Israel's former PM: a two-state solution is the only solution

WITH A WAR RAGING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS, it's hard to imagine a new dawn of peace. The violence threatens to paralyze the moral and political imaginations of Israelis and Palestinians alike, deepening the impression that accommodation will remain forever out of reach. But to hear one of Israel's elder statesmen tell it, now is precisely the moment to resurrect the goal of a peace process.

- ERIC CORTELLESSA

"The right way is to look to the two-state solution, not because of justice to the Palestinians, which is not the uppermost on my priorities, but because we have a compelling imperative to disengage from the Palestinians to protect our own security, our own future, our own identity," former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak tells TIME.

Barak, who led the country from 1999 to 2001 and is one of its most decorated military figures, came closer than any other Israeli leader to securing a peace deal with the Palestinians. In a wide-ranging interview conducted over Zoom on Oct. 27, he discussed the possible endgames for Gaza after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political future, and how the Oct. 7 massacre has transformed the Israeli psyche. The following has been edited and condensed.