Part I: “Delete Israel.” Okay. And Then What?

This is the first in a three-part series exploring a question that began with two words I kept encountering across social media: “Delete Israel.” Rather than stopping at the slogan, I wanted to follow it to its logical conclusion. If Israel disappeared tomorrow, what actually happens the morning after — to Gazans, to Israelis, to the region and, ultimately, to the rest of us?

Terminology note: Wherever possible, I use “Gazans” when referring specifically to the people of Gaza. I use “Palestinian” primarily when quoting or referring to the terminology used by others. This is a deliberate choice and should not be read as my endorsement of the historical or political claims associated with the term “Palestinian.”

I have been writing publicly about Israel, antisemitism and Jewish identity with increasing frequency since October 7, 2023.

And over the past few months, I started noticing the same two words everywhere across social media:

Sometimes they appeared beneath something I had written.

Sometimes they appeared in someone else’s comment section.

Sometimes, especially on platforms like Threads, they appeared as the entire post.

Not: Delete Israel because we have a better plan.

Not: Delete Israel so Gazans can build schools, create jobs, establish a functioning government and have better lives.

Not even an attempt to explain what should come next.

Different people. Different platforms. Same two words.

Eventually, those two words got me thinking.

Complete the thought.

If, G-d forbid, Israel is destroyed, what happens the next morning?

Who builds the economy?

Who protects Israelis?

Where do millions of Israeli Jews go?

And what happens when they refuse to go anywhere?

And apparently, “And then what?” was a much harder question than I realized.

It seemed to hit a nerve.

Because when I asked people to complete the thought, something fascinating happened.

I had already given them the outcome they said they wanted. This was their hypothetical. Israel was gone. Deleted. There was nothing left to protest, boycott or dismantle.

Now tell me what you build.

Tell me about the lives Gazans are going to have.

Tell me about the schools.

The protection of minorities.

The freedom to criticize Hamas.

Tell me what happens when the thing you have spent years demanding finally happens.

And remarkably often, there was no answer.

Others responded with still more descriptions of what should happen to Israelis — more death, more suffering, more punishment, more settling of scores.

Which left me genuinely confused.

But I already gave you Israel.

In the hypothetical you demanded, Israel no longer exists.

You cannot destroy it twice.

So why, when I ask you to imagine what comes after Israel, are you still talking about Israel?

And why are you saying virtually nothing about the people you have spent years telling me this movement is supposed to be for?

That was the moment this stopped being a social-media exchange and became an article.

Because I began to wonder whether some of the people I was talking to could actually imagine a “Free Palestine” at all.

Not the destruction of Israel.

Could they picture a Gazan waking up the morning after........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)