As civilians in Israel and Iran contend with the horrific realities of war, many trying to get out of urban centres, another group of non-combatants has nowhere to hide as nightly air strikes take their deadly toll. It was reported at the weekend that Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 57 people, with the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities saying at least five people were killed on Sunday near aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
These deaths are just the latest in nearly 20 months of bombardments against a territory with no sirens, air-raid shelters or even functioning infrastructure. Indeed, the continuing immiseration of more than two million people presents a very different picture of conflict to the aerial war taking place between Israel and Iran. The surprise attacks by Israel and the subsequent Iranian retaliation in many ways reflect Israel’s image of itself – that of a small country audaciously striking first at an existential threat in a hostile region.
But the region is not hostile in the way the Israeli narrative claims. Dozens of Arab and Muslim countries have repeatedly stated that they are willing to establish ties and develop security relationships with Israel in return for halting the war in Gaza, ending the military occupation of Palestinian land, finding a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue and working towards a two-state solution.
Indeed, it is a bitter irony that a high-level UN conference on Palestinian statehood planned for this week has been postponed by its organisers because of the conflict that is being fought in the Middle East’s skies. Although derailing an international meeting on a two-state solution may suit Israeli leaders opposed to such a settlement, the fact remains that the country’s best guarantee of security is full integration into its neighbourhood through a just political settlement with the Palestinians.
But the UN conference is not the only talks process to suffer. The escalating attacks between Iran and Israel scuttled nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran that were supposed to take place last weekend in Oman. The war is also likely to produce discord rather than consensus at the G7 meeting taking place in Canada. Ali Vaez, Iran Project director at the International Crisis Group, told The National on Sunday that he did not expect the summit to yield any significant movement towards peace, in part because of the countries’ refusal to criticise or condemn Israel’s acts of aggression against Tehran.
Instead of establishing security, this escalation potentially gives Tehran the excuse of self-defence with which to continue developing its nuclear programme in defiance of international opinion. In addition, it undermines the possibility of Israeli security guarantees that would be based on its regional relationships and instead of dependency on the US. Without a political end to the Palestinian-Israel conflict, the region’s future looks like what is presently unfolding – a precarious place beset by managed conflict that threatens to break out into damaging rounds of violence. In the long run, the road to Middle East peace runs through Palestine.
