Western calls for a Palestinian state put spotlight on Netanyahu

An old request from international diplomacy is back in the headlines. This Friday, January 19, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, held a call with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he reiterated his country's position that, once the war in Gaza is over, it is believed a Palestinian State, and maintained that this possibility should be on the table to negotiate peace, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

The same day, the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, had gone a step further and called on the “Arab world, Europe, the United States and the entire UN” to adopt the decision to recognize the creation of a Palestinian state despite Israel's opposition. “The actors are too opposed to be able to autonomously reach an agreement“said Borrell, during an event in his honor at a Spanish university.

The calls come a day after Netanyahu gave a resounding “no” to the possibility.

“I tell this truth to our American friends and I also stopped the attempt to impose on us a reality that would harm Israel's security,” Netanyahu said Thursday, in response to calls from Washington, whose Security Secretary Antony Blinken reiterated during his recent visit to the Middle East.

Netanyahu said that in any deal reached with the Palestinian side, Israel would have to maintain security control, “especially the territory west of the Jordan Valley,” referring to a significant portion of West Bank land occupied by Israel since 1967, to guarantee the security of the Israeli people. “In every territory we withdraw from, we receive terrorism, terrible terrorism against us,” he added.

Although the White House assured that the call had nothing to do with Netanyahu's comments, it came a day after his statements on the matter and, according to Kirby, the US president reiterated “his firm conviction.” that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved when there is a State for the Palestinian Territories. “The president recognizes that it will take effort and leadership and he is willing to contribute his work,” the spokesperson stated.

The US and the conflict in Gaza, an ambiguous position

The United States is a very close ally of Israel and throughout history has financed a good part of its defense budget. According to the United States Congressional Research Service, the United States has allocated $150 billion to Israel, the vast majority for “military assistance,” since its creation after World War II until 2022.

The United States' position on the war in Gaza has had different emphases over the months. At the beginning of the offensive, Washington vehemently defended “Israel's right to defend itself” after the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israeli communities, which, according to Israeli government figures, left more than 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians and among which there were children. Then, although he has defended the need to protect civilians and calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, he has blocked the possibility of a ceasefire in the conflict with his veto power in the UN Security Council.

Also has positioned itself against the accusations of genocide for which South Africa denounces Israel before the International Court of Justice.

During the press conference on Thursday, January 18, Netanyahu also reiterated that the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza will continue in the coming months “until a total victory” over the Islamist group. And he expressed his refusal to let the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, come to control the Gaza Strip once the war ends. During Blinken's visit, he raised this possibility for an eventual post-war period.

'Netanyahu seeks excuses to refuse to establish a state for the Palestinian people'

The Palestinian Authority (PNA), with less and less power in the Palestinian Territories, condemned the Israeli president's statements and said that the war he has launched in Gaza is a strategy to exterminate its population.

“Netanyahu continues to kill Palestinian civilians and push them to emigrate from their homeland, destroying their homes, infrastructure and all elements of their human and national existence,” the PA Foreign Ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry also accused Netanyahu of “continuing to sell illusions on Israeli streets and international public opinion” about his goal of completely dismantling Hamas and eradicating its presence in Gaza. “It seeks excuses to justify its continuation of the genocidal war, deepening the humanitarian catastrophe and refusing to establish a State for the Palestinian people,” the ANP added.

Borrell, for his part, had also questioned Israel's war against the Palestinian group and accused the Jewish-majority state of having armed it. “Hamas was financed by Israel for years to try to disempower the Palestinian Fatah authority,” said the diplomat.

Possibilities of a Palestinian State in the long term?

The possibility of the war ending is something that David Khalfa, co-director of the North Africa and Middle East Observatory of the Jean Jaurès Foundation, sees distant, precisely due to the political and judicial complications that Netanyahu faces, with several corruption trials in his against.

“His strategy, very clearly, is to wage war for as long as possible, because he knows it is unpopular. “He tries to buy time, hoping to regain the favor of public opinion by wearing the costume of the war leader,” he told France 24.

However, the expert points out that, due to his age, sooner or later, “he will have to give up the reins of power” and that “the political offer” of the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, which have pushed for the creation of a Palestinian State, could survive the far-right leader. “And all the more so since the leaders who head the petromonarchies are young and will probably remain in power for the next decades,” says Khalfa, who also points out that after the president's departure, Israel could take a more centrist course, and, therefore, therefore open to dialogue.

As discussions on the creation of a Palestinian state progress, the war in Gaza continues with a trail of 24,700 deaths, of which more than 10,000 are minors.

With EFE and international media