A former British official says Israel and its allies must face facts and realize that “peace” talks involving the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are the only way forward to resolve the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
Lord Peter Hain, former Minister for the Middle East in the United Kingdom and Foreign Minister of Northern Ireland, explained in an article in the Guardian newspaper that he is a friend of both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and all his experience indicates that difficult negotiations will achieve what bombs cannot.
He stressed that after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle on October 7th and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s revenge on Gaza, there are some long-awaited facts. Among them is that Israel will not destroy Hamas even if it destroys it militarily and destroys all of Gaza, because Hamas is an ideological movement that Netanyahu’s extremism, in many respects, helped promote.
They went from despair to supporting Hamas
The former official said that the right-wing Israeli governments have thwarted serious negotiations with the Palestinians, whom he described as “the most moderate,” since the Camp David summit in 2000, and have also constantly persecuted the residents of Gaza, and imposed an almost continuous state of siege on the Strip, asking: Is it really surprising that many Palestinians They went from despair to supporting Hamas?
He continued to say, “The lesson learned from all modern conflicts must be that the failure of the powerful to end injustice and negotiate a solution breeds extremism, and that Britain’s turbulent history in Northern Ireland clearly confirms that when politics does not work, violence fills the void,” as he put it. .
He explained that the idea, promoted by what he described as the leaders of the Global North, is that only negotiations with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, “which has lost its credibility in the West Bank,” can be supported, and that idea will not succeed either, according to his opinion.
There is no solution other than the political solution
He also stressed that in the end, there is only a political solution, as the Palestinians cannot defeat Israel militarily, according to what he sees, and Israel cannot defeat the Palestinians militarily.
He pointed out that the right-wing rulers of Israel failed miserably to protect their citizens, adding that by continuing to inflict merciless terror on the residents of Gaza; They expose their citizens to greater terror.
Lord Hain supported what former Israeli Labor government advisor Daniel Levy recently said in a television interview that the Israelis can never obtain security until the Palestinians enjoy security.
He added that the real agenda of the current Israeli government may be to reject the two-state solution and expel the Palestinians from their lands to Jordan and Egypt, stressing that this will not solve the problem, but rather will complicate it, and increase the escalation of violence and regional instability.
A regional summit that includes everyone must be supported
The former British official explained that instead of the “collusion” of presidents and prime ministers in Washington, London, and Europe, they should support a regional summit that includes Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, along with Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and involve “Hamas” on the Palestinian side, because it will not There is stability in the region unless all parties are included.
Hein concluded his article by saying that he writes from Cape Town, South Africa; The population there, of all races and beliefs, despises what they see as profound double standards by the “leaders of the Global North” who support Ukrainian self-determination, and are complicit in denying the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, adding that the geopolitical breakthrough with the Global South is deepening, and will cost Washington, London, and Brussels dearly in the future. An increasingly turbulent world.
