Does a political solution to the Israel-Gaza conflict exist?

Is there a political solution to the Gaza conflict? Earlier this morning, the seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke down, with the IDF reporting that it had intercepted rocket fire from the Gaza strip. Israel then resumed hostilities, with air strikes in northern and southern Gaza against Hamas.

Almost from the moment of its inception, 73-years ago, Israel has been in a state of perpetual war. This is not something of Israel’s own choosing. No other country in the modern era has fought so many wars of national survival against adversaries whose sole ambition was the complete annihilation of  a people.

It has become something of a cliche to suggest that military conflicts can only be resolved by political means. While that has undoubtedly been true in Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa and in Northern Ireland, where the imperfect but workable Good Friday Agreement brought to and end 30-years of conflict between paramilitaries in Northern Ireland and the British government, it will not be the case for Israel, not for the foreseeable future anyway.

If there was an opportunity for a prolonged peace, it disappeared on October 7th when Hamas butchered 1,200 Israelis, including women, children and babies in the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

The military response from Israel, irrespective of whether it is justified or not, but seemingly overwhelmingly supported by its population, has led to suffering on a scale almost too horrific to comprehend. According to the Hamas-controlled Gazan health authority, over 14,000 civilians have been killed and of those 40 per cent were children, with the majority perishing in wave after wave of punishing air strikes. Imagine, just for a moment, how it must feel to be a Palestinian living in Gaza today. There is a good chance you will have lost your home, seen family members killed and whatever future you had looks very bleak. So who do you blame?

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David Butterfield

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President Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet will be hoping Gazans blame Hamas for their suffering and, when the fighting eventually stops, will never allow what remains of the terrorist organisation to gain a foothold in the Palestinian territory again.

Although that may be the case, many more in Gaza, both young and old, the orphaned, the wounded and the dispossessed, will blame Israel and will only be too willing to dedicate their lives to killing Israelis, ensuring that the circle of violence remains unbroken.

This situation is nothing new. Back in the 1980s when I was at university I spent a summer as a volunteer on a kibbutz called Nirim, a stone’s throw from the Gaza strip and one of the communities attacked on October 7th. Back then Israel seemed like a much safer place. I hitchhiked my way around the country, travelled on buses through Palestinian areas and the only warning I was given was to never accept a lift from a car with Arabic number plates. To do so, I was told, could lead to me being kidnapped and taken into the Gaza strip.

When I returned home and to university, I became friends through a five-a-side football league with an engineering student who was born in Gaza. He was very intelligent, articulate, and engaging. He was also part of a team composed solely of Middle Eastern students, who called themselves Hezbollah, a name which meant little to me at the time.

One day after a punishing game in which my team once again lost to his, I asked him what he was going to do when he graduated. ‘Return to Gaza’, he told me over a drink in the student union bar. ‘And do what?’ I asked. ‘Kill Israelis’, he responded. I can’t remember his name but I can remember the way he smiled when he told me. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because they have stolen my land and murdered my people.’

After October 7th I found myself wondering if my student friend had stuck to his promise, whether he was still alive and whether he had played any part in those murderous attacks.

It is commonly accepted in diplomatic circles that the two state solution – where Palestinians can live independently in a separate state alongside Israel – is the best path for peace. One of the most vocal proponents of the two state solution is Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who also believes this can only be achieved by ordering all Israelis settlers to leave the West Bank. He said in a recent interview with Time magazine: ‘I think there is a need in Israel, under the heaviest, most difficult conditions, never to lose sight of the objective. The right way is to look to the two-state solution, not because of justice to the Palestinians, which is not the uppermost on my priorities, but because we have a compelling imperative to disengage from the Palestinians to protect our own security, our own future, our own identity.’ 

Barak came closer than any other Israeli political leader to securing a peace deal in 2000 in which he offered the Palestinians 97 per cent of the West Bank; all of Gaza, where Israel still had settlers; and a capital in East Jerusalem. But it wasn’t enough. Instead Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected the proposals, a move which led to a suicide bombings campaign against Israel that became known as the Second Intifada. In the ensuing violence, more than 1,000 Israelis were killed along with 3,000 Palestinians.

The hard reality may be that there is no political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – if there was it would already be in place.