Mellman: A lesson from ‘Fauda’: Israel is here to stay, no matter what

Casual “Fauda” watchers, not steeped in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, might not have even noticed the scene. But it’s central to understanding what’s been unfolding in the region.

On the show, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s Security Service on the West Bank takes his son, who’s flirting with membership in Hamas, to Tel Aviv. Looking up and down the beach at high-rise apartments and high-tech office buildings, the father warns his wayward son: “these people aren’t going anywhere.”

That may seem obvious to Americans, but it’s not to Palestinians. From 1948, when they were told by Arab leaders to leave their homes so the Jews could be wiped out and they could return, to today, Palestinians have been assured that Israel will disappear.

This April, Iranian Supreme Leader and Hamas patron Ali Khamenei predicted, “2 million people will leave the Zionist regime in the near future. Their own officials repeatedly warn that their annihilation is near. Their president, their former prime minister, their security chief, and their defense minister say: ‘Our destruction is near and we will not make it to 80 years [Israel celebrated 75 years this year].”

Hashim Safi Al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, presented a different timetable in a 2020 interview on Lebanese TV, arguing that Israel will cease to exist within 25 years.

So-called intellectuals add their heft to this argument. In a television interview, Syrian historian Muhammad Bahjat Qubaisi recently expressed confidence that “Israel will disappear … in no more than two years.”

In June, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad linked terrorism to Israel’s putative disappearance.

“If we invest more efforts,” he argued, “the Zionist enterprise will fall apart. The Jews came to Palestine for peace and stability and an opportunity to live. But if a Jew finds no chance to live and find peace here, if a Jew finds that Palestine is a place where he is killed, he will surely leave. He came to Palestine to live in security and stability, and when he fails to find them, he will go back where he came from.”

An official program on Palestinian Authority TV entitled, “The Story of a Village” offered this commentary, “The strongest peoples occupied Palestine, whether they were the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Mongols, the Ottomans, or the British — they came and went and Palestine remained — the Israelis’ fate is that they too will go.”

Polls confirm that this view has permeated Palestinian society. In surveys conducted by Palestinian pollsters, two-thirds believe Israel will not exist in 25 years. Among those who support Hamas, 78 percent believe Israel will disappear.

That view is connected to the support for armed struggle (a polite term for terrorism) expressed by 58 percent of Palestinians, including 63 percent of Gazans. (Those data are from September, before the recent attacks.)

Israelis of course tell themselves an opposite story, which President Biden loves to recount. After explaining the huge obstacles faced by Israel after it was attacked 1973, a young Sen. Biden asked Prime Minister Golda Meir how they could win. “We have a secret weapon,” she replied, “we have nowhere else to go.”

Nonetheless, Palestinians believe Israel (and Israelis) will disappear and that terrorism will hasten that outcome — a view that transforms last week’s savage slaughter from a paroxysm of evil into (forgive me) a rational act.

Those endeavoring to drive wedges between Israel and the U.S. contribute to the sense among Palestinians that Israel may cease to exist.

That’s why the strong statements by President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) along with many others are so important from a policy point of view.

Not only do they give America credibility with Israelis — the beneficial results of which we’re already seeing — but they also begin to puncture the myth of Israel’s imminent demise.

It’s an international version of “Fauda’s” father-son talk. America’s leaders, from President Biden on down, are making clear: “These people aren’t going anywhere.”

Mellman is president of The Mellman Group and has helped elect 30 U.S. senators, 12 governors and dozens of House members. Mellman served as pollster to Senate Democratic leaders for over 20 years, as president of the American Association of Political Consultants, a member of the Association’s Hall of Fame, and is president of Democratic Majority for Israel.