A ‘forced’ solution by the US, the UK and France on Israel is needed for peace to come to Palestine
This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 27, 2023 – December 3, 2023
As the war of mind games raged over the internet and social media on who is right or wrong in the ongoing one-sided war between Israel and what is left of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, many have only now realised that this conflict is already 75 years old.
As a caged population in Gaza in what the world acknowledges as the largest open-air “prison”, the misery of living in barricades that restrict movement in the West Bank, while others are being chased away from their homes and live as life-long refugees in Jordan, Syria, Iraq and throughout the Middle East and with the likelihood of not returning, one surely expects there will certainly be resistance and fight back from the Palestinians with some of them becoming radicalised like Hamas.
Israel cannot continue to oppress the Palestinians, which it has been doing for more than 75 years, and expect them not to resist the occupation.
Yes, this current war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians that killed 1,200. But thanks to the postings on social media that have given the Palestinians their side of the story and a better historical perspective of the conflict, thus taking the common narrative away from the mainstream international media like CNN and BBC and the American right-wing media Fox News that Israel is always the victim, more questions that were not asked previously are being asked and answered today.
The choreographed news angle of the international mainstream media has been challenged, so much so that they themselves have to cover the “other” side of the story and become more objective.
With new answers and visuals available, more people all over the world are taking to the streets to highlight the plight of the Palestinians, including those never seen before, in large scale in the US and Europe.
Part of these pressures have pushed the US and Israel, as I write, to agree to a temporary ceasefire, or what seems more likely just a pause to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. In the meantime, the Israeli army bombardment continues. Casualties on the Palestinian side have been enormous, with more than 14,000 killed, 6,000 of them children and 4,000 women. Many more are still unaccounted for and buried in the rubble. International media reports note that 1.7 million people have been displaced from their homes across the Gaza Strip since Oct 7.
Will the temporary ceasefire become longer and permanent? Will it lead to peace talks? I doubt so. Without the political will of the superpower US and the support of the UK and France to force Israel to accept a negotiated settlement, there will be no solution in sight.
Without a “forced” peace deal — and pushing the right-wing Israeli government to accept one is a difficult task — there will be no end to the ongoing crisis. If there is no deal on peace, a bigger war, perhaps one that can turn into a regional battlefield, looms around the corner.
Making peace is not easy. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin were killed by their fellow citizens because they preached and opted for peace. But starting a discussion on one is easy.
The formulas and ingredients of long-term permanent peace are already there, many of which were passed by the United Nations (UN) and various peace accords of the past, notably the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords, the 2003 Road Map for Peace, and the two-state solution. One does not need to reinvent the wheel and start the peace process from scratch. Being the more prosperous nation and having one of the strongest militaries in the world, Israel is in a better position to agree on what is already an advantageous deal for them.
In an article that I wrote 15 years ago and revisited recently (The Edge, Issue 1498, Nov 13), I quote: “The solutions to the conflict are all there in the form of resolutions passed by the UN and Saudi Arabia’s Middle East ‘peace for land deal’, otherwise known as the 2007 Beirut Declaration. The UN 1967 Resolution 242 calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from all territories occupied in 1967 — Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
“UN Resolution 194 reaffirms the right of Palestinian refugees (who were driven out of their land in 1948) to return, including to areas in what is Israel today. Additionally, the Beirut Declaration called for Israel’s acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. While the return of refugees is no longer attainable and unacceptable to Israel, as this will mean turning Israel into an Arab-majority country, financial compensation could be acceptable to Palestinian refugees, just as the Jews were compensated by the German government for the Holocaust. In return, all Arab states will establish normal relations with Israel and consider the conflict ‘ended’.
“The main obstacles to peace — the status of Jerusalem, final borders and issue of Jewish settlements, the return of or financial compensation for refugees, and a dispute over water — cannot be solved by Israel and Palestine alone but needs the direct involvement of the US and Europe. To establish a strong foundation for peace, there is also a need to set up an international peacekeeping force.”
Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned professor and best-selling author, in an article written in November and published in Common Dreams, a non-profit US-based news website serving the progressive community, said one way to secure peace would be through the powers of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
“The UNSC would act on the basis of multiple existing resolutions dating back more than 50 years, including UNSC Resolutions 242, 238, 1397, 1515 and 2334. Peacekeepers under UNSC would be drawn from the Arab nations to disarm violent militia groups that threaten Israel, including Hamas, and to provide security for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Sachs added: “A real and lasting peace can only be achieved together with political rights for the people of Palestine. Netanyahu’s war is manifestly not in pursuit of a just peace. Netanyahu and his cabinet explicitly reject the two-state solution, aim to subdue the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and propose more Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and permanent Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
“Their policies amounted to apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Precisely because of these injustices, the war is likely to escalate into a regional war, drawing in Hezbollah, Iran and others, unless a just political solution is established.”
So, where is the just political solution going to come from? It has to come from the US, with the support from the UK and France and for these three countries not to use their veto power in the UNSC to scuttle international peace efforts and continue legitimising Israel’s occupation over the Palestinians.
Last month, the UNGA adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. It also demands “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped inside the enclave. This adoption of a non-binding Jordanian resolution was supported by a majority of the members, with 120 votes in favour, only 14 against and 45 abstentions.
But the actionable resolution lies in the UNSC, where decisions are made with a majority of nine votes of the 15 Council members’ votes. However, all decisions are rejected if one of the five permanent members of the Security Council (the US, the UK, France, China and Russia) makes use of its veto.
That is why the only solution is a “forced” peace. And only the superpowers can do this. If not, the conflict will continue for many more years and, in the end, Israel, if it loses the media narrative that it now dominates, will be chastised by the world community.
Never underestimate the power of anti-war movements, street protests, trade and product boycotts, for it is proven to be able to change the course of history. The anti-war campaigns in the US and Europe basically forced the US out of Vietnam while the anti-apartheid movements dismantled white South Africa. Similarly, if the momentum continues, it can also push the US, the UK and France to force Israel to resolve the conflict.
Azam Aris is an editor emeritus at The Edge
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