Halper's thesis: Zionism, as a settler-colonial movement, has a structural goal — the complete Judaization of historic Palestine and the erasure of Arab presence — which explains why every peace process has failed.
Zionism, as a settler-colonial movement, has a clearly defined structural goal: the complete Judaization of historic Palestine and the erasure of Arab presence. This is not incidental to the project — it is its logic.
The project entails conquest and settlement of all historic Palestine, not merely pre-1967 Israel; the establishment of a colonial regime of control over remaining Palestinians; and what Patrick Wolfe called the "elimination of the native" — the systematic erasure of Palestinian presence, identity, and political claims.
This structural goal explains the political logic behind why every negotiation has failed, and will continue to. The colonial project has no room for indigenous political claims. This is not a failure of diplomacy — it is structural. There is no interest in, or possibility of, genuine political resolution with Palestinians; Zionism asserts an exclusive Jewish claim to the entirety of historic Palestine; and there is official and ideological denial that a Palestinian people exists as such. Oslo, the two-state solution, all peace processes — structurally doomed, not because of bad faith, but because the colonial project has no endpoint that includes Palestinian political rights.
The central open question is whether Israel can complete this colonial project — and achieve regional normalisation — without ever resolving the Palestinian issue. That is the bet Israel is currently making. The Abraham Accords and Gulf normalisation are read by some as proof of concept; Halper argues the bet may be wrong. Can a colonialist, expansionist Israel become a stable regional partner? Does ongoing Palestinian resistance make Israel too destabilising to normalise? A colonial Israel that never resolves the Palestinian question may be too destabilising for regional order — which opens strategic space for liberation.