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quarta-feira, 29 de novembro de 2023

Is Israel Prepared to Live with a Palestinian State?

 History has some interesting contradictions. Germany and Japan were the two biggest losers of World War II. Japan was for many years the second richest country in the world and Germany the third, and the richest country in Europe. A better situation than that of England and France, who won the war. The Germans and Japanese did their jobs, but that was only possible due to the billions of dollars invested in the reconstruction of Europe through the Marshall Plan, and the economic aid from the United States to Japan. A country that nineteen years after receiving two atomic bombs hosted the Tokyo Olympics.
     Does anyone have any doubt that Russia will win the war against Ukraine? If everything continues as it has been for more than a year and a half, Ukraine will lose a fifth of its territory. I ask the reader to wait and keep this text for twenty years. What will happen to Ukraine? It will become a great nation.
     The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is already talking about a kind of Marshall Plan to recover Ukraine, even before the end of the war. If Ukraine loses twenty percent of its territory, it will still be bigger than Germany.
     I'll write about that another time. At the moment, I want to talk about the recovery of Palestine after the end of the genocide committed by Israel and Hamas. The reader has already realized that I want to associate Palestine with the defeated countries that reinvented themselves.
  The burning question is: is Israel prepared to have neighboring Palestine as a country? What are the consequences of this for the Jews?
Gaza Strip
    May the deaths of thousands of children not be in vain. May Israel be able to eliminate Hamas from the face of the Earth, as it has managed to destroy so many homes and innocent lives with the complicity of Hamas itself.
   For Palestine to become a nation, terrorists cannot have any power over the Palestinians. They exist solely and exclusively to eliminate Israel. They are driven by hate and not by the desire to create their own country. If they are not caught, I hope they are dismantled as a terrorist organization. But the way Netanyahu chose to do this, the disgrace that is occurring in Palestine, made Europe, the United States, the Arab countries, and the UN decree: there must be two countries, and they have already shown themselves willing to help implement this project.
    Is Israel prepared for this? Why wouldn't it be? Before answering this question, I would like to make some considerations about the Israel-Hamas war against the Palestinian people.
   This war highlighted some things that were not thought likely to happen. First, the all-powerful Mossad, it's not that powerful. Considered one of the most competent secret services in the world, it did not predict the terrorist attacks of October 7th. They discovered in the most painful way that the Palestinians know how to keep a secret. Secondly - this must scare them a lot - the time when Israel put an end to Hamas' attacks, Hezbollah's, and Fatah's within 24 hours is over. In more than 50 days of bombings, destruction, and disgrace, Israel has still not been able to say: “It's over! Hamas is decimated. We’ve freed the hostages.” But Hamas still manages to drop bombs on Israel.
   Right at the beginning of this conflict, President Joe Biden - more to demonstrate political support, to please the politicians and people of Jewish origin, in an election year, and less to stop possibly more reckless Arab countries - sent an aircraft carrier to the region. The sending of the second aircraft carrier had different, real, and concrete motivations. Biden took the following factors into consideration:
- The cruelty of Israel's reaction with bombings that killed thousands of civilians, the impediment of humanitarian aid, and the destruction of hospitals made the world forget about the savagery of Hamas on October 7th and focus on what Israel was doing. This provoked outrage and demonstrations around the world. Even among Jews;
- Growing complaints in the Arab world. The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, took a stand against the massacre in the Gaza Strip. This could just be the beginning of protests from other authorities in the region. The patience of the 22 Arab countries could run out, and Iran could join forces against Israel;
- According to a CNN analyst, Hamas had 18,000 missiles “only”, but Hezbollah, a potential enemy, has 180,000 missiles. If CNN knows this, so does the American president;
- Turkey also condemned the situation. It has the largest army in Europe, and due to its location and power, according to Foreign Affairs magazine, Americans and Russians do not want it as an enemy;
- Also considering that Israel has not yet managed to defeat Hamas alone, sending a second aircraft carrier to discourage any aggression against Israel was necessary. A war with Arab countries to defend Israel would force the United States to wage war against allies. 
As a Catholic, Joe Biden must be praying to all the saints, asking for this war to end. 
   I have seen President Biden, on the CBS 60 Minutes Show, saying that if China were to invade Taiwan, the United States would defend it. After the start of the conflict in the Middle East, China took its ships and planes for a ride around the island. It is likely that the recent meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping was driven by the need to ease tensions between the two countries. President Biden learned from catechism lessons in the Church that only God is omnipresent. It is very difficult to be in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and in Taiwan at the same time. That is why the United States is interested in ending this conflict as soon as possible.
For this reason, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is going to the region for the third time in less than a month; to hold back the Arabs and ask Netanyahu: “For God's sake, let humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Stop killing innocent people. Get it over with and don't make our situation any more complicated. We also have the war in Ukraine.”
   To calm the Arabs, Biden defended, at the end of the conflict, the existence of two nations. Did the Prime Minister of Israel like this? Is Israel prepared for this?
   After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the city of Jerusalem was divided into two parts. The eastern side was handed over to the Palestinians, but Israel has ruled the entire city since 1967. Its part and theirs. Therefore, being condemned by United Nations resolutions 252, 446, 452, and 465; in addition to contradicting the Fourth Geneva Convention, which makes up the core of International Humanitarian Law, the branch of International Law that regulates the conduct of armed conflicts, seeking to limit their effects.
Jews protesting against Israel at the Grand Station in NY.
   Israel has built thousands of kibbutz inside the West Bank. In the very inside Palestinian territory. Around 400,000 Israelis live in these settlements.
   Once the Palestinian state is declared, will Israel return the part of Jerusalem annexed? Will they leave the invaded lands in Palestinian territory?
  The population of Palestine is, adding the Gaza Strip’s and the West Bank’s, a little more than 4 million and 900 thousand. According to some sources, 64% of these people are under 24 years old. It is a growing population. Sixty-four percent is about 3.136 million. If we consider that 60% are women and children, and the rest are men, there are 1 million and 254 thousand men, with the potential to form a regular army, helped and trained by other Arab countries or by Iran. This number grows a lot if we consider that men over 24 are also eligible to serve in the Armed Forces. Is Netanyahu enjoying this conversation about two nations?
I guess we'll have to wait and see. I believe that once again we will ask ourselves who won and who lost the war. As for Ukraine, I would build a wall separating its territory from the part that was taken from it; and wish happiness to those who decided to be annexed by Russia.
   This war is the war of independence of Palestine. May the blood of the innocent bring freedom, and get rid of radical groups that have not allowed the creation of a Palestinian state for 75 years so as not to admit the existence of Israel. May they be truly free. For 56 years they have lived under the rule of Israel, in the “world’s largest open-air prison.”
   Is it possible for Jews and Arabs to live in peace? The answer is yes. They are brothers. Both are children of Abraham. They lived in peace, together and mixed until 1948.
    May this truce be the beginning of the end of this war. Let us pray, to the same God of both peoples, for peace in Palestine.
 
PS1. On November 15, 2023, the Jewish Voice for Peace organization held a protest against Israel at Grand Central Station in New York.
“Ceasefire now!” Jews shut down Grand Central Station. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Y0C6A4Cdc

PS2. Two days after I published this post, the New York Times said that Israel knew about Hamas' attack plan more than a year ago.  Available at "Israel Knew Hamas's Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html

PS3.  NDTV on December 12th: "Israel "Doesn't Want" Two-State Solution: Joe Biden." Available at: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israel-doesnt-want-two-state-solution-joe-biden-4662464#:~:text=%22

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