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The Hindu
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
The two-state reality we see today
Perhaps the only surviving relic of the long-targeted peace process and decades of futile negotiations intended to end Palestinian suffering is the continued talk of the two-state solution. All the other once-sacred phrases — 'land for peace,' 'confidence-building measures,' 'final status issues' — have faded from headlines and memory alike. Yet today, the international community — everyone but Israel and its staunch patron, the United States — continues to parrot the words 'two-state solution' as if they have just discovered a miracle, or reinvented the wheel. But even a cursory glance at United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan of Palestine, reveals that the essence of the two-state solution lies within it. Passed in 1947, it called for the creation of two states — one for the Jewish and one for the Palestinians — on the land of historic Palestine. It is, in every sense, the birth certificate of the two-state idea. Yet, in practice, it gave birth to only one state: Israel. The Palestinian state remains unborn. It is trapped in legal text, denied by force, and smothered by a chronic lack of international political will. A 'two-state' reality Ironically, if we examine the ground today, we can see that a two-state reality has indeed taken form — but both are Israel's. The first state is the one declared on May 14, 1948, established through the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian people on 78% of the historical land of Palestine. The second is rising now on the remaining 22% of the historical land of Palestine, within the borders of the 1967-occupied Palestinian territories: a de facto Jewish messianic state. We can refer to it as the Halakha state — or more plainly, the settler messianic state. It has its own armed militias, openly backed by the Israeli army; its own budget; its own political infrastructure. It is ruled not by Tel Aviv, but by the Yesha Council, an acronym for Yehuda (Judea), Shomron (Samaria), and Aza (Gaza), and subdivided into semi-autonomous regions: the Shomron, Gush Etzion, and Binyamin Regional Councils. Each functions like a federal entity within a greater settler theocracy. This second state was conceived on the very day Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967. Since then, a stream of legal documents, military orders, appropriated Ottoman and British Mandate laws, and selectively applied Israeli legislation have built its legal scaffolding. This carefully crafted system is meant not only to entrench this parallel state, but also to render the internationally supported two-state solution obsolete. Israel has grown accustomed, perhaps even addicted, to the diplomatic niceties of international officials, knowing they hold no real consequence. Worse, Israel has now developed a counter-logic, bolstered by its allies, to challenge the very foundations of the two-state vision. The current U.S. Ambassador to Israel, for instance, has gone so far as to claim there is 'no such thing' as Palestinians.' This genocidal rhetoric has been met by the international community with blind eyes at best and silent complicity at worst. By signing the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, the Palestinian leadership made a historic and painful concession: they agreed to establish their future state on just 22% of their ancestral homeland — Palestine. This was not easy. Even UN Resolution 181 had originally allocated 46% of historic Palestine to the Palestinian state. At a crossroads Today, the international community stands at a crossroads. Will it act decisively in favour of a just and rational two-state solution that ends the Palestinian tragedy and brings a sustainable peace for all? Or will it continue to turn a blind eye to the entrenchment of the messianic and evangelical vision that guarantees only bloodshed and despair for Palestinians on their homeland? This is not just a policy debate; it is a moral test. While a genocidal war is being livestreamed to every screen around the world, we must confront a fundamental truth: there can be no peace without justice. There can be no lasting solution without granting the Palestinian people their basic rights, foremost among them the right to self-determination. International law, human rights, and humanitarian principles must be applied equally and universally. If the world continues to let Israel, an occupying power, expand and maintain its illegal settlements instead of compelling it to dismantle them, the so-called Halakha state will not only be established in the West Bank, but it will also increasingly dominate and redefine the entire Israeli state. That outcome would be a disaster for Palestine, the whole region, and the world. The international community has the tools for action. Recently, powerful countries implemented over 16,500 sanctions against Russia. Yet, they remain unable — or unwilling — to adopt even a single meaningful sanction against Israel. On the contrary, Israel continues to receive unconditional military and intelligence support, while the cost to Palestinians exceeds 54,000 lives and counting. From economic sanctions, arms embargoes, and diplomatic pressure to legal accountability in international courts, the tools are within reach but there is no political will. The world must stop treating Israel as a state above international law and indulging it as though it is a spoiled, reckless adolescent. Accountability is not a luxury; it is a necessity. It is the only path to peace. This may well be the final warning before apocalyptic fantasies turn into a devastating global reality, replacing the two-state solution with endless war. Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh is the Ambassador of State of Palestine to India
Al Bawaba
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Ask Israel directly: Did Epstein's secrets lead back to Tel Aviv?
ALBAWABA - In a controversial speech at the "Turning Point" event, Tucker Carlson, a famous American media personality, suggested that the late Jeffrey Epstein may have worked for Israeli intelligence. This sparked new rumors about Epstein's international connections and the unresolved details of his criminal network. Also Read Six Israeli settlers killed in Gush Etzion supermarket shooting Carlson raised questions when he asked Epstein how he got so rich after starting out as an unfit teacher in the late 1970s. Epstein had amassed a private island, planes, and one of Manhattan's most expensive homes. Carlson said, "It's clear that Epstein had direct ties to a foreign government, and no one can say it's Israel." Carlson made it clear that his views were not anti-Semitic, but rather based on a wish for openness. "There's nothing wrong with these inquiries," he said. "If Israel did crimes in the U.S. while getting help from the U.S., we have the right to ask: Did they do it?" He said that Americans are being taught to see these kinds of questions as cruel, even though they are actually valid issues that have to do with justice and responsibility. He also said that he has friends in the CIA but doesn't think twice about attacking the organization. According to him, the CIA has done terrible things, like killing a living U.S. president. He also said that foes of the agency are not anti-American because of these actions. The Death of Epstein and the Current Investigation Jeffrey Epstein, an investor who was accused of running a large sex trafficking ring with girls young, was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2018 under strange conditions. His death was officially ruled a suicide. He was waiting to go to court on federal charges. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have frequently said that there is no definitive list of high-profile people who are linked to Epstein's illegal activities. They have also rejected the idea that he was killed to avoid being found out. In spite of this, the case has gotten more attention. A recent story from Axios said that a two-page internal letter that had been kept secret revealed that the probe was being reopened. The paper says that officials did not find any proof of a blackmail list targeting important people. Elon Musk made a claim earlier this year on his platform X that Donald Trump's name was in Epstein's files. He later took the claim down. The post brought the case back into the spotlight, even though there is no official proof to back up the claim. As the Epstein controversy continues to resurface, Carlson's remarks have reignited debate over transparency, foreign influence, and unresolved questions surrounding one of the most disturbing scandals in recent American history.
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Israeli killed in West Bank and two attackers shot dead
An Israeli man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, local authorities said, with the military and first responders saying that two attackers were shot dead. Emergency services said they were called to reports of a person injured in a shooting in the car park of a shopping center in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. 'Paramedics pronounced a 22-year-old man dead at the scene with gunshot wounds,' Israel's Magen David Adom said in a statement. 'The two terrorists were eliminated by IDF forces and other security personnel at the scene,' it added, referring to the Israeli military. A local official told AFP the victim was an Israeli citizen. The army said separately that its troops killed 'two terrorists' who launched 'a shooting and stabbing attack' in Gush Etzion. 'Soldiers and additional security personnel at the scene fired toward the terrorists and eliminated them,' the military said in a statement. The military generally uses the term 'eliminated' after killing someone. It said soldiers were encircling the Palestinian town of Halhul and setting up roadblocks in the area following the attack. In a statement, the Israeli police said the two assailants were from Halhul, near Hebron. Earlier Thursday, Palestinian authorities said Israeli troops killed a 55-year-old man in the north West Bank village of Rummanah, where the Israeli military said there was a stabbing attack. The Ramallah-based health ministry said the body in charge of coordination with Israel informed it that soldiers 'shot and killed' the man in Rummanah, near Jenin, in the morning. The Israeli military said separately that troops deployed in the village 'neutralized' a man after he stabbed and 'moderately injured' a soldier. Mass arrests Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 2023 triggered the Gaza war. The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group told AFP on Thursday that at least 52 Palestinians were arrested throughout the West Bank in the past 48 hours. The military did not comment on the circumstances of the arrests. Among them was Sajaa Daraghmeh, who had been released during a prisoner exchange during the six-week ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, spokeswoman for the Prisoners Club Amani Sarahnah told AFP. A 12-year-old Palestinian boy died on Wednesday of wounds suffered during an army raid near the West Bank town of Nablus last week, the health ministry said. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 951 Palestinians, including many militants, the ministry said. Over the same period, at least 36 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to Israeli figures.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Palestinian Authority police officers conducted terror attack in West Bank, PA to probe attack
The two carried out a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction, murdering 22-year-old Israeli Shalev Zevuloni. The two terrorists behind the deadly Thursday attack in the West Bank were members of the Palestinian Authority's security services, Palestinian and Israeli media reported. The two were named by local media as Mahmoud Yusef Abed and Malek Ibrahim Salem, both 23. They recently returned to the West Bank after completing their studies in Qatar. The two carried out a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction, murdering 22-year-old Israeli Shalev Zevuloni. They were both killed at the scene of the attack by Israeli security forces. Mahmoud Yusef Abed was from the town of Halhul in the Hebron Governorate, and Malek Ibrahim Salem was from the town of Bizzaria, west of Nablus. Eyewitnesses claimed that the terrorists arrived in a stolen vehicle armed with knives, stabbed Zevuloni, who was a security guard, and stole his weapon to carry out the shooting. Hamas spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, congratulated the terrorists on their "heroic operations from Hebron to Jenin, confronting Israeli forces and settler groups," adding that they were retaliating against the "growing assault on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the escalation of crimes by the occupation forces and settlers." He also called for "intensified resistance" across the West Bank and Jerusalem after the attack. N12 reported late on Thursday night, citing sources in Ramallah, that the PA was set to launch an internal investigation into the terror attack.
Al Bawaba
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Six Israeli settlers killed in Gush Etzion supermarket shooting
ALBAWABA- Six Israeli settlers were reportedly killed on Wednesday in a deadly shooting and stabbing attack inside a supermarket in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem. The assailants, identified as two Palestinians from the Hebron area, infiltrated the settlement before launching the attack. According to security sources, the attackers arrived by car, stabbed a security guard at the entrance of the supermarket, and seized his weapon. They then opened fire inside the premises, killing six civilians and injuring several others. The gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces before being shot and killed at the scene. Since then, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reinforced security in the Gush Etzion area, conducting searches and establishing additional checkpoints. Footage circulating on social media shows moments of the attack and subsequent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. Palestinian armed groups have praised the attack. The Resistance Committees in Palestine described it as a "heroic" operation and a response to what they termed "Zionist crimes." Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Hamas's armed wing, linked the attack to a broader resistance movement stretching "from Hebron to Jenin." The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, called the incident a "double qualitative operation" and urged further confrontations in the West Bank.
