Defeating the ideology of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is necessary, but Israeli methods will only reinforce that ideology. Going after Hamas is legitimate, but wiping out vast swaths of Gaza is not. The use of proportionate force is legal, but collective punishment and forced transfer of civilians is not. .
With these sentences, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper summarized an article by British MP Ben Wallace, in which he said that the arrests in Northern Ireland had taught them that “a disproportionate response by the state can be the best way to recruit a terrorist organization,” as he put it. Therefore, watching the events in the Gaza Strip every day makes many… They feel more and more uncomfortable.
Although the writer absolutely condemns Hamas and considers it, in principle, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic, and not interested in peaceful coexistence with Israel, nor in the two-state solution, on the other hand, he also strongly believes in the obligations resulting from the Geneva Conventions and does not accept that all of its signatories abide by them.
Therefore, the former British Defense Secretary believes that Israel is itself undermining the original legal authority in self-defense through its actions, and is thus committing the mistake of losing its moral authority in addition to its legal authority.
Murderous anger won’t fix things
Ben Wallace believes that the shame that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels because he did not anticipate the Al-Aqsa flood attacks on October 7 is very deep, especially since he presented himself as a security hawk and a strong man, but he is wrong if he thinks that murderous anger will fix things. Perhaps his tactics will fuel the conflict for another 50 years.
The result – according to the writer – is that when all this ends and the Israeli army withdraws from what remains of Gaza, Hamas will still exist, and what will disappear is the voice of moderate Palestinians who want a two-state solution, international sympathy will have ended and Israel will be forced to live in a greater state of siege.
Ben Wallace denied that he was calling for a ceasefire on the condition of changing Hamas’ charter, but “what I am saying is that Israel needs to stop this crude and indiscriminate method of attack, and it must fight Hamas in a different way,” as he put it.
But the lack of wisdom of the new generation of Israeli politicians – as the author says – led them to act like “a bull in a china shop,” as they move from one crisis to another, and in the end the two-state solution is “the solution since the creation of modern Israel.”
Ben Wallace concluded that the path to peace in the Middle East is the same as the solution in Northern Ireland, which means trying and doing everything possible to “marginalize extremism.” With the Oslo Accords, we came close to achieving a two-state solution, and now is the time to revitalize that process.