The only solution for Gaza and the hostages? International pressure
They confirm that Hamas has been completely discredited since committing the barbaric attack 22 months ago, and can no longer claim to play any role in Gaza once the guns finally fall silent. The footage also serves as a reminder that, by itself, war cannot achieve the result sought by the ruling coalition in Israel: the total and definitive eradication of Hamas. Such an outcome can only be reached by opening up a political process that will delegitimize the group's bloody extremism – a fanaticism echoed by Israel's far right, notably when it contemplates ethnically cleansing the narrow strip of land, before, surely, doing the same to whole parts of the occupied West Bank.
This outcome is precisely what more than 500 Israeli former senior security officials have advocated. In a statement titled "Stop the Gaza War!" published on August 4, they argued that Israel's main war goals have already been met and that the last remaining objective, freeing the remaining hostages, can "only be achieved through a deal."
The end of the conflict also means ending the instrumentalization of famine against the Palestinians in Gaza, a famine of which the hostages are also victims. It would require the resumption of aid operations entrusted to United Nations agencies that have proven their competence, unlike the current improvised Israeli-American humanitarian organization, which has had a disastrous track record.
Boosted by their prestige, the former senior officials did not address their appeal to Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. They confirmed that nothing can be expected from Israel's coalition government, which unilaterally ended the painstakingly negotiated cease-fire in January. They also said that pressure, when applied by Israel's powerful American ally, is the only way to force Netanyahu to yield. Their strong message, accompanied by a video in which a former director of Israel's security services stated that the Gaza war "stopped being a just war" and "is leading the State of Israel to the loss of its security and identity," deserves to be heard.
When these figures call for the establishment of a "regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas," they are, in their own way, supporting the joint initiative launched by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at reviving the two-state solution. No one can be satisfied with a ceasefire that offers no diplomatic prospects. Internationalizing the Israel-Palestine conflict by mobilizing a coalition of the willing is now a necessity.
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France 24
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