Two-State Solution For Israel And Palestine: Israel And Hamas Not Interested
Biden: To
Achieve Peace, Palestinians Should Acknowledge The Right Of Israel As An
Independent Jewish State To Exist
Main
Points:
1. Two-State
Solution was the only way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic
state.
2. Two-State
Solution is the only way to give
Palestinians the state they were entitled to.
3. France and
India have backed a 2-State Solution for Israel and Palestine, the two stake
holders have not expressed their agreement on it.
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New
Age Islam Special Correspondent
27 May 2021
Soon after
the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on May 21, 2021, the
US President Joe Biden said that the Two-State Solution for Israel and
Palestine was the only solution for a lasting peace in the region and that he
would build a major package with other countries to help rebuild Gaza. Biden
also said that to achieve peace, Palestinians should acknowledge the right of
Israel as an independent Jewish state to exist.
Speaking in
a press conference on May 23, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said
that ultimately the Two-State Solution was the only way to ensure Israel's
future as a Jewish and democratic state and of course the only way to give
Palestinians the state they were entitled to.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded man
during clashes with Israeli security forces in front of the Dome of the Rock
Mosque at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City Monday, May 10,
2021. Israeli police clashed with Palestinian protesters at a flashpoint
Jerusalem holy site on Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that is
pushing the contested city to the brink of eruption. Palestinian medics said at
least 180 Palestinians were hurt in the violence at the Al-Aqsa... Mahmoud
Illean
-----
This is the
first time in decades of hostilities between Hamas and Israel that the US
leaders have started to speak of a two-state solution and of the entitlement of
a state for Palestinians and of equal rights of Palestinians. In the same
conference Blinken said that the reconstruction, rebuilding what has been lost,
engaging both sides in trying to start to make real improvements in the lives
of people so that Israelis and Palestinians can live with equal measures of
security, peace and dignity had to start now.
But is such
a solution feasible and even acceptable to both Hamas and Israel and whether
the US is sincere in seeking a viable and just solution of the conflict or will
it only be an excercise to create a small portion of land for Palestinians as
Palestine and thrust a stooge like Mahmoud Abbas as its President?
It is
evident from what Blinken has said that the process of reconstruction of Gaza
will only be a ploy to unsettle Hamas in Gaza because he said that the
reconstruction and rebuilding of Gaza will be co-ordinated with an
"independent authority" (meaning Palestinian Authority headed by
Mahmoud Abbas) and not with a "quasi-government authority" (meaning
Hamas).
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Secondly,
though France and India have backed a 2-State Solution for Israel and
Palestine, the two stake holders have not expressed their agreement on it.
While Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu ( as Biden fondly calls him) is
silent on the proposal, Hamas has very harshly rejected it. In a recent
statement on Al Jazeera TV senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al Zahhar said that
the land of Palestine was not suitable for a two-state solution and that the
land of Palestine was an Arab and Islamic land and they will liberate it with
the help of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah as they are enemies of Hamas' enemy and
they will co-operate with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah on all levels. He advised
Benjamin Netanyahu to go and live with his father in the US.
This
statement speaks of the hard stand Hamas has on the proposed 2-State Solution.
Hamas's only position is that Israel should evacuate the land of Palestine and
that they will fully liberate it from Israel.
On the
other hand, Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier expressed his plans over Palestine.
During the 2019 poll campaigns, he had pledged to expand Israeli sovereignty
over the occupied West Bank. Previously he had flirted with the idea of
annexation of Judea and Samaria ( West Bank) as part of an apparent drive to
prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
During the
same time, Israeli newspaper Haaretz had conducted a poll on the issue of
annexation of West Bank in which 42% of Jews had supported Israel's proposed
annexation of West Bank. Encouraged by the public support Bibi had said that he
might reoccupy Gaza Strip.
With this
kind of hysteria that Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli media has created
among the Jews of Israel, it seems almost impossible that Benjamin Netanyahu
and other politicians of Israel will agree to the 2-State Solution because even
if Hamas agrees to come to the negotiation table, it will be Israel who would
need to make concessions and any concession will jeopardise his political
career. And any negotiation or agreement without involving Hamas will not hold
ground and will fail.
Therefore,
Israel will also not accept the 2-State Solution. Wy this is not possible on
the part of Netanyahu or any Israeli head of state has been very precisely and
crisply summarised by Bernard Chazelle in his article titled "Why Israel
won't accept a Two State Solution. He writes:
"A
peace agreement would require Israel to agree on 'dismantling 120 settlements;
relocating 110.000 settlers: swapping pre-67 land for settlement blocks already
in Israeli hands; rerouting the separation barrier; ceding control over 40% of
West Bank; sharing Jerusalem as a capital:; letting in 10-50 thousand refugees;
giving away vital water rights; returning the Golan to Syria ( no comprehensive
peace without it); engaging Hamas; facing violent domestic opposition;
endangering careers and lives of Israeli leaders; last but not the least,
admitting that two-thirds of Israel's history has been a monumental blunder.'
In short,
for a Two-State Solution Israel has to surrender a large part of Israel which
is not possible even for Netanyahu. Perhaps the Two -State Solution conjured up
by Biden's mind is based on a small part of West Bank ruled by Mahmoud Abbas or
any other stooge like Najibullah as Russia had in Afghanistan or US has Ashraf
Ghani in Afghanistan or others in Egypt, Iraq and Libya.
Rockets are launched from the Gaza
Strip towards Israel, Monday, May. 10, 2021. Hamas militants fired dozens of
rockets into Israel on Monday, including a barrage that set off air raid sirens
as far away as Jerusalem, after hundreds of Palestinians were hurt in clashes
with Israeli police at a flashpoint religious site in the contested holy city.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Khalil Hamra
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That's not
possible in Palestine as power equations in and Palestine and Middle East are
changing fast. Hamas has emerged as a formidable force in the recent conflict
and Iran has emerged as a fulcrum point in this conflict. Syria and Hezbollah
are also with Hamas. Rockets and technological support provided to Hamas by
Iran started reaching and hitting Israel's military and nuclear sites.
Therefore, Israel faces a tougher resistance in Palestine now.
This is the
reason the US is also trying to persuade Bibi to agree on the 2-State Solution
and talking of equal rights to Arabs in Israel. The US and Israel have always
followed the strategy of fighting wars in enemy territories incurring limited
damage and loss to their own country and citizens. For the first time, Hamas
with the help of Iran took the war to Israel's doorsteps. Hence the talk of
peace, equality, dignity and right to exist.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-politics/biden-palestine-israel-hamas-two-state/d/124892