Following his recent trip to Israel, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) says he believes that the Jewish state is “as close as I’ve understood it to be to ending” the war in Gaza.

“The language around aid has changed. [Israel talks] about surging aid and they talk about ending this war quickly,” Landsman, who discussed his trip on Wednesday with Jewish Insider, said. “They talk about getting the hostages back no matter what, and whether there’s a deal or not, they’re getting them home. So, they obviously can’t speak to what that looks like or what that means, but I got the sense that this should and hopefully will be the end.”

He made a similar comment in a statement on his trip shared with JI, which stated: “The end of the war appears close, and G-d willing it ends very soon. With it, rebuilding of Gaza can begin. The first glimpses of this ‘day after’ plan can be seen, and the Arab nations that have declared the end of Hamas must play a huge role in what happens next.” His comments came as Israel weighs the most recent ceasefire proposal, and as the IDF prepares to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of plans to take over Gaza City in the coming months.

Regarding next steps, Landsman wrote in the statement, “This is a moment of truth for Qatar, to be sure. With senior Hamas leaders in their midst, detaining them – if negotiations continue to falter – may be necessary. This could hasten the end of the war and the release of the hostages. They must do everything in their power – now.”

Landsman told JI that he believes “everyone should be putting pressure on all parties to end the war. I think it is entirely appropriate to put pressure on the Israeli government to end this war. I also think it is necessary for people to put pressure on Qatar and Egypt to end this war, to use all of the leverage they have, particularly with the senior Hamas leaders that are in Qatar.”

“I believe that’s true to some extent, to a lesser extent, for folks in Egypt to say we’re done, you have to accept a return, a deal that ends this war and returns hostages. The pressure also needs to be placed on these 22 Arab countries, and I believe Egypt and Qatar are on that list, but the other 20 who have said, in an unprecedented move, that Hamas needs to disarm and disband. Now they’ve got to turn that into action and establish a coalition with the United States and Israel and Europe to end this war,” he continued. 

The Ohio congressman was one of 14 House Democrats who took part in a delegation to the Jewish state last week. The trip was organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, which organized a similar visit to Israel for House Republicans the week prior that overlapped for several days with the Democrats’ trip.

Landsman told JI that he viewed the trip as an opportunity to accomplish three main objectives: to be available as a resource to answer questions from Israeli leaders and build relationships with newer members of Congress like himself; to get fully briefed on the work being done to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza; and to engage with stakeholders in the broader peace process in the region. “Going sort of allows me to do all three of those things,” he said.

Landsman said that this trip highlighted the similarities between the American and Israeli people and as citizens of liberal democracies where citizens are free to air frustrations about their respective governments. 

“The frustration with the government is something that many Israelis feel. They are frustrated with this government, especially as it relates to Gaza,” Landsman said. “And I appreciate that because it’s a liberal democracy. Israelis are just as critical of this government, if not more, than folks around the world or here in the United States.”

Landsman told JI that the Israeli officials and citizens he spoke with urged him and others on the trip to continue supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship during moments when they took issue with some of the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“They remind you that they would never want anyone to abandon them, as we would never want anyone to abandon us. It’s an important reminder that being critical of the government when you disagree is part of democracy, it’s why democracy and freedom are so important,” he said. “There’s a line. In terms of having the strength and courage to both stand up to and criticize your partners, while also having the strength and courage to not abandon them, especially a partnership like this one and in an existential moment such as this.”

The Ohio Democrat offered a similar thought in his official statement, in which he wrote: “Instead of abandonment, many of us have chosen to visit the region, to show up, and to support the Israeli government when we agree and to push back when we don’t. We know that abandonment may be politically expedient, but it is strategically wrong. It will render our country unreliable to those who we need to ensure global security and global prosperity.”

“We must always remain a reliable partner for democracy and peace. The United States of America does not abandon its allies, nor will we do so here,” the statement continued. 

Landsman told JI, “We should not abandon Ukraine and our European allies. We should not abandon, and I don’t believe we will, one of our strongest partners in peace and democracy and freedom, and that’s the state of Israel.”

“We want people to stick with us. That’s why I used the word ‘reliable’ in my statement. We need people to stick with us for our economic prosperity, for national security. If we’re not sticking with others, people will stop sticking with us, and that is very bad for the United States,” the Democratic lawmaker said. 

“This is why we worry about [President Donald] Trump or any president that starts to undermine our relationships with folks across the world. It becomes very, very costly and very dangerous to the United States. We wouldn’t want anyone to look at this government [in the U.S.] and say, ‘Well, we’re gonna back away from our commitment, our investments in America.’ That would be terrible,” he continued.

Landsman said he believed his worldview was shared by the majority of the American people.

“When I come home and have these conversations, I get a very common-sense position. It’s where I believe most people are when I talk to them. They worry about the humanitarian situation. How can you not? They want this war to end. How can you not? They get frustrated with a government that has people like [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich. Of course, they should,” Landsman explained. 

“But they also know that Hamas can’t stay, and Israel has to figure out a way to win this war or end it so that folks can rebuild without a terrorist organization in their way. They know that Iran is the barrier to everything good in the region. They know if you start to undermine the partnership with Israel, the only people who win are folks associated with the regime and the terror networks they fund,” he added.

Israel is finalizing plans this week for a ground offensive into Gaza City, with the goal of having fully evacuated the city by the symbolic date of Oct. 7, 2025. Speaking at his weekly Sunday meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would “complete the victory” over Hamas. Tens of thousands of IDF reservists will begin receiving call-up notices today in preparation for the offensive.

The plans come amid a renewed push for Palestinian statehood, led by France and Saudi Arabia, that has seen a surge in support from global heads of state, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 

Palestinian statehood efforts also have support in Congress, where Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is leading a group of House Democrats in calling on President Donald Trump to recognize a Palestinian state.

But both objectives — “total victory” over Hamas and Palestinian statehood — are at present incompatible with the realities on the ground.

Netanyahu has not wavered from his stated objective of “total victory” — even as he has yet to articulate, in practical terms, what that looks like — or how the Gaza City offensive will achieve it.

The goal of “total victory” over Hamas also runs into the challenge that the U.S. and Western allies faced amid the spread of ISIS a decade ago — that eliminating a group’s top leadership (as Israel has done in its targeting of Yahya and Mohammed Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, among others), but not its ideology, will attract new recruits to swell the ranks left empty by those who came before them. 

Outside of Israel, efforts to unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood have ignored core challenges facing both Palestinian society and government, the former of which was plagued by antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric long before Oct. 7, 2023, and the latter of which has for decades been mired in corruption and nepotism and lacks the ground support needed for long-term stability.

Further, leading Israeli officials have described the renewed Palestinian statehood push as a reward for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and view a path to statehood rooted in the deadliest attack in Israeli history as obscene — and one that ignores the long path of deradicalization and reforms necessary before such measures are discussed.

Marcus Sheff, the executive director of IMPACT-se, an NGO that monitors and provides recommendations for curricula and educational materials across the Arab world, noted that many of the European governments that back unilateral Palestinian statehood are the same nations that “directly or indirectly” fund Palestinian curricula that incite violence against Jews and Israelis, damaging efforts to prepare a population for statehood.

“To talk about any Palestinian state without taking on, headfirst, the necessity of deradicalizing Palestinians through the education system, and even worse, being a party to their radicalization by financing it, is actually quite bizarre,” Sheff added.

The limitations of reality are a reminder that wars are fought in clashes and not catchphrases, in policies rather than platitudes. It’s easier to declare a Palestinian state than to do the work of nation-building, just as it is easier to pledge “total victory” over a deeply entrenched ideology than to strategically chart the course of its defeat.