In this thought-provoking episode of Tel Aviv Diary, host Marc Schulman sits down with Dr. Chuck Freilich, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council and current senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Columbia University, to explore a bold alternative to the seemingly impossible Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.

With decades of experience in Israel’s defense establishment and three published books on Israeli national security, Freilich presents an innovative three-part proposal that moves beyond the conventional two-state framework. His plan centers on a confederation between Jordan and the Palestinians, multilateral land swaps involving Egypt to expand Gaza while allowing Israel to incorporate major settlement blocs, and an Israeli civil separation from most of the West Bank while maintaining security control.

The conversation tackles the hard questions: Why has the traditional two-state solution effectively died, especially after October 7th? How do you overcome extremists on both sides who have consistently derailed peace efforts? Can legal guarantees for Jordan’s Hashemite kingdom be trusted in today’s volatile Middle East? And perhaps most importantly, how can any agreement succeed without a Palestinian leader willing to truly end the conflict?

Beyond the Palestinian issue, Freilich offers his perspective on Israel’s current strategic challenges across four fronts—Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran—and sounds the alarm on what he sees as the greatest existential threat: the deteriorating relationship with the United States. With support eroding on both the Democratic left and troubling signs emerging on the Republican right, he argues that saving the U.S.-Israel relationship must be the next government’s top priority.

While acknowledging his proposal faces enormous obstacles and may only have slightly better prospects than the classic two-state solution, Freilich makes a compelling case for why new thinking is essential. As he notes, continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity—and after nearly 60 years of occupation, it’s time to think outside the box.

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