(The Lion) — Security will always be Israel’s top priority, Israeli journalist Amit Segal told The Lion and other media groups last week in Jerusalem.

“When it comes to the structure of the system in Israel, the focus is on security rather than the economy,” he said. “You are all familiar with the 1992 saying from the Clinton campaign: ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ In Israel: ‘It’s the security, stupid.’”

Israelis will always consider “living” over “cost of living” in any election because the country is “always one decision short of not existing or being in an existential threat,” he said.

But the respective leaders, not the people, are to blame for the continual unresolved conflict, Palestinian politician Samer Sinijlawi also told reporters.

“For different reasons, the continuation of the conflict is serving the interest of the current leaders,” he said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is indifferent toward the suffering and death of his own people, Sinijlawi said.

“If any Palestinian leader does not respect the rights of the individual Palestinian individual, he cannot ever claim to represent the collective rights of the people,” he said.

Sinijlawi also claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “handicap,” which has allowed the conflict to remain unresolved.

“The capability of the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, for coexistence – it’s much, much, much higher than the capability of the leaders for coexistence,” Sinijlawi said.

But Segal said sustained peace between Israel and Palestine is an unattainable reality, noting the ever-present hostility between the two peoples.

“I’m quite skeptical, to say the least, about the chances of a Palestinian state to live side by side with peace, in peace with Israel,” he said.

Palestine will always choose the path that hurts Israel the most, even if its own people suffer, Segal said, referencing Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war as a prime example of Palestinian and Israeli suffering.

“In every single junction in which Palestinians had to choose between their good and Israel’s damage, they preferred the lose-lose policy over the win-win,” he said.

Various education curricula in Palestine teach children to hate Israelis, specifically Jews, Segal said.

“The education system in the Palestinian Authority is poisoned,” he said. “Math classes for first graders go like this in Ramallah and Gaza: ‘Ahmad killed four Zionist pigs, aka soldiers. Muhammad killed three Zionist pigs. How many Zionist pigs were killed altogether?’”

This indoctrination of youth promises continued cultural hatred and violence passed from generation to generation, Segal said, further explaining his skepticism about stable peace in the region.

“If you educate young Palestinians from birth to age 18 that Jews are pigs, that they should not be here, that they are colonialists, and that the Temple Mount never existed – although it’s written in the Quran – what would you expect?” he said.

Sinijlawi, in contrast, said Israeli and Palestinian youth share the same generational trends and tastes. Finding common ground and shared interests is the best approach to establish peace.

“They all wrote the same thing. They listened to the same music. They watch the same movies. They want to go to the same places. They want to do the same things,” Sinijlawi said. “So, there is a lot of common things between, especially the young generation. All what we need is to facilitate the possibility for something better, for a better future for both of them, and I think it’s doable.”

This common-ground unity, however, is simply idealistic and impossible in reality, Segal said.

“The fact was that in six hours and 20 minutes in which the Israeli army, the IDF, wasn’t there, 1,200 Israelis were killed – just multiplied by a month, a year, six months, and you’ll find out what the real plans of Hamas were,” he said, referring to the Oct. 7 attacks. “It’s not a question of abilities, but of will, and that’s what Israel should actually deal with.”

Ending the war is the primary next step, Segal said, but he recognizes the reality of continual tension, unresolved conflict and likely future fighting.

“Israel was forced to fight there rather than decided to fight there,” he said again about Oct. 7. “I think that the best strategy for Israel’s situation is to decisively win this war and stop fighting for a few years, focusing on cherry tomatoes, song contests, losing in football, in soccer – all the things that we’re good at.”