Unless you’ve intentionally avoided the news for the last 20 months you’ve likely heard college students all over our country screaming, “From the river to the sea!”
You may not even know what the protesters mean by that, and that’s okay. Most of the students screaming it, when asked, don’t fully know what that means and they don’t know what river, or what sea. Every time I see one of these protesters unable to tell their interviewer how the chant ends, or what river or what sea, half of me cringes, the other half laughs. To be clear the full sentence is, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.”
The river in the chant is the Jordan river, which forms the eastern border of most of Israel, and the sea is the Mediterranean Sea. Those are pretty clear, what’s not as clear to me is what these young people (or old people who never grew up) mean by “Palestine shall be free!”
I think there are three likely meanings for Palestine shall be free:
- The Palestinian Arabs will be able to live in a liberal democracy and be able to exercise their libertarian free will within a moral framework.
- The Palestinian Arabs will have their own country that encompasses all of what is now Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
- The area roughly from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea will be free of Jews, OR,
- Some combination of the above
I’m not going to go into the merits or problems with any of those, what I hope is animating all these college campus protests is the well-being and flourishing of the Palestinian Arabs. And you know what, I fully support the idea of well-being and flourishing for Palestinian Arabs. YEAH! We agree on something, at least I hope. If someone is simply animated by the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel, we are not going to agree and no amount of history or logic will likely change your mind.
Let’s stick to the common ground. For those of us committed first and foremost to the well-being and flourishing of the Palestinian Arabs I have good news, we can achieve Palestinian freedom from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. No bad news, unless you are committed to option #2, or #3 over the actual well-being of the Palestinian Arabs. Why? Because the best option to bring about the greatest flourishing of the Arabs in Palestine is Israel itself. Let me explain;
- Israel is the only liberal, pluralistic democracy in the Middle East. This may surprise many people but Israel does allow the practice of all religions within its borders including Islam and Christianity. Arab citizens have full voting rights, and Israeli Arabs have 10 seats in the Knesset in 2025 and have held as many as 15 in 2020. Israeli Arabs have held 4 seats in Israel’s equivalent of our Supreme Court.
- For 2025 Israel is ranked #29 on the Economic Freedom Index published by the Heritage Foundation. That earns Israel a “mostly free” label and is three spots behind the United States. Its neighbors include, in order, Cyprus at 27, Jordan at 80, Turkey at 96, Egypt at 129, and Lebanon at 136. Gaza wasn’t ranked. Regardless of heritage, a Palestinian’s best hope to flourish economically appears to be Israel
- Israel’s per capita GDP puts it at #8 in countries with a population over 10 million, and has the most advanced economy in the Middle East. Israel is among the world leaders in High-tech, Medical tech, Defense and Aerospace, and Agri-tech. Its most serious economic threat is a lack of labor, which could be a win-win for the Arab populations of Gaza and the West Bank.
- Freedom House gave Israel a freedom score of 73/100 and a “Free” ranking in 2025, and Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index in 2024 scored Israel 7.8/10 or 31st out of 167 countries. Israel is the only “Free” country in the Middle East according to Freedom House and its neighbors like Lebanon scored a 42/100, and Syria a 1/100.
- Education is where Israel really shines. It’s ranked 5th in tertiary education (post high school) with 50.12% of the adult population holding such degrees. The world average is 39%. For the following statistics keep in mind the Arab/non-Jewish population of Israel is 21%. 16.2% of Arab Israelis have post-secondary degrees, and are 17% of bachelors degree students. 16% of all master’s degrees and 8% of all doctoral degrees are earned by Arab students. Overall, the Arab population of Israel is underrepresented in higher education, but like the disparities we have here at home it’s probably an oversimplification to attribute the disparity solely to discrimination or bias. Recognizing this disparity Israel’s Council for Higher Education began investing in Arab education in 2012 and from 2012-2016 spent $300 million and another $1 billion through 2022. As a result, Arab bachelors and doctoral students have increased by 133% since 2012, and masters students have more than doubled since 2012.
- Healthcare is another area Israel is highly regarded. Below is a summary:
- CEOWorld magazine healthcare index ranks Israel 10th out of 110 countries
- Bloomberg Health-Efficiency index ranked Israel 5th out of 57 countries in 2020
- FREOPP World Index of Healthcare innovation for 2024 rank was 12th out of 32
- U.S. News and World report 19th/87
- Life expectancy is 82.5 years, 83.6 for women, and 79.9 for men. The best life expectancy in the Middle East.
Overall, I think a very strong case can and has been made that if someone is really concerned about what’s best for the Palestinian Arabs, Israel is the best option. Unfortunately, I’ve not seen anything from any pro-Hamas or pro-Palestinian advocates that lead me to believe that option #1 from above or the well-being of Palestinian Arabs is their actual concern.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for a single state consisting of Palestinian Jews and Arabs. The point I’m making in the above is Western liberal democracy is superior to any other form of government that we know of and certainly in the Middle East. A single state solution is impractical for several reasons. First is the demographics of a combined state. There are approximately 7.7 million Jews and 2.1 million Arabs in Israel currently. If you add the 700 thousand Jews and 2.4 million Arabs from the West Bank and the 2.1 million Arabs from Gaza you’re talking about a 50% increase in the population of Israel and the Jewish majority drops from 78.5% to 56%. That doesn’t sound too bad until you consider the animosity between the Jews and the hypothetical new Israeli citizens, which brings me to the second reason a combined Palestinian state is impractical.
Second, the cultural divide between the Jews and Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank goes far beyond religious beliefs. The Israeli Jews have a proven track record of being able to coexist with Israeli Arabs whether they are Muslims or Christians. The Israeli’s track record isn’t perfect, there are documented instances of cruelty. But those are rare and not part of the Israeli’s overall plan. The problem is with the Palestinian Arabs. As humans we have a tendency to believe of others what we are capable of, and project our values and beliefs onto other groups. That’s a huge mistake in the case of Hamas and Gaza civilians. Yes, even the civilians of Gaza. Douglas Murray, in his book, On Democracies and Death Cults details the horrific events before and after the October 7th, 2023 invasion by Hamas upon Israel. He concludes, as will any reasonable reader, that Hamas and Gaza civilians have very little regard for human life other than the value it has to destroy the state of Israel. He recounts the reaction of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior leader of Hamas to the news that three of his sons had been killed by an Israeli air strike this spring. He seemed proud, and even happy, and thanked Allah. He also writes about October 7th victims telling him about Gaza civilians directing Hamas fighters to innocent and unarmed Israelis for execution, rape or kidnapping. Furthermore, he tells of how IDF soldiers found tunnels and weapons stashes in children’s bedrooms, hospitals, schools and Mosques. This isn’t new. In fact, in 2014 the UNRWA reported such instances, and again in January of 2025 the UN Security Council acknowledged those allegations. Using civilians and civilian infrastructure to fight a war, using them as shields is an abhorrent idea in western culture, but not to Hamas and the civilians of Gaza. This kind of fanaticism and low regard for human life is incompatible with a western liberal democracy and therefore Israel.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” isn’t some innocuous chant by students on a campus. It entails the elimination of an entire group of people, the Jews, who have in the state of Israel created a good, decent, and admirable society that has produced far more human flourishing than any society in the history of the Middle East. Don’t let someone say this and let it slide. They are either ignorant of what that chant entails, or worse, know and don’t care. Either way engage the chanter, the poster, the speaker and a few pointed questions to either enlighten or expose.
Questions for your Hamas and Hezbola supporting friends:
- What do you mean by, “The river to the sea?”
- What do you mean by “Palestine shall be free?”
- Do you want what’s best for the Palestinian Arab people?
- How are they being treated by their current leaders in Gaza and Lebanon?
- What are the conditions for civilians in Gaza and Lebanon?
- Have you ever considered that many leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have become billionaires from the aid intended for civilians and some don’t even live in Gaza or Lebanon?
- Have you ever considered most of the suffering and misery of the Palestinian Arabs is because of their own leaders?
- Have you ever considered Hamas in particular embeds their military infrastructure within civilian infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and Mosques? Effectively using civilians as shields causing unnecessary civilian casualties?
- Have you considered Israel might be the best option for the well-being of Palestinian Arabs?