On Sept. 17, 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an overflowing hall bursting with supporters that, regarding Israel’s enemies, “from now on, we take land instead of giving it.” In an instant, Netanyahu’s declaration upended the “Land for Peace” paradigm and signaled a seismic shift in Israeli security policy that has gone largely unreported.

For over half a century, Israelis were told that if they handed land to enemies, the Jewish state would win peace in exchange. This optimistic, if naive, view has anchored the so-called “two-state solution,” which was peddled as the only viable way for the Jewish state to survive.