Over the two decades prior to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) last October 7, the Israelis did not care much about the operations launched by the Palestinians, according to an article on the World Politics Review website.
The article – written by Amir Asmar, who was a senior executive and Middle East analyst at the US Department of Defense – stated that in the absence of any real threat, the Israelis set aside negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict with the Palestinians, and many of them, especially right-wing supporters, promoted Extremist, for saying that there is no Palestinian partner in peace negotiations.
The writer added that it has been proven over time that what was mentioned was a clear lie, and some even convinced themselves that any agreement with the Palestinians “is no longer necessary.”
According to the article, the Palestinian resistance attack on Israel on October 7 put an end to those illusions. The events of the past three months were a “painful reminder” that the realities of this conflict do not go away simply by ignoring them.
He adds that recognizing the facts of the conflict is necessary to avoid the recurrence of violence, and requires taking concrete steps towards reaching a solution that reduces killings in the future.
In his article, Asmar believes that there are 5 facts worth focusing on in particular:
A century of conflict
The peak of violence between Palestinians and Jewish immigrants “who later became Israelis” dates back, according to the author of the article, to a century ago. After the League of Nations placed Palestine under a British mandate in 1920, the authorities there began to promote the Palestinian territories as a national homeland for the Jews, thus paving the way for largely unrestricted Jewish immigration, regardless of the extent to which that policy affected the Arab population already living there.
This policy resulted in an imbalance in Palestinian economic and social life, which raised signs of Palestinian nationalism. Secularists and Islamists participated together in opposition to Zionism and efforts to achieve an independent Palestinian state.
Since then, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has continued to this day, and “will continue” in the future in the absence of a peace process that allows Israelis and Palestinians to coexist, whether side by side or isolated.
Israelis are not immune
For long periods, the Israelis remained convinced that the Palestinians had accepted the patch of land that had been allocated to them. But the reality is that as long as there is no independent Palestinian state that fulfills the Palestinian aspiration for self-determination, acts of “violence” will erupt in which Israelis will be killed.
Saying that Israel can ignore the conflict, use its army to restrain the Palestinians, and implement whatever policies it sees in the Palestinian territories without paying attention to the escalation of violence, is simply an “unrealistic idea.”
The Palestinians cannot be bypassed
Many in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, say that normalization with Arab countries in the region is possible without reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. This idea was strengthened by the conclusion of the Abraham Accords in 2020 and 2021 between Israel on the one hand and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan on the other hand.
This hypothesis has always been questionable. As soon as Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip, after the October 7 attack, the Gulf states called in a statement for a permanent ceasefire, the immediate release of civilian prisoners and detainees, and a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Protests also spread to other Arab countries.
As for the Israelis, they must keep in mind that normalization with Arab countries will not make the Palestinians disappear or abandon their goal of establishing their state, which means that the possibility of violence similar to what is happening today will continue.
All evidence indicates that Israel’s “Arab peace partners” will support the Palestinians, at least rhetorically, in any resulting confrontation.
The current situation of the Palestinians is unsustainable
Regardless of the inherent violence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that remains unresolved, the current conditions under which Palestinians live are “unacceptable.”
Negotiations are difficult but necessary
Perhaps it goes without saying that peace is made by a person with his enemy, and this applies to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Unless the Israelis decide to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and withdraw completely from the West Bank without preconditions, there must be a negotiation process to establish the terms and conditions of an agreement that would allow the Israelis and Palestinians to coexist in peace, or at least with a largely low-level rate of violence.
