At a recent event in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris stated that after the war in Israel ends and the hostages return home, there must be “a real commitment among the nations to a two-state solution.” But wasn’t October 7, 2023 the clearest evidence that the two-state idea is a non-starter? If there remained any doubts, October 7 shattered once and for all the notion that the Palestinian Authority and many Arabs under its rule are willing to live side by side in peace with Israel.

When Harris talks about a two-state solution, she means that Israel would cede control of the so-called “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) — a region that makes up about 30% of Israel and is the biblical heartland where most of the stories in the Bible occurred and has many areas that are important to Christians. Such a move would lead to war. We know this because Arabs in Gaza have been under self-governance since 2005, and under Hamas’s control, they have used all their resources to build a terrorist state bent on Israel’s destruction. The outcome was October 7.

The Palestinian Authority is no different from Hamas. They may speak differently, wear Western suits, and rub shoulders with diplomats at cocktail parties — but they have the same goals as Hamas — the destruction of Israel. While all eyes are on the Gaza conflict and on Israel’s northern border, Arabs in Judea and Samaria have been preparing for their own October 7. Israeli media has reported on numerous smuggling operations of weapons from Jordan into Judea and Samaria. Indeed, since October 7, the IDF has begun major operations throughout Judea and Samaria to root out the terrorist infrastructure. Over the past year, the IDF has discovered and encountered weaponry that terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria did not previously have.

However, beyond the armed terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens, the Palestinian Authority educates its youth to hate Israel from a very young age. This has been documented by the U.S. and even the EU, who criticized the Palestinian Authority for its anti-Semitic education. The Palestinian Authority also pays salaries to terrorists who kill Jews. And when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Palestinian Authority Minister Jibril Rajoub called the attack heroic. When Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed, Mahmoud Abbas’s PLO praised him as a great national leader. After Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated, Abbas sent condolences to the terrorist organization.

The only difference between the Palestinian Authority and other terrorist organizations is semantics. According to shocking information from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, about 15 “battalions” of fighters from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other factions inspired by Hamas’s attack on Israel are currently operating “to ‘Gazify’ Judea and Samaria by manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), digging tunnels, and attempting to produce rockets.”

Having would-be allies stand by and watch while Israel has to deal with this would be bad enough. But the Biden-Harris administration is doing the unthinkable: along with the international community, they are pressuring Israel to act against its own safety and security in Judea and Samaria in the midst of this crisis.

This is happening in four ways:

1. Security Checkpoints: Simply put, Israel needs them. Security checkpoints in Judea and Samaria allow the IDF to vet Arabs traveling from Palestinian Authority-controlled areas to ensure that they can’t carry out attacks against Israelis on the roads in Judea and Samaria, or infiltrate Israeli communities in the area. Yet the Biden-Harris administration is applying political pressure to lower the checkpoints at places where Israelis such as Elhanan Klein or Meir Tamri were killed. With no checkpoint, terrorists in Judea and Samaria can walk to the nearest Jewish community, murder with impunity, and after five minutes, return to their village.

2. Gaza: The Biden-Harris administration and international actors are pressuring Israel not to use military aircraft in Gaza. Therefore, Israel has to shift tactics and send in soldiers to search house to house. This puts more soldiers in harm’s way, and results in increased loss of life for Israel. The chief of staff of one of this piece’s authors, Samaria Mayor Yossi Dagan, was injured and almost killed in this way. Currently, Israeli forces are fighting house to house in many places in Gaza, unlike at the beginning of the war when they were using airpower.

3. Pressure against Construction in Judea and Samaria: These areas are the heartland of the Jewish people and the land of the Bible. They are the places where the Jewish people lived and had a home for thousands of years in Old Testament times. However, while the Biden-Harris administration pressures Israel to stop building Jewish homes in areas under its control in Judea and Samaria, the Arabs are building settlements in these very same areas (with help from outsiders like the EU). This is shameful by itself, but in light of residents of northern Israel being forced to evacuate their homes, limiting Israeli constructions in areas considered suburbs of Tel Aviv is shocking.

4. Sanctions: The Biden-Harris administration has placed U.S. sanctions on Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria — including those with American citizenship and Israeli soldiers simply trying to ensure the security of their own communities. One of these people is an American who moved to Israel and is an officer in the IDF reserves. He is being sanctioned for the operations he was assigned to fulfill as part of his reserve duty. Until now, such draconian sanctions — which entail being cut out of the financial system — have only been used on international terrorists. Meanwhile, those supporting an October 7-type attack against Jews in Judea and Samaria, such as Jibril Rajoub, are not being sanctioned.

Israel is fighting for its life on at least five fronts. Yet, it is during this time that the U.S. government is pressuring Israel to act against its interests. Progressive radicals and Kamala Harris are calling for a two-state solution that would have Israel cede its strategic depth, make Israel indefensible, and cut the heart out of Israel. Is this the way allies act?

A better approach would be to stand by Israel’s legitimate security interests and support the self-defense and survival of the only true democracy in the Middle East, along with its right to its ancestral lands of Judea and Samaria — lands right in the heart of the biblical homeland.

This Tuesday, make sure to vote — and bring your friends, family, and community with you. The stakes in this election couldn’t be higher. The choices we make now will shape the future of the United States, Israel, and the entire free world. As you cast your ballot, remember the value of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship — one that enhances both American security and global stability.

This election matters — make your voice heard, and ensure those around you are voting, too.

Yossi Dagan has served as head of the Samarian Regional Council since 2015.