the diaspora leadership for Israelis and Palestinians can be more extreme and tribal in distant places like Australia than in the region itself. “Importing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Australia is insane,” Baskin says. “You’re not helping the Israelis, you’re not helping the Palestinians. If you want to help Israel, you want to help Palestine, find somewhere being constructive, not destructive.”

Sinijlawi and Baskin are both fierce critics of the current Israeli and Palestinian political leadership. Baskin, who conducted back-channel negotiations between Israel and Hamas that led to the celebrated release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, says Netanyahu “will go down as the worst leader of the Jewish people in history”. He believes the Israeli prime minister is taking Israel down a path to dictatorship by undermining the independence of the Israeli parliament, judiciary and secret service. And he is disdainful of Netanyahu’s insistence that increased military pressure on Hamas will secure the release of the remaining hostages, of whom about 23 are believed to be alive.

Posters of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and whose bodies were returned on Feburary 20.Credit: AP

“Netanyahu is living in a fantasy world of protecting his coalition and protecting his political career,” Baskin says. “The basic bottom line: the 58 hostages could come back in one tranche, on the condition that the war ends and Israel withdraws from Gaza. Netanyahu refuses to do that because he is willing to sacrifice the hostages for his political survival.”

He says a fundamental pact between the Israeli state and its citizens will be broken unless Netanyahu makes the return of the hostages his top priority. “There is no recovery for Israeli society as we have known it, in our own self-image of who we are as a people, if we sacrifice these hostages.”

Baskin believes the way out of the war can be summed up in two words: Donald Trump. “Every week I communicate with Trump’s Middle East emissary, Steve Witkoff, and tell him that the only way you’re going to get a deal done is if Trump tells Netanyahu to do it because Netanyahu can’t go against Trump. He could go against Biden, that was easy, but he can’t go against Trump.”

Donald Trump holds the key to ending the war in Gaza, says former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin.Credit: Bloomberg

While Trump has so far given Netanyahu carte blanche to resume the war in Gaza, there are growing signs that Trump is becoming impatient with the war. “The president is frustrated about what is happening in Gaza. He wants the war to end, he wants the hostages to come home, he wants aid to go in, and he wants to start rebuilding Gaza,” a White House official told US website Axios this week. Baskin says: “I think we can expect, if Trump doesn’t get distracted, which is always possible, he will tell Netanyahu in a couple of weeks, ‘Finish the war and do a deal’.” Baskin knows this is a striking thing for someone on the political left to believe: “It’s a very bizarre reality where I come to the conclusion that our saviour is Donald Trump.”

On the Palestinian side, Sinijlawi loathes Hamas’ use of violence to achieve its goals. He is also a passionate internal opponent of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president who leads Hamas’ more moderate political rival, Fatah. Abbas, aged 89, has been in power for 20 years and is widely perceived as ineffectual and corrupt. “We Palestinians are contributing to the continuation of what’s happening because of our internal politics,” Sinijlawi argues. “The majority of the Palestinian people are fed up with both Abbas and Hamas, they are fed up with the corruption that Abbas has brought upon them in the West Bank, and they are fed up with the destruction that Hamas has brought upon them in Gaza.” He is heartened by the recent protests that have sprung up against Hamas in Gaza, saying they reflect widespread fury at the group among Palestinian civilians.

Palestinians would vote because they want leadership change, Sinijlawi says.Credit: AP

The only solution to the leadership crisis, he says, is for Palestinians to be allowed to vote in elections for the first time since 2006 – even at the risk of Hamas winning significant support. “The international community needs to understand that elections are a must,” he says. “They should be done now, even with the current situation in Gaza. People would go from their plastic tents to vote because they are looking for different leadership, they are looking for change.”

Both men are urging the Albanese government to be bold and officially recognise Palestinian statehood, a move it toyed with during its first term but ultimately shied away from. Labor’s national policy platform calls on the Australian government to “recognise Palestine as a state” and calls the issue an “important priority”. Sinijlawi argues: “Countries who support the two-state solution need to recognise both states. It would be a positive step and help everybody understand that the international community is very much dedicated to the two-state solution.”

Baskin says: “I think it is legitimate to call for all 193 member states of the United Nations to recognise both the State of Israel and the state of Palestine.”

Hopes for a two-state solution appear to have reached a nadir following the attacks of October 7 and the war in Gaza. Gallup polling conducted last year found 64 per cent of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem do not support a two-state solution. The numbers represent a dramatic turnaround from 2012, when the majority of Israelis and Palestinians backed the idea. Nasser Mashni, head of the Australia Palestinian Advocacy Network, said last year that the “two-state solution is absolutely dead” – in part because of the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Saleh Zenati, carries the body of his infant nephew Khalid, who was killed by an Israeli army airstrike this month.Credit: AP

Baskin and Sinijlawi accept that the time is not ripe for a two-state solution, but insist the idea must be kept alive as the only way to deliver security and dignity to Palestinians and Israelis. “If it is not two-state solution, then what’s left on the table?” Sinijlawi asks. “A one-state reality. And that will mean the end of Israel as a Jewish democratic state. Fifty-one per cent of the population between the river to the sea are non-Jews. How can a Jewish state be democratic with 51 per cent of its population not enjoying equal rights?” He says difficult compromises will have to be made by both sides, including Palestinians giving up their claim to a right of return to their ancestral homes in Israel.

Baskin knows that rational arguments for a two-state solution will achieve little traction while the war in Gaza is still raging. “The one thing that I say to people is that when this war is over, we’re going to remain between the river and the sea with 7 million Israeli Jews and 7 million Palestinian Arabs. This dream that one of the sides is going to disappear is not real.”

Baskin and Sinijlawi will be speaking in Sydney on Wednesday, May 28 and in Melbourne on Thursday, May 29.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.