While Qatar continues to take the initiative in mediating the extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas, Zionist Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli ministers are reiterating their firm attitude that the military attacks can be stopped only by driving out Hamas at any cost. They have brutally killed over 15,000 innocent people, including women and children, so far; they have also demolished homes and caused the displacement of about 9 lakh people. But there is no sign of Hamas' fighting spirit abating. Israel, on the other hand, faces severe pressures from both internal and external forces. The group of 40 countries around the Mediterranean, which recently met in Barcelona, Spain, has unequivocally declared that a two-state solution is the only solution to the problem. While there was general condemnation of Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, no one supported Israel's move to annex Gaza or make it part of Israel.
Most countries in the 28-member European Union have deep economic cooperation with Israel and have supported that country's unjustifiable actions. But even they recognize that if the war continues, there will be wider and more devastating consequences. The European Union is convinced that most of the Arab countries with whom it has close friendship and trade relations are extremely disturbed by the brutal destruction efforts that Israel continues in Gaza and therefore wants the truce to continue as long as possible and the final solution is for Palestine and Israel to remain as two independent states. Their biggest headache is America's one-sided Zionist state bias. In the eyes of Hamas, their most visible success is reviving the Palestinian issue, which was generally written off by the world, including the Arab countries, and bringing it to the point where an immediate solution is necessary. Israel's close friends, including India, are now talking about a two-state solution.
It should be understood that the Arab countries that signed the Abraham Accords have come to the realization that it is no longer possible to ignore Palestine as a nation or to silence them by giving them small aid. But the position of many inside and outside the European Union is that the Palestinian Authority can be recognized and Hamas cannot be recognized. The US administration is repeating the same position. But they all fail to remember that this is a problem-solving proposal without any sense of reality or foresight. The 87-year-old head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who is residing in Ramallah in the West Bank, cannot utter a single word against Israel, which is killing its own people. Mahmoud Abbas, who already founded the US-Israel alliance as the successor of PLO chief Yasser Arafat, has so far not been able to effectively raise his voice or do anything constructive for the Palestinian people. The term of Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected as the President of Palestine in 2006, ended in 2009. After that, he continued to hold the post of president for 14 years without holding an election. He has already signed all the concession agreements with Israel and failed miserably to force Israel to abide by even one. Even in the most recent poll conducted by an American agency in their favour, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has only nine per cent support. On the other hand, Hamas is in power after winning a large majority in the 2006 elections in Palestine. They are the ones who have shown support for the Palestinian people whether the outside world likes it or not. According to the revelation of the leading Israeli media 'Haaretz', 90 percent of Palestinians support Hamas. If this is the case, then surely a political solution that excludes Hamas is not possible in Gaza or the West Bank. A viable solution is to hand over governance to an interim government after the establishment of the nation and hand over power to whoever is supported by the people through free and fair elections. The simple truth is that no solution imposed by external forces to suit their interests will solve the crisis.