When will Israel realize that force is not the best option? 
There is a tragic and yet foggy war raging these days between the Palestinian resistance movements and the Israeli army. The fierce fighting comes amid regional and international warnings that the war could escalate into a major regional confrontation. However, the ongoing war has brought the Palestinian question to the fore once again, with the world reminded of the danger of it remaining unresolved. The war has also injected momentum into regional and international peace initiatives, reiterating the need for Palestinians to reclaim their rights under the two-state solution.
Saudi Arabia is one of the Arab nations that has repeatedly warned, on every possible occasion and at almost all international forums, of the consequences of sliding into an extended war. Riyadh has also warned of the possibility that ill-considered acts could trigger a wide-scale and costly regional confrontation. And the Kingdom has asserted that it is convinced that achieving peace and security for Israel hinges on enabling the Palestinians to reclaim their rights.
The Saudi efforts have reached the point of entering into US-brokered talks with Israel to establish relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv. In the course of the talks, the Kingdom has clung on to settling the Palestinian question and enabling the Palestinians to obtain their rights. The aim of the purported talks was to encourage the Israelis to make concessions to the Palestinians to resolve the dispute.
As the ongoing war between the Palestinian resistance movements and Israel escalates — with 3,500 Palestinians having already been killed and 12,000 wounded, while 1,400 Israelis have been killed and about 200 are being held hostage — the Kingdom has stated there is a relationship between the ongoing war and leaving the Palestinian question unresolved. It has also attributed the attacks mounted by the Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades against the Gaza Envelope settlements to the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights. This reflects the Kingdom’s long-standing position on the Palestinian cause, as it supports all the efforts aimed at achieving an equitable and comprehensive peace that ensures its support for the Palestinian people’s just cause and enables them to obtain their legitimate rights.
The Kingdom’s role is not confined to mere condemnations; it has also rushed to curb the mounting violence and prevent the expansion of the war. It has called on the two parties to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding protecting civilians and their facilities. Amid the continuation of the intensive Israeli attacks on Palestinians, Saudi Arabia announced the suspension of talks with Israel. It has also communicated with all the international actors to bring the escalation to a halt, including calling on the Islamic world’s foreign ministers to hold an Organization of Islamic Cooperation emergency meeting. During this meeting, the Kingdom expressed — in a statement whose terms were the strongest since the war’s outbreak — its outright rejection of the forced exiling of Palestinians in Gaza.
In addition, Riyadh has called on the international community to take a responsible stand and protect the Palestinians, end the Gaza siege and open humanitarian corridors. It concluded the statement by saying that peace is a strategic option to get out of the war’s vortex; this requires the establishment of a Palestinian state on the June 1967 borders, with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
The ongoing war has brought the Palestinian question to the fore once again, with the world reminded of the danger of it remaining unresolved.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami
The concluding statement of the OIC meeting, seated in Saudi Arabia, contained very strong messages to the parties supportive of Israel. While the US and many European actors have adopted the Israeli version of events regarding the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which claimed the lives of hundreds and wounded many others, the concluding statement of more than 57 Muslim nations said that the Israeli army was responsible for bombing the hospital.
The statement also rejected the calls for forcibly exiling the Palestinians, while reiterating the group’s support for their resilience and steadfastness on their land. It called for holding Israel accountable for its horrendous crimes, particularly that of keeping the Gaza Strip under bombardment, siege and starvation, as well as ensuring the Palestinians face one of two grim scenarios: forced displacement or dying as a result of hunger or the wounds sustained during bombing raids.
All of this is happening while the UN Security Council stands powerless and incapable of ensuring Palestinians’ safety and security. The backdrop of this is its failure to reach a resolution to cease the ongoing war or even open humanitarian corridors to the besieged and disaster-hit people.
The developments of the Arab, regional and international positions, though not commensurate with the consequences of the current war, reflect a host of shifts regarding the Palestinian cause. These shifts may put more pressure on the US administration, pushing it to reconsider its calculus regarding the ongoing war in particular and the Israel-Palestine dispute in general.
On the one hand, there is consensus in the Arab world — both at the popular and official levels. Protests have broken out in a number of Arab capitals, while at the official level there is a clear rejection of the US-backed scheme aimed at evicting the Palestinians, repeating the Nakba scenario, with the aim of pulverizing the Palestinian question and putting it on a one-way course to extinction.
There is also an Arab consensus on opening humanitarian corridors to the Gaza Strip. The decision by the presidents of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine to cancel a four-way meeting with US President Joe Biden, which was planned to be held last week in the Jordanian capital, sent a strong, collective and unprecedented Arab political message, expressing adamant rejection of the eviction scheme as well as Washington’s covering up of the violent Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinians.
On the other hand, there is also a rising global and regional campaign, led by Turkiye, Iran, China and Russia, along with the Arab nations, that rejects the US-Israeli scheme to evict the Palestinians and that supports the two-state formula. This position is taken, however, as part of the dispute between China and Russia on the one hand and the US on the other regarding Ukraine and over global leadership. While Washington succeeded in vetoing a Russian draft resolution in the UN Security Council to implement a ceasefire in Gaza, Moscow has abstained from condemning Hamas following its ambush on the Gaza Envelope. There has also been a noticeable change in the position of some European countries that initially announced their staunch backing of Israel but are now calling instead for protecting civilians and exerting pressure on Tel Aviv to open humanitarian corridors to deliver aid.
The Biden administration fears a potential crisis among the Democrats, whose fallout could impact the next US presidential election in November 2024. A group of 13 Democratic lawmakers last week came forward with a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But the Biden administration’s preferred option is to continue supporting Israel, which is in harmony with the Republicans’ stance. Biden has come under a barrage of criticism and accusations both at home and abroad that he has given Tel Aviv the green light to wage a violent war on Gaza.
To conclude, it appears that the scenario envisioned by Israel since the start of the war on Gaza — irrevocably ending the Palestinian question through launching a military operation that puts Gazans in the face of two bitter options: death or forced eviction — has started to become foggier. Washington and Tel Aviv have started to realize how costly their position is, as the scheme has been adamantly rejected by the Arab nations, with regional warnings that the war could further escalate to include other parties. Also, some international powers supportive of the two-state solution have rejected the scheme.
This is reflected in the delay to the ground operation on Gaza, contrary to what was announced by the Israeli war Cabinet, and Tel Aviv allowing limited humanitarian assistance into Gaza. This is in addition to the resilience displayed by Gaza’s residents, including children, youths, the elderly and women, in the face of Israel’s violence, which has pushed the Palestinian cause to the fore. This sends a message to Israel and its enablers that the military option is not the best option, particularly in light of the failure of all previous Israeli military operations.
The situation has also created momentum in the Arab world, regionally and internationally regarding the Palestinian cause, as the conflict poses a threat to global and regional peace and security. Some international powers have also reconsidered their positions, restoring support for the Arab and international initiatives seeking the two-state solution — contrary to the schemes of Washington and Tel Aviv that are aimed at totally liquidating the Palestinian issue.
Here, questions arise: How long will Tel Aviv remain unaware of the seriousness of Arab warnings of the consequences of leaving the Palestinian issue unresolved, along with the implications of this for the establishment of relations between Arab nations and Israel? How long will Israel remain unaware of the fact that its children will not sleep comfortably — in the words of the Colombian president — as long as their Palestinian counterparts are unable to sleep comfortably? And how long will it remain heedless of the fact that the military option has never managed to bring peace and security to the Israelis and that it is time for diplomatic and political options to settle the dispute?
• Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is the founder and president of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). X: @mohalsulami
