Dim prospects for end to crisis, even as global worries mount, say experts
Displaced Palestinians wait to collect free food on Jan 27, 2024 in Rafah, southern Gaza. Twenty Palestinians were killed and 150 injured in Israeli air strikes in Gaza as they queued up to collect food aid, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said that day. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. (PHOTO / AP)
Peace in the Middle East hinges on Israel halting its military operations in Gaza, and the two-state solution is the only feasible way to solve the Palestine-Israel conflict, analysts said.
However, these goals remain elusive for the time being, even as Israel confronts increasing internal and external pressures, they added.
Israel’s military action in Gaza started last October after Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, 132 of whom are still in captivity.
More than 100 days later, the Israeli offensive has left swathes of Gaza in ruins, led to about 1.9 million Palestinians being displaced, and killed more than 26,250 people, according to figures from Gaza.
The conflict has also caused chain reactions in the region. For example, the United States has launched airstrikes on Houthi group targets in Yemen, in response to Houthi attacks on Israel-affiliated and bound ships in and around the Red Sea.
Last November, the United Nations Security Council called for the formulation of a “concrete” timetable and a road map toward a two-state solution that would result in a Palestinian state being set up.
China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the US have supported a two-state solution but Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly opposed the idea.
Sven Biscop, director of the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont-Royal Institute for International Relations think tank in Brussels, said that the first step in keeping the Middle East region stable is for Israel to end its military operations, and the sooner the better. “It could then lead to the next step: a big international conference to solve the Palestine-Israel conflict as a whole, but chances, alas, remain small.”
Yu Guoqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of West Asia and African Studies in Beijing, said Israel has high goals for the military operation, such as wiping out Hamas, which now appears to be an increasingly difficult task.
The conflict has also deepened the divide between Israel and the rest of the world as the country faces global criticism over the humanitarian crisis its offensive has created in Gaza. With more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas, the Israeli government is also under domestic pressure to obtain their release.
Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US is also in a quandary.
Israel is Washington’s most important ally in the Middle East, and the Jewish community in the US wields significant influence over US policy in the region, so President Joe Biden’s administration will undoubtedly continue to support Israel.
