AS BBC.com has noted, Western leaders’ unbridled support for Israel and its strategies in the war against Hamas is shifting as the broader plight of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank are taken into account. For example, 3 of Joe Biden’s key departures from unquestioned support for Israel’s tactics in its war against Hamas have been notable:
0 – Biden & Blinken are pressing for a pause in Gaza with water, food, & fuel to be distributed to Gazans as part of a limited pause;
1 – Israel will not provide security admin in Gaza post-conflict; the Israelis are pushing back;
2 – Israel must be part of a real, two state solution for both Gaza and the West Bank;
These are very difficult targets because Israeli Prime Minister has been working against this for the past 30 years. And within the past year, Netanyahu has added to his Cabinet two far-right members who alsos have been working to prevent any two-state solution. Jake Tapper raises the Poison in the Netanyahu Cabinet issue very directly.
And Israeli media back Jake’s arguments:
Israel Times -” Bezalel Smotrich rode unfiltered radicalism and unforgiving politics to power as the Religious Zionism leader’s political ascent has been marked by extreme positions from the start. Settler deadly attacks on West Bank Palestinians since Oct 7th is now 170+ aided and abetted by Smotrich’s Israeli police.
Haaretz.com– Bezalel Smotrich: A Minister and a War Criminal
Israel Times – Defense Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was widely panned for warning of renewed Jewish-Arab intercommunal riots while Touring Sderot. The far-right minister says he’s ordered police chiefs to prepare for a repeat of ethnic violence in mixed cities, drawing accusations of fearmongering.
Israel Times – Describes how Itamar Ben-Givr and Benjamin Netanyahu both fanned the flames of radical dissension against Yitzhak Rabin who was called a traitor chanting ‘death to Rabin,’ for his support of the Oslo Accords and a true Two State agreement with Palestinians. Less than a month later at a huge rally in favor of Rabin, he was shot to death in Zion Square.
Two State Prospects
The net result is that prospects for a viable Two State solution demanded by Joe Biden is greeted with very dim likelihood. Zionist Benjamin Netanyahu has gotten nearly all he wants to prevent any Two State Solution.
1 – Hamas’ bestial violence against 1200 Israelis has terrified the bulk of the Israeli population that now believes that Hamas has to be eradicated. This is because Hamas will be plotting more deadly technical attacks which will elude defenses like the Kibbutz bomb-shelters – death traps. Existential survival fear will be available for Netanyahu to exploit.
2 – 240 Hostages either unrecovered or lost will cement the essential existential fear. But the downside for Netanyahu is that he was in charge and had split the loyalty of IDF members with his disarming of the Israeli judicial system.
3 – Netanyahu guessed right. The Arab and Muslim states that could’ve attacked Israel from the North[Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey were split by ethnic, religious, and economic divisions], from the South [Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia were incompatible or tied in with Israel already], and from the East[Jordan, Iraq, Iran again were accommodating with Israel]. And the US providing 2 carriers, $14.5 billion in military aid and President Biden immediate trip to TelAviv plus full support for any defense measure [now subject to more humanitarian limitations]. This was a big time plus. – US and possibly European support in case of any spillover or broadening of the conflict.
It is interesting to see what the Press see as the prospect for Peace:
NYTimes – Biden Says a ‘Real’ Palestinian State Must Come After War, doubling down on his pledge.
WashingtonPost – Cites the sudden and huge surge of interest in Osama Bin Laden’s #LettertoAmerica on TikTok in which bin Laden justified 3000 US deaths because of US support for Israel’s complete takeover of Palestine. But bin Laden also criticized Western immorality and debauchery, including acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling and trading with interest. So along with US culture and business practices being absorbed/imposed on the Muslim World, bin Laden decried the lack of leading technical and economic achievement in the Muslim World.
NPR – In Oct 2023 examines the barriers to a 2 state solution starting in with the 1948partition to Nov 2023. In 2012 Gallup found 59% of all Palestinians supported a 2 State Solution. In 2023 Palestinian support had dropped to 24%.. Pew polls in Sep 2023 found 35% of Israelis would accept “some ” 2 State Solution down 15% from 2013 support.
There are 6 major barriers to a 2 State Solution
1 – The unfair 1947 partition of Palestine giving Jews with 33% of the population, and 7% of land holding rights 57% of tPalestine land including economically desirable Mediterranean sectors.
2 – Subsequent to the partition in 1948 700,000 Palestinians were driven out of Jewish sectors despite the UN prohibition. Right of return from Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt is an ongoing issue;
3 – Illegal Jewish settlements have grown from 520,000 in 2012 to 700,000 in 2022. And under Bezalel Smotrich in 2023 illegal settlements have grown by 10%.;
4 – The presence of 4 Palestinian parties – Hamas, PIJ, PFLP, and Fatah having different agendas complicates peace negotiations as only Fatah agrees to the existence of Israel;
5 – Hamas in Gaza and PIJ ‘s reputation for brutality was redoubled in Oct 7th attacks and now Israeli no longer have confidence in IDF defense against Hamas/PIJ existential threats; But Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu now has US -approved right of defense which includes attacking any structures and sites tht might be used by Hamas and its tunnels and disguised command centres;
6 – After the 1967 6 Day War, the boundaries of many sectors, especially Jerusalem are doubtful;
But the overriding issue for the two state solution is the treachery of the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. On the Israeli side, Benjamin Netanyahu has been Prime Minister 6 times and held key cabinet posts from 1987 through the crucial 1990 to 1995 period where he has worked tirelessly to prevent the Oslo Accords or any moves to a 2 State Solution from succeeding. Now Netanyahu has the support in his cabinet of the far-right fellow Zionists Belzalel Smotrich and Otamar Ben-Givr.
But Netanyahu has been aided and abated by Palestinian leaders. Aahya Sinwar and Mahammoud Deif plus PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah [based in Damascus and Beiruit], all of whom acted without popular approval [last elections were in 2006] for the attacks. Given the sheer bestiality of the Oct 7 attacks on Israelis, all Bibi Netanyahu or the IDF staff have do is show another Palestine Horrific Violence Video to justify their killing of now 11,000 Gazan civilians while blastiing major parts of Gaza to rubble , starving 2million Gazans of food, water, fuel and any sense of safety. What Palestinian leaders have done is to force press civilians Gazans into “living” through the Israeli return savage brutality .
Friedrich Nietzche’s observation rings true here –
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.