Only a matter of time before further outbreaks of violence occur

 

Wolfgang Hansson 

 

The Israel/Palestine conflict  

An eternal spiral of violence with no visible end  

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's. 

 

Published 21:51  

 

Columnists 

  

Is there anything more inconsolable than the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians? 

 

Constantly new shootings, missile attacks and terrorist acts.  

 

The worst is that the eternal spiral of violence continues until Israel is ready to sit down at the negotiating table to try to find a political solution.  

 

For two days, Israel has carried out the largest military operation in the West Bank since the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) in the early 2000s.  

 

The goal has been to attack what Israel calls Palestinian terrorists in the city of Jenin. New armed groups formed to resist Israel's occupation that are not under the control of the Palestinian Authority.  

 

The Palestinians' response was a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv on people waiting at a bus stop and a number of rockets fired from Gaza at Israel.  

 

The terrible thing is that this kind of violence is part of everyday life. Since the beginning of the year, it has been particularly bad. One reason is the newly installed right-wing government under corruption-accused political veteran Benjamin Netanyahu.. 

 

Since no "normal" politicians want to govern together with Netanyahu, he has had to bring in the most extreme right-wing elements in Israeli politics. Now it is the representatives of the settlers and the ultra-orthodox Jews who in practice set the agenda for the country. 

  

It includes that Israel must build even more Jewish settlements on occupied land, even though this is precisely one of the biggest obstacles to achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It also includes tougher measures against the Palestinians.  

 

The latest offensive happened to coincide with new large planned demonstrations against Netanyahu's attempts to reduce the power of the Supreme Court and increase his own government.  

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Ronen Zvulun / AP  

 

The pot is kept boiling  

 

The many years of non-progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state have further undermined the authority of the Palestinian Authority. Radical Palestinians no longer listen to President Mahmoud Abbas. Instead, they form their own armed groups that organize the resistance against Israel.  

 

Israel says it is now withdrawing its soldiers from Jenin. But that doesn't mean the violence will stop. The cauldron of the conflict is constantly kept boiling by new attacks and wrongs committed against and from both sides.  

 

Recently, four settlers were killed in the West Bank by Palestinians. Earlier this year, hundreds of settlers stormed the Palestinian village of Huwara. Burned, mutilated and killed. 

 

It is only a matter of time before the next outbreak of violence occurs.  

 

The whole conflict is so tragic because it has its beginnings in the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. After the Holocaust during the Second World War, the Jews were considered to have the right to a state of their own. The only problem was that there were already a lot of people living on that land. People who were displaced or fled in the war that followed. 

 

Israel's Arab neighbors tried to wipe out the state in two wars in 1967 and 1973. Instead, the result was that Israel proved to be militarily superior. 

 

In 1993, a first peace agreement was reached in Oslo where Israel agreed to give back parts of the land it had occupied in the two wars against peace. But when the next peace agreement was to be reached in 2000, Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat backed out at the last moment. He did not dare to make the necessary concessions.  

 

Demonstrations against Netanyahu at an airport in Israel. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP  

 

The outside world is tired  

 

Since then, it has more or less been a constant downhill, with the peace efforts getting less and less room for the last 5-10 years to shine completely with their absence.  

 

In the past, a majority of Israelis believed that they had to come to terms with the Palestinians in order to live in peace. Nowadays, a majority seems to share Netanyahu's opinion that it is possible to live with the status quo where the Palestinians are effectively second-class citizens in something that increasingly resembles apartheid, the system of racial segregation in white South Africa.  

 

The Palestinian leadership is constantly pushing for peace negotiations but is still unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices for fear of the reaction of its own population.  

 

The perception of the outside world has long been that the only possible peace involves the formation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.  

 

For a long time it was also Israel's goal, but no longer. For many years, the conflict was high on the world's agenda. Today the world is tired of trying to get two parties to live in peace who themselves do everything to keep hostilities going.

 

If the two-state solution is no longer relevant, it is difficult for outsiders to see what a solution could look like, which can be accepted by both parties.  

 

Today there are so many other centers of crisis that require a solution; the war in Ukraine, the climate threat, China's claim to power in Asia.  

 

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians continues to be a powder keg. But in order for the international community to get involved again, Prime Minister Netanyahu is required to be prepared to sit down for real peace negotiations. A first condition for ending the violence. But there is no indication that it will happen in the foreseeable future.  

 

A car mowed down people in Tel Aviv in an action that terror-labeled Hamas called "the answer to Jenin". Photo: Oded Balilty / AP