Shrinking the conflict: less control now, no final deal
Leave the final status open and make occupation lighter step by step: roads linking the Palestinian areas without checkpoints, more work permits and economic ties, more room for Palestinian self-rule, while Israel keeps security control.
What happens to Israeli Jews
Israel keeps security control and every option open. The friction points, soldiers at checkpoints and raids, shrink, which lowers the cost of the status quo.
What happens to Palestinians
Fewer checkpoints, more movement, more jobs and more self-rule, but no state, no end to settlement, and no date when it would end.
What it requires
- An Israeli government willing to give up day-to-day control without getting a peace agreement in return
- A Palestinian leadership willing to accept improvements that aren't statehood
- Enough quiet on the ground that the steps aren't reversed after the next attack
- Money and infrastructure: bypass roads and tunnels linking Areas A and B, crossings, industrial zones
Who supports it
Set out by the Israeli philosopher Micah Goodman in 'Catch-67' (2017) as a response to a deadlock in which neither withdrawal nor annexation seems possible. On taking office in June 2021, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett promised the Knesset 'a reduction of frictions and the shrinking of the conflict', and his government expanded work permits and economic steps. No party runs on it as a final solution; by design it isn't one. The right says it takes security risks for nothing in return. Palestinian critics call it a plan for 'Bantustans' joined by roads and tunnels, the status quo made more comfortable and therefore more permanent.
What history says
- The Oslo interim arrangements (1994–2000), meant to last five years, still largely in force
- Israel's 'economic peace' policies of the 2000s and 2010s: permits and investment instead of a political process
- The period before October 7 2023, when expanded work permits for Gazans were part of an effort to keep Hamas quiet
The hard questions
- Is a lighter occupation a step toward ending it, or a way to make it last?
- What would make the steps irreversible, and does either side want them to be?
- What happens to the approach after a mass-casualty attack, as with the work permits before October 7?
- Can it work without a horizon the Palestinians can see, and without a partner the Israelis trust?