Two State Solution Not on the Table: IDF Assault Continues, Israel Will Not 'Leave Lebanon Alone'
© AP Photo / Mohammad Zaatari
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Over the course of Israel’s 11-month war assault on Gaza, the school has already been bombed several times. The assault also came just a day after Israel bombed a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi designated humanitarian zone, which killed at least 40 people.
Israel has reportedly bombed a school which housed displaced Palestinians. The bombing on Wednesday in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat, killed at least 18 people including six UNRWA staff members, The Guardian reported.
Leila Hatoum, a Lebanon-based journalist, economist, and geopolitical analyst joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Thursday, and gave a critical account of the increased aggression between Hezbollah and the IDF.
“We speak to Palestinians most of the time, real people, not fake accounts, right? And most of them, they are beyond a two-state solution, they don't want that anymore. They have lost loved ones, they have lost friends and they have lost people they know of. They know of - I've lost two people in Gaza whom we were trying to save for the past 11 months. … and his wife was with them. They were killed by an Israeli … and their three little children lived after them,” the journalist said.
“I couldn't believe it, I had to send him a message on his phone like, tell me this is not true that you didn't die. It took me about 48 hours to just register that he passed away and I won't be able to speak to him.”
“So, imagine Palestinians who lost direct family members. The children who are amputees now in Gaza, the disabled ones, the ones who lost all their family members, extended family members. They have nobody left in life except for them. Sometimes you have families that are completely wiped out of the registrar, there's nobody else from that family and extended family. Do you think the Palestinians will agree to a two-state solution with those? If few Palestinians agree to it, the majority won't. But, then again, it's the Palestinians' decision to tell you what they aspire for going forward.”
On Wednesday, about 40 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel, Sputnik reported citing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF said that their air force then struck several Hezbollah movement military infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon and a Hezbollah launcher. Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have been escalating since hostilities in the Gaza Strip first began in October of last year.
“...I would consider it a cautious calm with a tit-for-tat that's happening and it's increasing time by time. But preparation for the biggest escalation that we're going to see in this region going forward. I mean, remember, the Israelis are not that stupid. They are stupid, but they're not that stupid,” Hatoum explained. “They are waging wars in their southern areas and central areas. So we're talking about Gaza. We're talking about the West Bank. Until they finish with those soft sides, as we call them, they're not going to turn towards the northern front, which is South Lebanon.”
“...there have been several attempts from Jordan towards the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank against the Israelis. The most recent one was the Allenby Bridge crossing incident, shooting incident, where one Jordanian Palestinian, actually Jordanian Bedouin Arab, managed to shoot and kill three Israeli occupation forces police. And that's basically called a lone wolf operation that threatens the borders between Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories where the Israelis have a military presence over there,” she added.
“What did we see? The Israelis took it as an excuse to go and take over the Western side of the Jordan River, what we call the Jordan Valley. And they were pushing the Jordanians basically to increase their presence on the Eastern side of the bank. And this is what's happening, what has been happening over the past few days following the incident,” the analyst said. “We've seen [Israel] increase the intensity of their air raids to tell the Lebanese, ‘we're here.’ Once that front opens, then you'll see basically the NATO powers, including the US, coming in to help the Israeli entity forces with this matter.”
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel held a meeting with Hamas representatives in an attempt to convince Hamas to loosen its demands for a ceasefire deal, Sputnik reported on Wednesday.
One of the demands negotiators are pressuring Hamas to drop, is the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. However, a senior Israeli official has reportedly said that he does not believe the meeting in Doha will have an impact on ceasefire negotiations. But Netanyahu has also recently been accused of torpedoing a potential US-backed ceasefire deal by changing the terms, which he has done previously.
“So, 22 years, 24 years ago, Saudi Arabia through King Abdullah, at the time he was the crown prince, he suggested through the Arab League that there would be a peace process, land for peace, and it was basically a two-state solution. Palestinian states on the lands of 1967 versus peace. The Israelis refused that, and they continued to refuse it for almost 22 years afterwards,” Hatoum explained.
“Hamas back in 2017, 2016, they had a charter and they said, we do agree to a Palestinian state on the lands of 1967 until we reach a final agreement and final peace. But, they didn't agree to just a two-state solution on the lands of 1967. At the end of the day, they said, ‘why would we want to agree to two parts of a land that are smaller than what we originally owned in this region?’”
“The Israelis, unfortunately, it's not sad, because we know that they are monsters, continued to breach international [law], continued to kill Palestinians, and they never stopped since then. And they have killed over 41,000 Palestinians aside from injuring over 90,000. That's the numbers that go out officially, right? But it's more than that in reality,” she added.
“...there will be no more two-state solution. It's no more on the table. The ones who are pushing for it now are the European Union and some basically Western states and Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia believes that it's role to push for what it pushed for 24 years ago. That's it,” she added. “Now it's not feasible at all because of the number of deaths and the scale of monstrosity that the Israelis have shown towards the Palestinians.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has urged US congressional members to persuade South Africa into stropping its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Sputnik reported. Africa has argued that the state is violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention due to its violent assault in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli diplomats threated South African diplomats who are currently working in the US and told them that "continuing their current actions like supporting [the Palestinian movement] Hamas and pushing anti-Israeli moves in international courts will come with a heavy price" and could prompt them to suspend Washington-Pretoria trade relations.
10 September, 06:38 GMT
“So what we expect is that the Israelis will continue with their monstrosity. Netanyahu needs this ongoing war to stay in power. For once they finish with the West Bank, as I said, they will turn towards the Northern Front. The Northern Front is the hardest for the Israeli entity because Hezbollah is not only well trained, but it's the most armed among all of the resistance groups in the region and they know their enemy very well,” Hatoum said.
“They have fought against the Israelis. They have beat the Israelis in the past. So the Israelis, basically, if they expand that front, they will be dragging the Americans to it. But I don't see it happening before October or November,” she added.
“Hezbollah has been geared up for war not from now, from 2006 because in 2000, after the Israelis withdrew from Lebanon, they said we expect the Israelis to retaliate for their failure. They did that in 2006 and in 2006 they failed again. So, Hezbollah is geared for another major war that's happening and it's happening now. Only a blind person can see that the Israelis will not leave Lebanon alone,” the analyst noted.
