/ Conferences
“There will be no political horizon unless we first overcome our internal fractures. Everything is connected,” said Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg in a panel on reconstruction, held at Mitvim’s 8th Annual Regional Foreign Policy Conference in November 2025 at the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel. This year’s conference focused on the future of the region and Israeli society in the “day after” the war.
One of the panels was devoted entirely to the question of reconstruction: what “reconstruction” means in the Israeli–Palestinian context, what can be learned from international experiences rebuilding post-war regions, and how to prevent a fragile ceasefire from becoming a dangerous freeze rather than a lever for change. The panel was moderated by Liel Maghen of Mitvim, with MK Karin Elharar, Prof. Trajtenberg, and Sharon Ben-Gio of EcoPeace Middle East.
Maghen explained that his work on the policy paper about global lessons on reconstruction began at “a moment of deep despair,” when he felt unable to imagine a way out of the current reality. “The opportunity Mitvim gave me – to look outward, learn from the experience of other countries, and question what ‘reconstruction’ even means – became a source of inspiration.”
He suggested distinguishing between nostalgia – attempting to return to what once was – and a sober recognition that there is no “going back,” and that what is needed is rebuilding: a deeper, more transformative process, externally and internally.
Reconstruction Begins at Home
MK Karin Elharar focused first and foremost on Israel’s ability to rebuild itself.
“We are two years after the worst event to happen to the State of Israel since its founding,” she said, “and three years after the establishment of the worst government we have known since the founding of the state. These things are intertwined.”
According to Elharar, it is impossible to seriously discuss regional reconstruction or participation in regional and international initiatives without first undertaking deep internal repair within Israel.
She outlined two essential conditions:
Internal political change
A state commission of inquiry
“Reconstruction cannot begin before we undergo fundamental internal repair – and first and foremost, replacing the government,” she said. A commission of inquiry is needed not only to assign responsibility but as a fundamental step in restoring public trust in state institutions.
As part of this internal repair, Elharar emphasized the need to return to the values of a Jewish, democratic, liberal state. “You cannot talk about regional reconstruction without returning to the values that make us part of the liberal democratic world.”
If Israel continues drifting away from that value-based path, she argued, it will be difficult to see how it can participate in broad regional or international efforts.
She also reflected on her experience as Minister of Energy leading regional projects – especially the Prosperity Project for Israeli–Jordanian–Palestinian cooperation on water and energy. Such projects, she explained, rely on mutual interests rather than “great love,” but they are the factual basis for neighborly relations. Yet they require strong domestic civic foundations: an education system that fosters tolerance, efficient ministries, less bureaucracy, and the ability to make courageous decisions amid rising populism.
“Do Not Try to Turn the Wheel Back”
Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg offered a different framing of “reconstruction.”
“When we speak of reconstruction,” he said, “what echoes in our ears is returning things to how they were—restoring the crown to its former glory. But that is exactly what is not required of us now.”
October 7 not only shattered a security conception, he argued, but it also exposed a profound collapse within state institutions and the public’s faith in them.
“State institutions collapsed, and our trust as citizens in the values we thought were foundational—those collapsed as well.”
In such a situation, Trajtenberg said, “reconstruction is not a cosmetic fix or a return to a previous state, but a fundamentally different rebuilding.”
This requires confronting deep-rooted issues Israel has postponed for years:
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israel’s relations with Gaza and Hezbollah
religion–state relations and the ultra-Orthodox arrangement
the cost-of-living crisis
The education crisis
and more.
“Wherever you look – we have not truly dealt with the problem,” he said. “We kicked the can down the road – out of arrogance, blindness, procrastination.”
Any reconstruction effort that ignores the roots of the crisis, he warned, will fail.
“We must look our fundamental problems in the eye and say: this time will be different.”
Trajtenberg linked internal repair and political reconstruction: there can be no political horizon without addressing social fractures, but those fractures cannot be bridged without a political process that offers a real horizon.
“Everything is connected,” he repeated. “It all comes down to our willingness to build a new and better version of the State of Israel.”
Regional Cooperation and Infrastructure
Sharon Ben-Gio of EcoPeace Middle East brought a regional and practical perspective. She explained that only a week after the war broke out, EcoPeace and Mitvim—together with public-health experts and other civil-society bodies—created a working group to anticipate the devastating consequences of the fighting on Gaza’s population and on regional stability. Their goal was to connect immediate response with long-term thinking about the day after.
“In times without crisis, it is easy to remain in the status quo,” she said. “Crisis forces us to move.”
Rather than reinvent the wheel, EcoPeace looked to build on existing frameworks – especially IMEC, the India–Middle East–Europe Corridor. This regional transport and logistics corridor, she argued, could provide an economic and logistical umbrella for reconstruction, provided it is anchored in regional cooperation and clear political agreements.
She illustrated the immense practical challenges: studies commissioned by EcoPeace show that post-war Gaza will require around 5,500 trucks entering every single day – compared to only a few hundred before the war. This will require Jordanian corridors, passage through Palestinian Authority areas, and addressing bottlenecks at crossings.
“It forces us to rethink infrastructure and regional cooperation,” she said, “and it can also advance broader regional initiatives.”
Ben-Gio described two EcoPeace regional projects:
expanding the Prosperity water-energy model with a central desalination plant in Gaza linked to Israel’s water system, enabling the sale of Palestinian water to Jordan;
developing the Jordan–Saudi Arabia–Sinai region as a hub for renewable energy production for export to Europe.
“These projects,” she explained, “are not only environmental or economic. They create a shared network of interests between Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab states—bringing stabilizing forces into Gaza who have no interest in a return to instability.”
Reconstruction as the Link Between Internal, Regional, and Political Renewal
In the concluding discussion, Liel Maghen returned to international experiences where total collapses eventually became starting points for new orders—across Europe, the Balkans, and other regions. He asked the panelists about the role of citizens and grassroots initiatives.
Trajtenberg reiterated that “external-security” and “internal-society” cannot be separated.
“There will be no political horizon unless we overcome our internal fractures—but we also cannot overcome them without a political process that offers a horizon.”
He pointed to historic moments when democratic societies reinvented themselves—post–Civil War America, post-Glorious Revolution Britain, France under de Gaulle—and succeeded in rebuilding their foundations.
“Now it is our turn,” he said. “For this to happen, we must decide that these issues are solvable, that they are in our hands, and that we are willing to pay the price to build a better country.”
In this sense, the reconstruction panel at Mitvim’s 8th Annual Conference was not just about rebuilding homes and infrastructure – it was about redefining what a stable, just state looks like, and how internal repair, regional reconstruction, and a political process must be intertwined.
It framed reconstruction not as a technical project but as a broad social-political endeavor—one through which a wounded society learns to acknowledge loss, confront its failures, and jointly envision—with Palestinian and regional partners—a better shared future.
Photo & video: Constantin Grossman
