TEL AVIV, Israel — During my nine days of reporting recently in Israel and the West Bank, little did I know that the most revealing moment would come in the final hours of my visit. As I was packing to leave Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a news conference in which he indicated that Israel and the United States do not have a shared vision of how Israel should complete its war in the Gaza Strip or how to convert any Israeli victory over Hamas into a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

Without such a shared strategy, the Biden administration, the American people and particularly American Jews who support Israel will need to make some fateful decisions.

We will either have to become captives of Netanyahu’s strategy — which could take us all down with him — or articulate our own American vision for how the Israel-Hamas war must end. That would require a Biden administration plan to create two states for two indigenous peoples living in the areas of Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.

Yes, I am talking about a wartime peace plan that, if Israel agreed, could help give it the time, legitimacy, allies and resources it needs to defeat Hamas — without getting stuck governing all of Gaza and all of the West Bank forever, with no political horizon for the Palestinians.

And have no illusion, this is the only vision Netanyahu is offering right now: Seven million Jews trying to govern 5 million Palestinians in perpetuity — and that is a prescription for disaster for Israel, America, Jews everywhere and America’s moderate Arab allies.

President Joe Biden’s plan — are you sitting down? — could actually use as one of its starting points President Donald Trump’s proposal for a two-state solution, because Netanyahu warmly embraced that in 2020, when he had a different coalition. (Netanyahu and his ambassador in Washington practically wrote the Trump plan.) More on that in a second.

Here is why we are at a juncture that demands bold ideas, starting last Saturday night. Speaking in Hebrew in the joint news conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu rejected U.S. and world concerns over the thousands of Palestinian lives already lost to the war to uproot Hamas from Gaza. Even more important, he declared that Israel’s military would remain in Gaza “as long as necessary” to prevent the Gaza Strip from ever again being used to launch attacks on Israeli civilians.

Gaza “will be demilitarized,” he said. “There will be no further threat from the Gaza Strip on Israel, and to ensure that, for as long as necessary, IDF will control Gaza security to prevent terror from there.”

Those are legitimate Israeli concerns given the Hamas atrocities, but Netanyahu also indicated that Israel would oppose the return of the Palestinian Authority — Israel’s partner in the Oslo peace process that governs Palestinians in the West Bank — to Gaza following the war. The authority, Netanyahu said, is “a civil authority that educates its children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to eliminate the State of Israel … an authority that pays the families of murderers based on the number they murdered … an authority whose leader still has not condemned the terrible (Oct. 7) massacre 30 days later.” Bibi — who never gives the Palestinian Authority credit for how it works every day with Israeli security officials to dampen violence in the West Bank — offered no suggestion of how and from where an alternative, legitimate Palestinian governing authority ready to work with Israel might emerge.

This was an in-your-face rebuke of the Biden administration position articulated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. As The New York Times reported, Blinken declared during a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo that Gaza should be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority once the war is over. To retain America’s Arab and Western allies, Blinken said that right now — today — we must articulate “affirmative elements to get to a sustained peace.” And “these must include the Palestinian people’s voices and aspirations at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza,” he said. “It must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

My four-word translation of Blinken’s proposal to Israel: “Help us help you.’’

Blinken, though, also offered no details of how that might happen. The Biden team needs to flesh that out.

Why is Netanyahu trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority as a governing option for a postwar Gaza? Because he is already campaigning to hold onto power after the Israel-Hamas war is over, and he knows there will be a huge surge of Israelis demanding he step down because of how he and his far-right cronies distracted and divided Israel and its military by pursuing a judicial coup that Israeli intelligence sources told Netanyahu was emboldening and tempting enemies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

The only way Netanyahu can stay in power is if his far-right allies don’t abandon him — particularly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. So to hold the support of the Jewish supremacists in his Cabinet — some of whom want Israel to erect settlements in Gaza as soon as possible — Netanyahu has to declare now that the Palestinians will have no legitimate, independent representation in Gaza or the West Bank.

Yes, I know it is hard to believe, but Netanyahu is campaigning in the middle of this war.

It is time for Biden to create a moment of truth for everyone — for Netanyahu, for the Palestinians and their supporters, for Israel and its supporters and for Aipac, the Jewish lobby. Biden needs to make clear that America is not going to be Netanyahu’s useful idiot. We are going to lay down the principles of a fair peace plan for the morning after this war — one that reflects our interests and that will also enable us to support Israel and moderate Palestinians and win the support of moderate Arabs for an economic reconstruction of Gaza after the war. I cannot see any major economic support for the rebuilding of Gaza coming from Europe or from countries like the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia unless Israel and some legitimate Palestinian authority are committed to the principles of a peace framework to create two states for two peoples.

Biden needs to say: “Israel, we are covering your flank militarily with our two aircraft carriers, financially with $14 billion in aid, and diplomatically at the U.N. The price for that is your acceptance of a peace framework based on two states for two indigenous peoples in Gaza, the West Bank and pre-1967 Israel. This plan is based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which was also the cornerstone for negotiations in the peace plan put forward by Trump in 2020.

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“Bibi, do you remember what you said about that Trump plan that gave Palestinians about 70% of the West Bank for a state, plus an expanded Gaza Strip and a capital in the area of Jerusalem?” Biden could add. “Here’s the Associated Press story of Jan. 28, 2020, to remind you: ‘Netanyahu called it a ‘‘historic breakthrough’’ equal in significance to the country’s declaration of independence in 1948.’”

The Palestinian Authority foolishly rejected the Trump plan outright, instead of asking to use it as a starting point. This is a chance to make up for that mistake — or be exposed as unserious.

In his valuable new book on the history of the peace process, “(In) Sights: Peacemaking in the Oslo Process Thirty Years and Counting,” Gidi Grinstein, a member of Ehud Barak’s negotiating team at Camp David, argues that the Trump plan provides a natural foundation for a revived peace process for a two-state solution. That is not only because Netanyahu already agreed to it, Grinstein told me in an interview, even if the settler hard-liners in his Cabinet did not and still would not. It’s also viable because the Trump plan was actually based on the precondition that peace was possible only after Hamas was removed from power in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority could assume control of the Gaza Strip, which, the Trump plan argued, would be expanded by land carved from Israel’s Negev Desert.

Biden could also propose that with the help of our moderate Arab allies like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, we would come up with a plan to overhaul the Palestinian Authority, purge its education system of anti-Israel material, upgrade its forces that work daily with Israeli security teams in the West Bank, and phase out its financial support for Palestinian prisoners who harmed Israelis.

Is the Palestinian Authority up to such a deal? Are progressive Palestinian supporters in the West who chant the eliminationist mantra “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” up for it? Will Israel’s silent majority be if Hamas is defeated? Let’s see what everyone really stands for — or if they have a better answer — because neither is going to disappear. Biden needs to put them all to the test.

I know that a lot of American Jewish leaders privately would love Biden to put forward such a plan but so far only one, Ronald Lauder, a longtime Republican and president of the World Jewish Congress, has had the courage to call for it — in a Saudi newspaper, no less, in an essay titled: “A time for peace and a two-state solution.” As he explained: “Only a two-state solution would guarantee Israelis and Palestinians a life in dignity, safety and with a better perspective on the economic situation, which would lead to a sustainable future.”

Such a plan would protect America’s interests — and make clear that we care about what’s best for Israelis and Palestinians and our allies in the region, not what’s best for Bibi’s political future — which several Israeli analysts told me would be to drag out the war, so he couldn’t be ousted by mass demonstrations — or to drag us into a conflict with Iran in hopes that would overshadow all his mistakes.

If a two-state plan were embraced by Israel, even with reservations, it would reinforce for the world that Israel sees its war in Gaza as one of necessary self-defense and a prelude to lasting peace. And if such a plan were embraced by the Palestinian Authority, even with reservations, that would reinforce that the authority intends to be the alternative to Hamas in shaping an independent future for Palestinians alongside Israel — and that it will not be a bystander to Hamas’ madness or a victim of it.

Thomas Friedman, who was born in Minneapolis and grew up in St. Louis Park, writes a column for the New York Times.

“Hundreds of thousands of New York City households depend on government benefits to avoid eviction and homelessness. Yet countless households are experiencing ongoing and systemic delays when attempting to apply or renew their benefits.”

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In the midst of her life’s most challenging chapter, Ms. S, a resilient 55-year-old accountant from Washington Heights, found herself in a situation she could have never anticipated. A debilitating stroke left her partially paralyzed and hindered her ability to put food on the table or make ends meet. Ms. S found herself jobless and without income for an entire year as she waited for her Social Security benefits to kick in. When she applied for SNAP benefits, her application encountered a 45 day-delay, after which she received a notice from the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) indicating that she missed her mandatory interview—which was not the case—leaving her panicked and unsure of where to turn.

Or take the case of Ms. V, a single mother of five children in Harlem whose landlord moved to evict her after her husband, the sole earner in the family, tragically passed away. Ms. V struggled to secure employment while caring for her young toddlers and applied for the Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (FHEPS) program, which, if approved, would clear her rent arrears and provide ongoing rental assistance. However, she has now been waiting two months for HRA to process her application, growing more and more fearful of losing her home for herself and her children as each day passes.

These are just some of the many stories of delays that struggling New Yorkers face when attempting to access live-saving benefits from the City’s Human Resource Administration, including SNAP, Public Assistance, One Shot Deals, FHEPS and CityFHEPS. Such delays have devastating consequences for our city’s most vulnerable people. 

Every week in New York City, new tenants are being sued by their landlord because of missing, delayed shelter payments or improper discontinuance of a Public Assistance, FHEPS or CityFHEPS case. Why is it that the programs that were created to help vulnerable people access affordable housing are the ones that end up pushing these same marginalized tenants into eviction proceedings?

At Legal Services NYC, we see our clients struggle to afford groceries to feed their families or make rent to keep a roof over their heads. Food insecurity is on the rise in New York City, up to 10.8 percent last year compared to 7.3 percent in 2021, and even higher for children at 13.4 percent. Statewide, nearly 2.9 million New York households rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to eat.

The city is also home to nearly 500,000 rent burdened households, struggling to keep up with rent as prices soar to the highest in recent history. Hundreds of thousands of New York City households depend on government benefits to avoid eviction and homelessness. Yet countless households are experiencing ongoing and systemic delays when attempting to apply or renew their benefits with HRA, with no signs of improvement.

According to the latest Mayor’s Management Report, less than 30 percent of Public Assistance applications and 40 percent of SNAP applications were processed within the required 30 days timeline. While some applicants receive decisions well past the required time frames, others never receive a response. 

RELATED READING: NYC Failing to Process Most Food Stamp, Cash Benefit Applications on Time

HRA’s shortcomings extend beyond mere delays, turning the process of accessing public benefits into an ordeal that disregards fundamental human rights and social justice. Numerous issues mar the system, among them benefits applications that are mistakenly closed without notice; benefits denials erroneously claiming that the applicant failed to provide required documents or missed deadlines; a glitchy and inaccessible AccessHRA website that often ends up making it more difficult for New Yorkers in need to access government benefits; and hours-long phone wait times.

Although the Mayor’s Management Report indicates that “HRA is taking aggressive action to fill critical vacancies, invest in technology, and implement process improvements to improve timeliness,” we have yet to see the fruits of such a plan. By when will New Yorkers be able to get their benefits within 30 days? What substantial steps have been put in place to comply with a court order to eliminate the backlog by March 2024?

New Yorkers are hungry and suffering. Every day, advocates in my organization send follow-up after follow-up to HRA on behalf of our clients, many of which go unanswered. The current state of affairs is unacceptable. Our clients are in need and HRA has the duty to assist.

It’s time for the Adams Administration to take immediate steps to help struggling New Yorkers access life-saving benefits by, first, approving the necessary budget to fill critical vacant positions at HRA to process applications and clear the backlog.

The New York Department of Social Services (DSS) should also commit to creating and publishing a corrective action plan to resolve the systemic delays in processing public benefits applications within the requisite 30-day timeline, as well as create a Direct Access Line phone number for advocates and community partners to help address and facilitate correction of case errors. 

The department should also share monthly monitoring reports with community partners representing clients with the most to lose to ensure the agency is complying with its protocols, corrective action plans, and applicable state or federal laws and regulations. These steps would go a long way in protecting the safety, well-being, and dignity of struggling New Yorkers. 

At a time when low-income families are struggling to find stability among post-pandemic financial hardships, deepening economic gaps, and racial disparities, the Adams Administration must move quickly to improve and expand access to public benefits that help stabilize marginalized New Yorkers, not shrink or neglect these services.

Hungry families on the brink of homelessness cannot afford to wait. 

Jenna Coudin is a staff attorney in the Government Benefits Unit in Legal Services NYC’s Manhattan Office.