LETTER | Only peace can resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict

LETTER | The latest conflagration in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas shows the explosive nature of the situation in the region despite some semblance of previous normalcy and calm.

The failure of Israel’s highly rated Mossad and the IDF to avert the Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces who killed more than 1,200 Israelis shows that intelligence and surveillance alone cannot keep the country at peace.

Human intelligence and competence to resolve the issue is more important. Israel has to undertake serious initiatives to bring peace to the warring sides and not depend on military might alone to ensure its well-being.

For more than two decades, there have been no major peace initiatives to end the crisis like what was done between Egypt, Israel, and Jordan and these results show that peace is the best guarantee of stability and normalcy.

The Arab world was slowly forgetting the Palestinian issue as they had their own issues to contend with. And out of the blue came this attack by Hamas, which has rudely woken the international community that the Israeli-Palestinian issue remains still unresolved and is a threat to the world.

It could become a wider regional conflict if the US, Iran, Turkey, and others get involved. The blast at the hospital in Gaza yesterday, which killed hundreds of people, is one such trigger for a wider war.

Since Hamas took over Gaza, the prospect for peace dwindled as it was an organisation that did not want any peace deal with Israel, unlike the more amenable West Bank Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Now that Israel has vowed to end Hamas’ political control of Gaza - and if this is successfully done - it could enable the Palestinian Authority to re-establish its control which was lost after the demise of Yasser Arafat, who mostly favoured a peace deal.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza need capable, uncorrupted, and selfless leaders to ensure that Palestinian statehood is realised through a good bargaining position and diplomacy.

The Arab world and the West are ready to financially help the Palestinians should a peaceful settlement be made.

Temporary setback

At a time when some rapprochement was being worked out between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UAE to ease long-simmering regional tensions in the Middle East, this sudden outburst of hostilities will be a setback at least temporarily.

The whole world believes that a homeland for the displaced Palestinians is essential for a just and peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute.

However, terrorism such as was shown during the weekend massacre does little or nothing to further the prospect of a lasting peace deal.

With the IDF moving into Gaza in full force, the conflict will escalate. The world can do nothing about this escalation as what was committed on innocent people was too heinous to ignore. Even neutral countries are now favouring Israel and some support severe retaliation against Hamas.

The Palestinians have lost a lot of sympathy and goodwill in the last few days. How Hamas is going to treat the captive hostages will be the next question the outside world is waiting for an answer to.

Killing the refugees could be the last straw and will invite terrible retribution from the IDF, who may capture Hamas forces and operatives and hold them for ransom in exchange for the hostages.

Some analysts see a silver lining in the present crisis. With the weakening of the Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza finally, the situation could allow Palestinians to take full control of themselves, and return to the time of the late Arafat and a peace deal - a peace by pieces as before - could slowly unfold.

The sufferings of the Palestinians, and also the Israelis, need to end. Everyone, including the US, Russia, EU, the UN, China, India, the Arab League, and OIC, needs to cooperate to end this Middle Eastern quagmire, which has defied a resolution for seven decades.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.