By Hua Zhang
In the early hours of October 7th, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a military operation against Israel. In response, the Israeli military carried out multiple rounds of airstrikes against the Gaza Strip. On October 8th, Lebanese Hizbullah issued a statement saying that its military organization had fired rockets and shells at Israeli military positions in the occupied Shebaa Farms. This indicates that there is still a risk of further escalation in this round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As of now, the conflict has resulted in over 1,100 deaths and more than 4,000 injuries on both sides.
The Palestinian-Israeli issue has deep historical roots and is highly complex. In addition to internal factors such as religious, cultural and ethnic conflicts, the longstanding unilateralism policy, or bias on the issue by some Western countries including the United States, has also been a significant factor in the prolonged and escalating nature of the conflict.
On the Palestinian-Israeli territorial issue, the international community widely supports the "two-state solution", which is based on the establishment of a fully independent and sovereign State of Palestine on the basis of the borders that existed prior to the Third Arab-Israeli War in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. In September 1993, the Palestinians and Israelis signed the Oslo Accords, achieving a substantial breakthrough in achieving preliminary peace. They agreed in principle on issues such as limited autonomy for Gaza and Jericho. Both sides mutually recognized each other's legitimate and political rights. This was supposed to be the beginning and foundation of reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. However, subsequent negotiations have been repeatedly disrupted by conflicts and have made little progress. In many instances, the US has played a very dishonourable role in this regard.
Over the past few decades, Israel has continuously built Jewish settlements in areas such as East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. While the US has occasionally voiced opposition in line with the international community, it has been a major supporter of Israel behind the scenes. This support has been so significant that Israel has reciprocated by announcing the construction of a Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights named after former US President Trump in 2020. Israel's ongoing construction of Jewish settlements has sparked strong discontent and protests among Palestinian people and is one of the significant reasons for the continuation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, pointed out that from June to September 2023 alone, Israel built over ten thousand housing units in these areas, a clear violation of the principles of the two-state solution aimed at achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace.
Furthermore, the so-called Middle East peace plan advocated and pushed by the US, has always been a biased and domineering agreement that favors one side. Instead of bringing real peace to Israel and Palestine, it has the potential to exacerbate their conflicts and tensions. With Palestinian-Israeli negotiations at an impasse, the US has been brewing the "new Middle East peace plan" since 2017. On January 28, 2020, then-President Trump finally unveiled this plan, referring to it as the "Deal of the Century". However, apart from Israel, very few parties have embraced it, and Arab countries have generally protested against it.
In accordance with the consistent style of the US, Palestinians and many Arab nations are concerned that the US might be attempting to coax significant concessions from Palestine in terms of territory and political power through empty promises. Naturally, they are not prepared to accept such a proposition. This approach mirrors the typical US strategy in dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli issue and other diplomatic matters – offering potential gains to secure actual gains, often sacrificing the interests of other nations to satisfy its own and those of its allies.
Lately, the US has been vigorously promoting the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a recent interview with American media, admitted that Saudi-Israeli diplomatic relations are getting closer every day. This is also seen as one of the significant factors contributing to the current escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. From the Palestinian perspective, if Saudi Arabia abandons the traditional approach that the Palestinian-Israeli issue comes before the Arabic-Israeli relations in peace negotiations and proceeds to normalize relations with Israel, it will further marginalize the Palestinian cause, and make the aspirations of the Palestinian people seem even more distant.
In conclusion, the practice of favoring one side with ulterior motives only leads to a continuous deterioration of the regional security situation. The various actions taken by the US in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have become a hindrance to achieving the vision of peace for both parties. History and reality have repeatedly shown that real peace can only be achieved by adhering to basic principles of mutual respect, recognizing the inseparability of security, and working towards the long-term goal of building a secure community.
Editor's note: Originally published on china.com.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
