Experts with experience in Palestine conflict history have discussed the end game situation in the Israel - Gaza war in various media.
Direction to the Endgame
Matt Galloway on the CBC program, the Current, discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict and its deadly impact on civilians inside Gaza on Nov. 2, 2023 with Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut; and Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.
Rami Khouri observes that the situation has been disastrous. He focuses on the Palestinian territories, Middle East geopolitics and American foreign policy in the region.
But, you know, part of it is the Palestinian leadership's fault, and part of it is by design of Israel to divide and conquer the Palestinians. And they've worked that very well, including by helping entrench Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I mean, this is the plan from Netanyahu as well. I mean, it's been leaked and reported in the Israeli press that he found Hamas's governance of Gaza Strip useful to him and useful to the Israelis.
none of Israel's partners, not only do they not hold Israel accountable for its actions, its illegal actions like settlement building and all these things which have made two states impossible, impossible, but they're shielding those actions in the international fora, preventing any kind of pressure to mount on Israel to to come to terms. And if it doesn't, if it doesn't face that pressure, it has no incentive to pull back. Because, again, you have 750,000 settlers now in the occupied West Bank. If you're going to pull those people back in a country in which you have voting rights and those people vote as well, it's pretty much impossible. They're not going to move those back. You know, Israel, its politicians need the incentive to take those kind of actions, and they have no incentive whatsoever to take those kind of actions because, you know, the Western backers of Israel, you know, America, it's driven by its domestic politics when it comes to this issue is not a foreign policy issue in the United States. It is a domestic policy issue. And that severely limits what how the U.S. can operate vis a vis the Israelis. And so it makes peace extremely difficult. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)
Omar Rahman comments that we are seeing a more accentuated variety of the kind of pain and anguish and anger that we have felt for most of our lives.
I was born in 1948 when this conflict reached its peak. And so we've seen this before. The actions by all concerned parties have seen Hamas attack Israel before. But the incredible unanimity and vehemence of the Western support for Israel to keep going with this attack and killing and killing. But the Western support is really something new and troubling. We're seeing a genocide live on TV. Starving populations and the West mostly, including Canada, has been saying, well, it's not time for a cease fire.
Clearly, attacking civilians is not acceptable, whoever does it. But the Israelis have killed far more civilians than Hamas has killed, as you know. So if people are going to discuss this issue honestly, they have to apply the same criteria to both sides. So the aim is to find the solution that allows the Jewish majority state of Israel and a Palestinian state next to it to live side by side with equal sovereignty and equal rights. The Americans give lip service to it. The Canadians used to be very good at supporting refugee rights. The Canadians were the gavel holders for the refugee issue after the Madrid peace conference. The Europeans have all become much more hard liner. The fundamental idea that Israelis and Palestinians are human beings with the same rights under law and under God is not accepted by Israel. And until it's accepted, there's going to be conflict. And if there's conflict, there's going to be all kinds of terrible things happening. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)
CBC News on the The National, October 31, 2023, reported on a leaked document that outlines a plan of Israel for Gaza.
Bernie Sanders offers an opinion in the Guardian that there cannot be a return to the status quo that existed in Gaza before the war.
An immediate humanitarian response is vitally important, but it is equally important for Israel to have a political strategy. It cannot bomb its way to a long-term solution. Such a strategy must include, as minimum first steps: a clear promise that Palestinians displaced in the fighting will have the absolute right to safely return to their homes; a commitment to broader peace talks to advance a two-state solution in the wake of this war; an abandonment of Israeli efforts to carve up and annex the West Bank; and a commitment to work with the international community to build genuine Palestinian governing capacity.
The United States, which provides $3.8bn a year in military aid to Israel, should make it clear that these are the conditions of our solidarity. Just as we want Israel to be a vibrant democracy, safe from terrorist attacks, we also want justice and dignity for the Palestinian people. That’s not going to happen with Hamas running the Gaza Strip. It is also not going to happen with continued Israeli domination of Palestinian life. (Sanders, 2023)
An article in the Middle East and Africa section of the Economist about Hamas and Israel suggests that Israel’s prime minister is ill-equipped for war and peace. Inside Israel a political battle is raging over the conduct of the war, its aftermath and who makes decisions. At its heart is Binyamin Netanyahu, the dominant figure in Israeli politics for over two decades, who may now be the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
he has become a symbol of implacable hostility to a two-state solution at a time when Israeli commitment to it in some form is essential as part of any “day after” plan. That is so as to maintain American support and to sustain the Abraham accords, which established diplomatic links with a group of Arab states. In the absence of clear government direction the Israeli defence establishment is doing all the planning. Its preferred solution is to see the PA ultimately return to Gaza, which it controlled until Hamas’s coup in 2007. The Palestinian leadership is clear that any return to Gaza would require Israeli assurances on reviving a moribund diplomatic process towards a two-state solution. (Bibi Netanyahu Is the Wrong Man in the Wrong Place, 2023)
The political process to move toward a “day-after” where the vicious war is paused and the challenges of the new governments in Gaza and Israel to maintain peace are supported by Arab neighbours and the United States and its allies in NATO and the EU.
References
Bibi Netanyahu is the wrong man in the wrong place. (2023, October 31). The Economist. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/10/31/bibi-netanyahu-is-the-wrong-man-in-the-wrong-place
CBC News (Executive Producer). (2023). The National [TV series]. https://youtu.be/Wf_CCuDNsPw?si=CkrYZN1iV_rK4ckg&t=471
The Current with Matt Galloway | Live Radio. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current
Sanders, B. (2023, November 2). Gaza needs a humanitarian pause. Then we need a vision of where we go from here | Bernie Sanders. The Guardian. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/gaza-humanitarian-pause-bernie-sanders?CMP=twt_b-usopinion_c-us
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