Israel’s 2024 to-do list to bring the country into the New Year - opinion

For so many Israelis it still seems like October 7. The horror of that day has traumatized and transformed most of us, even those who didn’t lose family or homes on that awful day. Israel enters 2024 with a wide range of challenges that need to be faced head-on for our society and individual citizens to move forward. Perhaps an eight-step to-do list would help.

1. Bring home our hostages. First. Today. As awful as the price might be, the cost of failure, much paid already, will be too high for Israel to bear and build a joint future. The speedy, safe return of our friends and neighbors is the obvious first step towards rebuilding Israel’s unique social contract that was ripped to shreds on  the black Shabbat. The continuing situation is the centerpiece of the stress, trauma, and insecurity that the hundreds of families, and all of Israel, feel.

2. It is clear that Hamas must be defeated in a way that will mean that it can no longer hurt Israelis or Palestinians. A solution, by diplomatic means or by Israel’s military, must be found for our border with Lebanon. Iranian threats to Israel and the region must be faced with wisdom. Israel’s heroic sons and daughters, on active and on reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces, have taken important steps against Hamas in Gaza but are owed a clearer strategic path by Israel’s leaders. Where do we want to go? A clear, realistic strategy for Gaza’s future needs to be outlined and shared with our public and our allies. It is shocking that such a plan still does not seem to exist after almost three months and if Israel does not quickly develop one, others will – they certainly already are.

A multi-billion dollar Marshall-style plan to rebuild a demilitarized Gaza is an Israeli interest. Israel must not fall into the trap of imagining a long-term presence or simply denying that Palestinian responsibility could be viable. None of the key regional or international players will pay unless there is a path to Palestinian control, even if it may be a longer-term goal. Israel cannot afford any other path, economically, diplomatically, or morally. Of course, the Palestinians take agency and not merely retain the role of victim, as has happened too many times in the past. Israel must be creative and proactive. Now.

3. A new diplomatic campaign publicized around the world must include this Israeli vision for the future and not merely (often reasonable) complaints that an independent Palestine would be untenable. We are nearing a time when our security actions are losing their perception of legitimacy until Israel can articulate and work toward a better future for Israelis and Palestinians. 

We have learned from the failure of the avoidance policy of recent years that our neighbors cannot be wished away. Obviously, an “Israel Plan” would seek a path towards ensuring security on our northern and southern borders, and for those living in the West Bank and allow our thousands of internally displaced citizens to safely rebuild and return to their homes in the South and North as soon as practical.

Reforming Israeli domestic policies

4. A massive reform of domestic priorities, starting with building a new budget for fiscal 2024 must come quickly. Israel’s current government has lost the trust of a large majority of Israelis, and its pre-October 7 budget for 2024 must be totally revamped with both eyes on economic recovery in 2025. It is logical to grow Israel’s debt to pay for the war spread over the coming years, but there needs to be a clear economic strategy that focuses, beyond defense, on the core areas of our economy that deliver growth in the short and medium term.

Anything else (such as useless politicized government ministries, bloated budgets for Orthodox programs or ultra-Orthodox education that rejects STEM subjects and English, extra budgeting for West Bank settlements) must wait for some other time.  

5.  Israel’s economic recovery must be emphasized. The hi-tech industry must be prioritized as the engine of the economy and foreign investment. It pays much of the bills for everything else, and Israel must somehow create growth despite huge loans needed for defense and rebuilding our destroyed communities in a time of high interest rates. Agriculture and public health are also drivers of resilience and need support. Focusing on these areas is a response to the dangers of recession and the risk that Israel’s once world-leading economy might stagnate under the burden of war, falling further behind, as the rest of the world moves forward.

6. Given that one of the challenges of the war is under-employment, Israel needs to quickly find paths to employable workers, bringing back and increasing the supply of foreign workers, many of whom, understandably, ran home in October. The massive call-up of reservists has also depleted the workforce. At the same time, significant investment in employable skill development in Israel’s education system, academia, and vocational training must be a path towards refilling Israel’s labor pool. As in the past, Orthodox men and Israeli Arab women should be two primary targets of such programs.

6. The battles from the first nine months of 2023 regarding the judicial coup and societal division must be firmly and permanently ended. The cross-the-board failures of October 7, which will be deeply investigated and litigated during 2024, have illustrated the need for public service excellence, gatekeepers, questioners of authority, and most importantly, the rule of law and judicial review. Since that terrible day, we have seen the mobilization of Israel’s nimble private sector and the deep motivation of our volunteering public and our reservists as an existential strength, even as the government has struggled to meet many of the challenges we face.

7. Brand Israel needs to rebuild its international reputation for readiness, creativity, and competitiveness. Some of that must come from strengthening Israel’s irreplaceable strategic relationship with the United States. We need to use this special connection in articulating and achieving our goals and not only in pushing back threats. Israel needs to return to our tradition of bipartisanship, especially as 2024 will be a contentious election year there. We have felt the deep warmth of the personal commitment of US President Joe Biden but also concern regarding the growing edges of the Left that have challenged the US-Israel alliance.

Israel’s relations with our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world, many of whom felt the threats of this time along with us, need to be prioritized. We need to deepen relations with many friends around the world, from Germany and Canada to Australia and India and even the countries we made peace with via the Abraham Accords, which should find a path to be extended. Israel should work to do all those things around the globe.

8. There is a reasonable chance that 2024 will be an election year for Israel with all of the dangers to our national cohesion. It also risks that decisions and strategies are short-term and emphasize one voting sector or another. Israel learned, at a horrific cost, that a lack of internal cohesion and solidarity have a disproportionate impact on our national security. Our politicians, faith leaders, and the public must emphasize tolerance and unity, even during a contentious election campaign or national investigation into the responsibility for the failures that led to the disaster of October 7.  

In conclusion, we urgently need a clear unpoliticized work plan, for the short and long-term, covering the war, the post-war, our economy, and our national priorities to take on all of our huge challenges, one that is understood by all 10 million Israelis and our friends, and foes, around the world.

The writer is a former diplomat. He served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan and then to South Africa.