The move, which an Israeli government spokesman described as “despicable,” will have little impact on Gaza or the West Bank. Driven by Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank has failed to even pay its own civil servants.
But the decision follows a series of other problems for Israel, from Washington's warnings that it would stop providing arms if the war in Gaza continued and impose sanctions on settlers who engage in violence to genocide charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the court.
Mr Netanyahu has long opposed the two-state solution, and that opposition has grown more strident since he took office with a coalition of far-right religious nationalist parties in late 2022.
The government has consistently cast doubt on the PA, which was established three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords, accusing it of a range of aggressive acts, including supporting the families of gunmen killed by Israeli forces and promoting anti-Semitism in school textbooks.
Mr Netanyahu described the decision from the three countries as “a reward for terrorism”, and asserted that the Palestinian state would “try to repeat the massacre of October 7”.
The comment underscored the severity of the political situation surrounding the war in Gaza and how remote the prospect of a political settlement based on a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel seems to be, with peace talks seemingly all but abandoned.
In addition to recalling ambassadors from Oslo, Madrid and Dublin, the Israeli foreign ministry also summoned the ambassadors of Norway, Ireland and Spain to Israel to witness the video of the attack in Israel on October 7.
Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East analyst at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said the three countries’ decision “is a bold move but also ill-considered and unconstructive.”
“For the Israeli public, this decision will heighten fears and reinforce Netanyahu’s view that Israel has been abandoned. For the Palestinian public, this decision raises expectations without offering a path toward their legitimate dream of autonomy.”
The long term price
For Netanyahu, who has struggled to hold together a fractured coalition government and faces accusations of responsibility for the October 7 disaster, Wednesday's statement from the three countries may have improved his prospects, cementing his image as a man standing firm in the face of a hostile world.
“This development really reinforces the assertions that we have seen since the early days of the war that we can only rely on ourselves,” said Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “And I believe that this decision may even support the explanations and descriptions of the Israeli government’s actions in the Gaza war.”
For Israel, however, the cost of blocking moves toward Palestinian statehood could be much greater, and the first of these could be the loss of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu’s top foreign policy goal before the October 7 incident.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a US Senate committee on Tuesday that a deal with Saudi Arabia would require easing the situation in Gaza and setting out “a clear path” toward recognition of a Palestinian state.
“And in general… at this point, Israel is unable or unwilling to go down that path.”
For the Israeli public, the image of the October 7 attack when gunmen swept through communities on the edge of the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, remains an extremely painful image.
But outside Israel, images of the suffering in Gaza, where Israel's relentless campaign has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and leveled much of the enclave, have sparked protests on college campuses in the United States and on the streets of European cities.
For the US government, as well as other governments like Germany, which have historically supported Israel, these protests have come at an increasingly heavy political cost.
Both countries have insisted that recognition of a Palestinian state should be the result of negotiations rather than a unilateral decision, and other European countries such as France and the UK have also refused to join the three countries in deciding to recognize a Palestinian state.
But according to Alon Liel, a former Israeli foreign ministry chief and critic of the Netanyahu administration, the recognition of a Palestinian state by individual countries is less important than the broader context, including the accusations leveled against Israel and its leaders at the international court in The Hague.
“If this decision is seen as part of a series of decisions that are building momentum for future decisions and part of the ICC, ICJ, settler sanctions and other decisions, it is entirely possible that they could make Israel realize that there is a world outside of Israel.”
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)
Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/mot-so-nuoc-chau-au-cong-nhan-nha-nuoc-palestine-israel-bi-co-lap-a664902.html
Comment (0)