Reports coming out of Gaza are disturbing to me. It pains me to read/hear that children are not only displaced but are starving or on the brink of starvation. It also pains me that hostages are still being held, when Israeli citizens have been protesting to their government to pursue their release.
So where do we look for a future?
In my opinion I still believe in the two-state solution. Only a few who not only believe in it but even talk about it. I believe it is the only practical goal for everyone in the region. If you don’t agree, then, what is the alternative? However, as war rages on it is only microscopic baby steps towards this goal is possibly real at this point.
A Palestinian State
The pursuit of a Palestinian state is something I sympathize with. One thing that I have heard from right-wing Israeli settlers is that the land of Judea and Samaria was given to the Jewish people by God. What these same people don’t point out is that the ancient Israelis were surrounded by idol worshippers of Baal, Moloch etc. God was constantly criticizing His Chosen People for straying towards the golden calf. Having no other gods before me was written in the very first commandment. The Palestinians of today also worship God—mostly Muslim, some Christian. They see themselves as descendants of Ismael—Abraham’s first born. God also promised the descendants of Ismael a mighty nation. No one else points this out.
What is Needed
Hamas has rockets. Israel has more and bigger rockets as well as tanks. The Palestinians do not have an army. So how do they realistically pursue this nation-state?
What the Palestinians lack is their equivalent of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. King was a moral compass that guided his people and others. A modern-day Moses. He used a strategy of non-violence, combined with persuasion represented in speeches and letters, to recruit allies outside of the movement and overcome resistance to superior manpower. I have yet to see anyone from the Palestinian ranks step up to this role. Hamas? Militants may like it that they “stick it to Israel” with bombing raids, but they are morally bankrupt and hide behind their rockets (and even their citizens). Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen)? He has been relatively silent since the Hamas raid. I remember Hamas being voted into the majority in Gaza years ago because of accusations of corruption by the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians on the West Bank have grumbled about the level of corruption there too.
A Lone Voice
There is one voice that recently caught my attention.
In the December 2024 issue of The Atlantic, Samer Sinijlawi wrote the op-ed, “How To Build A Palestinian State.” Sinijlawi is described as a Palestinian political activist and founding chair of the Jerusalem Development Fund. He calls for a complete change of leadership. Israelis should vote out Benjamin Netanyahu. He argues that Palestinians want change. A significant number of them want the Hamas dictatorship out. Those on the West Bank also want Abbas out. “As brutal and oppressive as the Hamas regime has been, the people of Gaza don’t want to see Hamas replaced with Abbas,” he writes.
Check his article out. Click here to get a link to it.
Analysis
So where do we go from here?
I have no problem with Jewish people living in the area some call Judea and Samaria. I just do not believe that ONLY Jewish people can and should live there. Property being bought and sold in normal real estate transactions. In a two-state solution you may have Palestinians living in Israel and Jews living in Palestine. That scenario may bring out a certain stability, reducing terror attacks. It may also bring about a great migration and separation as with India and Pakistan. Whether Sinijlawi or some other Palestinian arises to be the moral compass for his/her people (and the people of the entire region) is up to the Palestinians to decide. The alternative seems to be more attacks, revenge and counter-revenge.
God heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt and from them came Moses. I feel sad for the peaceful-loving people of the region who want an end to the violence on both sides. I also feel sad that no one will either read this or consider it worth sharing.
Thank you, Robert Wilking, for your very thoughtful blog on the asymmetric Israel/Palestine conflict. I have been engaged in learning about it, both living in historic Palestine, researching and reading for 25 years. I am grateful for all voices who speak out about the #GazaGenocide. My friend, Dr. Mandy Turner is one of them. She recently wrote this: ”
“I have just finished reading (in some cases re-reading) nearly a thousand pages of “day after” plans for Gaza specifically and the West Bank and Gaza in general written mostly by Western think tanks, but one also from Israel and one from the UAE. These include:
1. Israeli Prime Minister ‘Gaza 2035’
2. United States Pelzman-Trump BOT
3. JINSA-Vanderberg Coalition (US Israel lobby and neocons)
4. Al Habtoor Research Center (UAE)
5. Portland Trust ‘Palestine Emerging’ (UK think tank)
6. Wilson Center (US think tank)
7. RAND corporation (US think tank)
I know there are many more plans, but I don’t have enough valium to go through the rest. Basically, all of these plans are despicable, even the ones where the language is less hostile towards Palestinians. Why spend so much time writing justificatory garbage for what I referred to as ‘peacebuilding as counterinsurgency’ back in 2015. Just admit you are proposing to the world that billions more dollars must be spent, more Palestinian security forces must be trained and put under US/Israel control, and more “international advisers” (read modern-day colonial viceroys) must be deployed to keep Palestinians quiet (i.e. lock them up or buy them off) while Israel continues to gobble up their land from the river to the sea and make life unbearable. It all makes sense when you look at the biographies of those who wrote these plans – jeez louise, it is the Israel lobby meets neocons meets former (and perhaps continuing) CIA operatives meets private sector billionaires. A real who’s who of the ugly and violent Establishment. So, we must keep pushing in every sphere of public life in every country for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, because if these uglies get their way, Palestinians will be consigned to decades more of Israeli settler colonial brutality and apartheid, all underwritten by Western and Gulf money.” Thank you for using your intellect and heart to bring more clarity, justice, and compassion into the world.