For a two-state solution to work, Iran’s influence in Gaza and the West Bank must end.
In 2006, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote that Iran’s leaders needed to decide whether they represent “a cause or a nation.” That remains the case today, and the future of Palestinian statehood depends on whether the Islamic Republic foregoes it as an objective of its foreign policy.
French president Emmanuel Macron believes he can overcome his 19 percent approval rating by appealing to France’s rising Islamist constituency in his push to recognize Palestinian statehood. In fact, this move would not only represent a reward to Hamas after their savage acts just two years ago but also erode the deterrent against the Iranian regime established through Israeli and US military actions earlier this summer.
For the Iranian regime, exporting the revolution is one of its founding missions, and Palestinian statehood through “resistance” to the “lesser Satan” (Israel) waged by its proxies in Gaza and the West Bank has been one of the key areas of focus in recent decades.
Moreover, Gaza during the nearly two decades of Hamas rule, with no Israeli presence inside the territory, is the closest the Palestinians have gotten to experiencing a state under some form of Palestinian governance. Tragically for Israel, Hamas was at one point regarded by Israel and the United States as a governing power with the potential to moderate and with whom it could hold negotiations. Many of the Israelis who lived on the kibbutzes near Gaza who believed in a vision of coexistence of two states side by side with their Palestinian neighbors, were the first victims of this myth.
It is because of Hamas’s October 7 attack that “no Israelis in their right mind” are currently thinking about restarting the peace process, as Israeli president Isaac Herzog noted last year. The lesson is that unless Palestinian statehood is decoupled from the influence of the Iranian regime now, a future state will be nothing more than another Iranian regime proxy.
That Iran funded, trained, and supplied Hamas in the lead-up to October 7 has been well documented. Hamas is one of several efforts into which it has invested resources as part of a new Persian empire of destruction in the Middle East and beyond. Reports of Iran driving the anti-Israel and antisemitic encampments and demonstrations on US college campuses are just the latest example of this expansive influence.
Palestinian “resistance” in the name of Israel’s destruction has, in fact, been an Iranian regime objective implemented over the course of four decades. Tellingly, after the Iranian revolution in 1979, the former Israeli embassy in Tehran became the headquarters for the Iranian branch of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
Several years later, Hezbollah—Iran’s premier and most capable proxy—emerged with the charge to “vigorously condemn all plans for negotiation with Israel, and regard all negotiators as enemies, for the reason that such negotiation is nothing but the recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of Palestine.” Its efforts would only end “when this entity [Israel] is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no ceasefire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.” The commitment to Israel’s destruction in Hamas’s founding charter has been much discussed in recent months, and the Yemen-based Houthis’ pithy slogan—“God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam”—says it all.
As Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted in his joint address to Congress last summer, any “day-after” discussions about Gaza must include demilitarization and deradicalization. Indeed, polling data released in May 2025 reveal that over a third of Gazans still support the October 7 attack, a figure that only dropped by one percentage point in recent months.
The same must be said of the West Bank, where support for Hamas (29 percent) and the October 7 attacks remains high. Iran has reportedly funneled small arms and munitions to the West Bank, with the possible intent to stage another October 7. Accordingly, any plan for Palestinian statehood without a commitment to end Iranian influence and support will only bring about more threats to Israel.
Palestinian statehood is possible, but it must happen under the right conditions, foremost of which is an end to Iranian escalation against Israel and the United States. The path towards realizing a Palestinian state—one that can function as a responsible nation to its people and its neighbors—begins in Tehran. It must be part of a regional approach to diminish decades of Iranian influence.
It is in the interest of the United States and of our friends around the world to compel its decisionmaking in a manner that ensures our security and that of our friends in the region. That must include dismantling Iran’s Palestinian proxy project.
About the Authors: Robert Harward and Robert Wilkie
Vice Admiral Robert Harward (US Navy, ret.) served as Deputy Commander of US Central Command and served on the National Security Council during the Bush administration. He is Shield AI’s Executive Vice President for International Business and Strategy. Prior to joining Shield AI, Bob served as the Chief Executive for Lockheed Martin Middle East.
The Honorable Robert Wilkie is Co-Chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute. He served as the tenth Secretary of Veterans Affairs and as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in the first Trump administration.
Image: Abdullah Durman / Shutterstock.com.
