The AFR View
Hamas attack exposes unreality of Palestinian state solution
The fragility of peace in the Middle East is underscored by the carnage unleashed by Hamas and by the inevitable retaliation from Tel Aviv.
The shock air and land attack on southern Israel launched from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip caught the usually vigilant Israeli security and defence forces embarrassingly by surprise.
That comparison with the surprise 1973 Yom Kippur war might be thought to spell political trouble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially coming amid his right-wing Likud Party’s controversial Supreme Court overhaul that has prompted mass protests and bitterly widened Israel’s internal divisions.
But with the latest bloody chapter in the Israel-Palestine conflict being called Israel’s “9/11 moment”, Israeli doves and hawks could unite in an emergency unity government. Mr Netanyahu’s TV address on Saturday night declared that Israel was at war and would use all its military might to destroy Hamas’ ability to operate out of Gaza.
The horrifying images of sheet-shrouded hostages being ferried into captivity by golf cart speak to the reality that barriers to peace in the Middle East exist on both sides of Israel’s disputed borders. AP
That spells more misery for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, on top of the economic and humanitarian consequences of the joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed in 2007 after Hamas took control of the territory.
The question for the stability of the world’s most conflict-ridden region is whether the Israeli response is limited to surgical strikes – such as the air attacks that have begun to level Hamas hideouts – or escalates into a full-scale incursion like the 1982 Israeli invasion and occupation of Southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah and other Palestinian militants were using as a base to attack Israel.
Hamas’ charter is dedicated to waging jihad to reclaim all of historical Palestine and destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
US President Joe Biden has strongly backed Israel’s right to defend itself and its people, which means neutralising the Hamas threat. It is a call that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has echoed while labelling the attacks that have so far claimed at least 300 Israeli lives as “abhorrent”.
That is in keeping with Australia’s long-standing bipartisan friendship and support for the Middle East’s only functioning democracy. The Coalition has, however, hit out at Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s urging Israel to act with “restraint”, even though it should be acknowledged that Israel’s retaliation could trigger a wider destabilisation and conflict in the region.
The suspicion is that Iran-backed Hamas is seeking to torpedo the Biden administration’s negotiations with Saudi Arabia about normalising its relations with Israel.
There is also the potential for an intensification of the higher oil price pain of the OPEC-Russian production cut mini-shock, if the Arab producing nations’ solidarity with the Palestine struggle now extends to repeating the oil squeeze first imposed in response to the Yom Kippur War.
The horrifying images of Israeli citizens lying dead in the streets and sheet-shrouded hostages being ferried into captivity by golf cart speak to the reality that barriers to peace in the Middle East exist on both sides of Israel’s disputed borders.
That’s a reality that Western progressive opinion towards Israel has become blind out of sympathy for the Palestinian plight and legitimate aspirations for statehood.
The Netanyahu government’s support for the extremist settler movement and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestine territory seized during the 1967 Six-Day War has in recent years hardened sections of world opinion towards Israel as the biggest obstacle to a lasting peace deal.
The two-state solution phrase trips off tongues globally as the much-desired outcome. But the reality is that the Gaza territory that would form part of the putative Palestinian state is run by an Islamist movement, whose strings are pulled by a theocratic despotism in Tehran, and which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US, the European Union, and Australia.
Hamas’ charter is dedicated to waging jihad to reclaim all of historical Palestine and destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
Without a united Palestinian position recognising Israel’s right to exist as a starting point for the peace process, posturing like the ALP National Conference’s commitment to formally recognising the state of Palestine will remain essentially meaningless as far as changing the reality on the ground in the Middle East.
How far off is a Palestine state that Israel can live safely and peacefully alongside is underscored by the carnage unleashed by Hamas and by the defensive strike-back that Tel Aviv will shortly let loose.
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