IRONICALLY the ongoing war—between an apartheid and power- intoxicated state of Israel and the Gaza-dominated Palestinian faction- Hamas—unveils the fact that for the last 75 years the search of a durable peace between the two sides yet remains a false dawn because of the decades old geopolitical honeymoon enjoyed between Israel and its western partners. The Arab notion of normalization of relations with Israel notwithstanding, an inarguable and irrevocable truth is: the key to peace in the Middle East region only viably lies in the implementation of a two-state solution: the establishment of an independent Palestinian state (side by side the Israeli state) based on 1967 borders, having East Jerusalem as its capital which, in return, ensures Israel’s security. The sooner, the western powers and Israel realise it, the better.
There can be no denying that for the Muslim Ummah—the embodiment of 57 members of Muslim states–seeking peaceful resolutions of Israeli-Arab conflict and the Kashmir dispute remain the pivot of the OIC mandate.
In June 2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel that rising tensions with the Palestinians, including through advancing settlement activity, threatened the expansion of normalization, agreements with Arab nations, and particularly Saudi Arabia. The Carnegie Endowment for Peace in 2020 argued: ‘’Formalizing Saudi-Israeli relations would help each country achieve a number of strategic and military goals. But if and when Saudi Arabia and Israel do establish official relations, the results will not necessarily be as transformative as any party proclaims. In fact, the transformations may not work in their favour.’’
In tandem, the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan addressing the UN General Assembly, recently warned that. “Security in the Middle East region requires the acceleration of…a just, comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue; the solution must be based on resolutions in the international arena and must bring about a peace that allows [the] Palestinian people to have an independent state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” added Saudi foreign minister.
Needless to say, the majority opinion in the OIC goes against the Arab States’ selective-cum- pro-Israeli drive without truly addressing the issue of the Palestinian right to an independent state. Make no mistake, in their choice of convergence with the Israeli state, the Arab states can ignore the Palestinian reality, but they cannot vehemently ignore the consequences of ignoring that reality.
Given the past record of the US backing of Israel, the Palestinians seriously doubted that Washington may stymie the Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich’s devious agenda to terminate the Palestinians from their own lands. They also doubted that Benjamin Netanyahu can ever uphold the norms of the Oslo Peace Accords (1993). Needless to say, for decades, the Middle Eastern region remains the hub of west’s war industry. An insight into the peace diplomacy vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict argues that the western diplomacy has unjustifiably helped the successive Israeli governments in extending an occupation-cum- annexation strategy vis-à-vis the Palestinian territories. Thus, following the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli Six Day war in 1967, Tel Aviv has unjustifiably taken control over the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Since an armed struggle is legitimate under international law, the Gaza- based Palestinian community cannot be ostracized simply because it is controlled by the Hamas faction. The western double standard is obvious when it allows Israeli aggression against the Palestinians as Israel’s defence right; the west defines the Palestinian right of self- defence as an instrument of terrorism. Yet the Israeli siege of Al-Aqsa mosque and that of the Gaza Strip, all remain the serious breaches of international law. By all means, Netanyahu’s agenda is to expand Israeli control over the Palestinian Occupied Territories (POT), currently endorsed by the Knesset’s judicial reforms, giving lease to Netanyahu’s Jews settlements ultra vires. Nonetheless, for the last 56 years, the writ of a ruled based international order is in complete shambles because of the western backed- Israeli notion: might is right. Moreover, Israel’s bombing in Gaza’s civil population is a transgression of the article 51 of the Geneva Convention. In Gaza, more than 260000 people have been homeless.
To conclude, the tapestry of the Arab-Israeli conflict– as endorsed by the ongoing public remonstrance across the globe– is suggestive of the argument: peace in the MENA region is core to the solution of the Palestinian issue. Thus, Pakistan’s stance is clear that it espouses an all-time support to the people of Palestine by strictly adhering to its rationally adopted policy on Israel that it will not establish its diplomatic relations with Israel until the peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute as per the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Ethically, the Arab signatories of the Abraham Accords must inhibit the expansion of their diplomatic relations with Israel. Here, the West should also realise the reality that the future of peaceful relations between Tel Aviv and Tehran is central to the peaceful co-existence between the Palestinians and Israelis. Both the Arab League and OIC have denounced the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. Though the Western Governments, not the people have taken side with a fascist Israeli Government, both China and Russia do not side with the western approach regarding on this issue. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that creating a Palestinian state was the “most reliable” solution for peace in Israel and that fighting alone would not ensure security., ‘’The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.
The UN must focus on the Gaza humanitarian crisis. While de-escalation of the hostilities is an inevitable peace measure, any future peace dialogue that steals the Palestinian demand of an independent state, will fundamentally foil any hopes of peace in the region.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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