Israeli President Isaac Herzog, long a supporter of a two-state solution, described the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks as a “wake-up call” for his outlook on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday that his view of peace in the Middle East had shifted. 

He described a bleaker view than he has previously espoused about Israel’s Palestinian neighbors, shaped irrevocably by the trauma of the terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people. While he acknowledged “there must be a political move forward on the Palestinian front,” he did not commit to a Palestinian state as the end point of that process. 

“The idea of the two-state solution is something which, on record, I supported in the past, many times,” Herzog said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “But I would say that I had a wake-up call following Oct. 7, in the sense that I want to hear my neighbors say how much they object, regret, condemn and do not accept in any way the terrible tragedy of the terror attack of Oct. 7 and the fact that terror cannot be the tool to get there.”

Israeli President @Isaac_Herzog at @wef: "I would say that I had a wake up call following Oct. 7, in the sense that I want to hear my neighbors say how much they object, regret, condemn and do not accept in any way the terrible tragedy of the terror attack of Oct. 7."

Watch… pic.twitter.com/XrwEsyddtq

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) January 21, 2025

Herzog’s comments came after a more hopeful statement about Israel working toward achieving normalization with Saudi Arabia, prompted by a question by Zakaria about what steps Israel is willing to make vis-a-vis the Palestinians as Israel seeks to cement its ties with Riyadh. 

“It is something that after the enormous pain, really pain and enormous tragedies, we should strive for,” Herzog said of normalization. As Zakaria pressed Herzog for details about what it would take to get there — Saudi leaders have continuously said Israel must make progress in addressing the Palestinian issue before normalization can proceed — Herzog left the details fuzzy. 

“Regarding the nitty gritty or the conditions, I would ignore some or all the statements. I think these things need to be discussed in closed rooms. I assume the Oval Office will be involved in it as well,” said Herzog. “Israel is here in this region forever, and that’s why we should aim for it, apart also from the fact that Saudi Arabia itself is a key to regional stability.”

Palestinians “deserve” peace, Herzog said. But after the trauma of the Oct. 7 attacks, the threshold for any kind of Israeli concessions on a Palestinian state seems to have been raised much higher — the price, Herzog said, of unrepentant terrorism.

“We should strive for peace, and they deserve to have peace just like us. But it requires them to disseminate and understand that terror is out of the question under any circumstances,” said Herzog. “There will be a moment where we’ll have to have real peace with our Palestinian neighbors. I dream of that day, but it will take time.” 

As a ceremonial leader, Herzog is not a part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. But the security concerns that he raised are shared by Israelis across the political spectrum. Israelis are still reeling from the Oct. 7 attacks, particularly as hostages slowly start to come home from nearly 500 days in captivity.

“One has to understand the state of mind of Israelis, to come after such a horror and a national trauma, surrounded from seven different frontiers, and expect Israelis to say, ‘Hey guys, we are just — we are withdrawing, we’re pulling out from that settlement,’ or otherwise,” said Herzog. “That’s not realistic at all. It doesn’t make sense to Israelis. They need to see something that makes sense in terms of their personal security and safety.”

After Herzog’s conversation, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani took the stage. Like Herzog, Al Thani spoke of a “wake-up call” that followed the Oct. 7 attacks — but for the Qatari leader, the realization was the inverse of what Herzog described.

Oct. 7 “was a wake-up call for the region, that also we need to address the issue of the Palestinians,” Al Thani said. “We have seen a momentum build around the world about the two-state solution that’s been absent, unfortunately, for a very long time.” 

The Israeli and Qatari leaders met privately earlier in the day on the sidelines of the exclusive gathering in Switzerland.