(July 6, 2025 / JNS)

Something unbelievable just happened—something that should be rocking headlines across the Jewish world, Washington and Brussels. 

Five of the most prominent Arab sheikhs in Hebron—yes, Hebron, the heart of biblical Judea—just declared that they want to join the Abraham Accords, recognize Israel as the Jewish state and break away from the Palestinian Authority.

Not as part of some negotiated peace process.  Not as part of a “two-state solution.” But as a rejection of the entire Palestinian nationalist cause.

The Wall Street Journal just published a stunning piece. It reports on a letter signed by five influential Hebron sheikhs, led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari (also known as Abu Sanad), who wish to join the Abraham Accords, sever ties with the corrupt Palestinian Authority and establish a self-governing emirate in partnership with Israel. In return, they pledge peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. They want cooperation, coexistence and jobs.

This is beyond an offer of peace. It is a political and ideological earthquake.

For decades we’ve been told that there is a “Palestinian people” with national rights and historic claims to the land. We’ve been told their dream is to establish an independent state, that “Palestine” is their destiny, that justice demands its creation.

Yet now, Arab Muslim tribal leaders from Hebron—the largest Palestinian city in Judea and Samaria—are openly admitting the truth: They don’t want a Palestinian state.

They want peace with Israel. They want to end the PA’s tyranny and corruption, its culture of death, its economic disaster, and its obsession with terror. They want to live—and work— and be part of the Israeli success story.

Let that sink in.

Make no mistake. These sheikhs are not “moderates” groomed in Western think tanks. These are traditional clan leaders, rooted in the Arab-Muslim cultural fabric of Judea for centuries. And they see the Palestinian Authority for what it is: a corrupt mafia propped up by Western diplomats who would rather appease dictators than confront reality.

And that reality is: There is no Palestinian nation.

There are tribes. Families. Clans. Some religious, some secular. Many are feuding. All have been manipulated by the PA and Hamas to serve a made-up cause that’s never been about their own statehood but about the destruction of Israel’s statehood.

With clarity these Arab leaders understand that the PA is weak and Israel is strong. And they are jumping ship, not to Hamas but to us.

This letter from the Hebron sheikhs is the final nail in the coffin of the Palestinian state fantasy. If the very Arab leaders of Hebron want to replace the PA and join with Israel, the idea of “Palestine” as a national movement is officially dead. It never existed to begin with—this just confirms it.

There is no justice in creating another terror-led Arab dictatorship called “Palestine” on our ancestral land. Even those who are supposed to be its proud citizens don’t want it.

Why? Because the Abraham Accords worked. Because Israeli strength works. And because the Oslo delusion is finally cracking.

Let this echo in every European capital that lectures Israel on peace while bankrolling incitement and in Western governments that have thrown billions into the pockets of PA thugs who persecute their own people, arrest dissidents, and pay terrorists to murder Jews. 

What Sheikh al-Jaabari and his colleagues are saying is that the PA is the problem—not Israel.  They want coexistence. They want to build with Israel. 

This is a gift wrapped in tribal pragmatism. We should take and use it – but not trust it blindly. The sheiks are clearly acting out of tribal survival, not ideological enlightenment. Yet history has taught us that the moment our Arab neighbors smell weakness they’ll turn on us, like their grandfathers did when decades of peaceful coexistence ended with the 1929 Hebron massacre.

Israel should pursue this opportunity with its eyes wide open. Let this move destroy Oslo, neuter the PA and bury the two-state delusion once and for all. Let the world see that Arab leadership in Judea and Samaria prefers cooperation with Israel over subjugation under Ramallah’s mafia.

We can leverage this moment to finally crush the Oslo framework, end international support for the PA and reshape Judea and Samaria on Israel’s terms—not through delusions, but through reality.

To do that, Israel must remain strong militarily, diplomatically, and psychologically, and not rely on personal relationships, signed letters, or tribal loyalty. It means rejecting fantasies that crop up every few years about a “new Middle East.” It means remembering that the 1929 Hebron massacre wasn’t a distant fluke, but a warning etched in Jewish blood waiting to return on Oct. 7, 2023, or any moment of weakness.

Because, as Dr. Mordechai Kedar has said, “If we want short-term peace, Israel needs to be invincible in the short term. If we want long-term peace, Israel needs to be invincible in the long term.”

We will have peace only when they believe we are invincible. Not just today, but forever.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.