“We have lost trust in the Palestinians; this is the end of the two-state solution and a disillusionment of a possible future between Palestinians and Israelis in the region.” These are the voices that were heard at Kibbutz Nir Oz, as quoted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
"Not one significant Israeli politician is talking about a Palestinian state today, except to dismiss the idea as ridiculous. To talk about a two-state 'solution' – this is a word that sounds inappropriate and obscene after October 7th," writes the Wall Street Journal journalist after a broad review of the voices from the regional kibbutzim.
He later explains that "the two-state solution also died – the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, which would give sovereignty to the people from among whom came those who destroyed this kibbutz on October 7th. For eight hours they hunted down the kibbutzniks, murdered 46 people and kidnapped 71, which is a lot more than one quarter of those who lived there, making Nir Oz the kibbutz that experienced the worst damage among the kibbutzim invaded by Hamas."
During the interview, the interviewer turned the microphone to one of the women on Kibbutz Nir Oz and said: "Like everyone else in the Kibbutz, Ms. Siman Tov lived here with her family in a one-story house. Like her neighbors, she wished the Gazans all the best. She remembers the farm workers from the Gaza Strip, who worked in the fields with her father, who raised her on the kibbutz: 'They were good friends. They [the Gazans] would drink coffee at our house. They had a good relationship,' she told the interviewer.
Siman Tov continued to describe the neighborly relationship between Nir Oz and the workers, who came from the Gaza Strip to work in Israel: "The construction workers from Gaza helped build houses in Nir Oz. Sometimes they would joke, 'Oh, I'm building it for myself.’ But they smiled, and we smiled."
The interviewer concluded Ms. Siman Tov’s words with an explanation: "Before October 7th, Ms. Siman Tov would go on bicycle rides with her children, point to Gaza and tell them: 'There are children and women who live there, just like you and me.'" She doesn't say that anymore. "Our trust is gone. Completely lost.”