[ How do we balance our desire to stop the fighting with the need
to address the roots of the conflict? For 75 years, diplomats,
well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians and government leaders
around the world have struggled to bring peace...]
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BERNIE SANDERS: JUSTICE FOR THE PALESTINIANS AND SECURITY FOR ISRAEL
 
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Bernie Sanders
November 22, 2023
New York Times
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_ How do we balance our desire to stop the fighting with the need to
address the roots of the conflict? For 75 years, diplomats,
well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians and government leaders
around the world have struggled to bring peace... _

A rose left on a post at the funeral of a husband and wife at the
cemetery in Kibbutz Palmachin, Israel, on Oct. 29. The couple were
killed in the Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct 7., Credit: Dan
Kitwood // New York Times

 

There have been five wars in the last 15 years
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Israel and Hamas. How do we end the current one and prevent a sixth
from happening, sooner or later? How do we balance our desire to stop
the fighting with the need to address the roots of the conflict?
For 75 years
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diplomats, well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians and government
leaders around the world have struggled to bring peace to this region.
In that time an Egyptian president and an Israeli prime minister were
assassinated by extremists for their efforts to end the violence.

And on and on it goes.

For those of us who want not only to bring this war to an end, but to
avoid a future one, we must first be cleareyed about facts. On Oct. 7,
Hamas, a terrorist organization, unleashed a barbaric attack against
Israel, killing about 1,200 innocent men, women and children and
taking more than 200 hostage. On a per-capita basis, if Israel had the
same population as the United States, that attack would have been the
equivalent of nearly 40,000 deaths, more than 10 times the fatalities
that we suffered on 9/11.

Israel, in response, under the leadership of its right-wing prime
minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under indictment for corruption
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whose cabinet includes outright racists
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unleashed what amounts to total war against the Palestinian people. In
Gaza, over 1.6 million Palestinians were forced out of their homes.
Food, water, medical supplies and fuel were cut off. The United
Nations estimates that 45 percent of the housing units in Gaza
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been damaged or destroyed. According to the Gaza health ministry, more
than 12,000 Palestinians
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about half of whom are children, have been killed and many more
wounded. And the situation becomes more dire every day.

This is a humanitarian catastrophe that risks igniting a wider
regional conflagration. We all want it to end as soon as possible. To
make progress, however, we must grapple with the complexity of this
situation that too many people on both sides want to wave away.

First, Hamas has made it clear, before and after Oct. 7, that its goal
is perpetual warfare and the destruction of the state of Israel. Just
last week a spokesman for Hamas told The New York Times
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“I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on
all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”

Second, Israel has done nothing in recent years to give hope for a
peaceful settlement — maintaining the blockade of Gaza, deepening
the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and largely
ignoring the horrendous living conditions facing Palestinians.

Needless to say, I do not have all of the answers to this never-ending
tragedy. But for those of us who believe in peace and justice, it is
imperative that we do our best to provide Israelis and Palestinians
with a thoughtful response that maps out a realistic path to
addressing the reality we face today. Here are my thoughts as to the
best way forward and how the United States can rally the world around
a moral position that moves us toward peace in the region and justice
for the oppressed Palestinian population.

To start, we must demand an immediate end to Israel’s indiscriminate
bombing, which is causing an enormous number of civilian casualties
and is in violation of international law. Israel is at war with Hamas,
not innocent Palestinian men, women and children. Israel cannot bomb
an entire neighborhood to take out one Hamas target. We don’t know
if this campaign has been effective in degrading Hamas’s military
capabilities. But we do know that a reported 70 percent of the
casualties are women and children, and that 104 U.N. aid workers and
53 journalists have been killed. That’s not acceptable.

There must also be a significant, extended humanitarian pause so that
badly needed aid — food, water, medicine and fuel — can get into
Gaza and save lives. If Wednesday morning’s deal — in which 50
Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for a four-day pause in
fighting — is honored, it is a promising first step that we can
build upon, and hopefully work to extend the pause. Meanwhile, the
United Nations must be given time to safely set up the distribution
network needed to prevent thirst, starvation and disease, to build
shelters and evacuate those who need critical care. This window will
also allow for talks to free as many hostages as possible. This
extended pause must not precede a resumption of indiscriminate
bombing. Israel will continue to go after Hamas, but it must
dramatically change its tactics to minimize civilian harm.

If long-suffering Palestinians are ever going to have a chance at
self-determination and a decent standard of living, there must be no
long-term Israeli re-occupation and blockade of Gaza. If Hamas is
going to be removed from power, as it must be, and Palestinians given
the opportunity for a better life, an Israeli occupation of Gaza would
be absolutely counterproductive and would benefit Hamas. For the sake
of regional peace and a brighter future for the Palestinian people,
Gaza must have a chance to be free of Hamas. There can be no long-term
Israeli occupation.

To achieve the political transformation that Gaza needs, new
Palestinian leadership will be required as part of a wider political
process. And for that transformation and peace process to take place,
Israel must make certain political commitments that will allow for
Palestinian leadership committed to peace to build support. They must
guarantee displaced Palestinians the absolute right to return to their
homes as Gaza rebuilds. People who have lived in poverty and despair
for years cannot be made permanently homeless. Israel must also commit
to end the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and freeze
settlements there as a first step toward permanently ending the
occupation. Those steps will show that peace can deliver for the
Palestinian people, hopefully giving the Palestinian Authority the
legitimacy it needs to assume administrative control of Gaza, likely
after an interim stabilization period under an international force.

Finally, if Palestinians are to have any hope for a decent future,
there must be a commitment to broad peace talks to advance a two-state
solution in the wake of this war. The United States, the international
community and Israel’s neighbors must move aggressively toward that
goal. This would include dramatically increased international support
for the Palestinian people, including from wealthy Gulf States. It
would also mean the promise of full recognition of Palestine pending
the formation of a new democratically elected government committed to
peace with Israel.

Let’s be clear: this is not going to happen on its own. Mr.
Netanyahu’s Likud party was explicitly formed on the premise
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“between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli
sovereignty,” and the current coalition agreement reinforces that
goal. This is not just ideology. The Israeli government has
systematically pursued this goal. The last year saw record Israeli
settlement growth in the West Bank, where more than 700,000 Israelis
now live in areas that the United Nations and the United States agree
are occupied territories. They have used state violence to back up
this de facto annexation. Since Oct. 7, the United Nations reports
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at least 208 Palestinians, including 53 children, have been killed by
Israeli security forces and settlers. This cannot be allowed to
continue.

Mr. Netanyahu has made clear where he stands on these critical issues.
So should we. If asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in this
position. The only way these necessary changes will happen is if the
United States uses the substantial leverage we have with Israel. And
we all know what that leverage is.

For many years, the United States has provided Israel substantial sums
of money — with close to no strings attached. Currently, we provide
$3.8 billion a year. President Biden has asked for $14.3 billion more
on top of that sum and asked Congress to waive normal, already-limited
oversight rules. The blank check approach must end. The United States
must make clear that while we are friends of Israel, there are
conditions to that friendship and that we cannot be complicit in
actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency.
That includes an end to indiscriminate bombing; a significant pause to
bombing so that massive humanitarian assistance can come into the
region; the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes; no
long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza; an end to settler violence in
the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion; and a commitment
to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.

Over the years, people of good will around the world, including
Israelis, have tried to address this conflict in a way that brings
justice for Palestinians and security for Israel. I, and some other
members of Congress, have tried to do what we could. Obviously, we did
not do enough. Now we must recommit to this effort. The stakes are
just too high to give up.

_[BERNIE SANDERS is the senior senator from Vermont and the chairman
of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and
the longest-serving Independent member of Congress in history. He was
a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and
2020.]_

* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Hamas
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* Gaza
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* Palestinians
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* West Bank
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Humanitarian pause
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* humanitarian disasters
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* Two-state Solution
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* apartheid
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* Occupied Territories
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* Jewish settlements
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* Nabka
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* ethnic cleansing
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* Right of Return
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* Bernie Sanders
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* U.S.-Israel relations
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