Our Wednesday News Analysis | Editorial | Harris Said What Israeli Center-left Leaders Won't: We Need the Two-state Solution

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris giving a thumbs down during the presidential debate with Donald Trump in Philadelphia on Tuesday.Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP

In her reference to the war,

Harris dared say words that in Israel have been banished from legitimate discourse: talking about a two-state solution.

The things Vice President Kamala Harris said in the presidential debate in Philadelphia with former president Donald Trump were very important. It's good that they were said now, in the middle of an interminable war, partly due to the refusal of Israel – both coalition and opposition – to formulate an explicit vision for the Middle East on the "day after."

In her reference to the war, Harris dared say words which in Israel have been banished from legitimate discourse: talking about a two-state solution. She claimed that the only way to ensure Israel's security is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a recognition of the Palestinians' right to self-determination. The war "must end immediately. And the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out and so we will continue to work around the clock on that, also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution."

For Harris, this solution must include "security for the Israeli people and Israel, and an equal measure for the Palestinians." It's obvious that the vice president is not indifferent to the threats facing Israel. "But I will assure you always, I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself. In particular as it relates to Iran, and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel, but we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve."...

Read more: Editorial | Harris Said What Israeli Center-left Leaders Won't: We Need the Two-state Solution

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WHAT WE MEAN BY ‘CENTERING PALESTINIAN VOICES’

Source: Gulf News
https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/what-we-mean-by-centering-palestinian-voices-1.104052500

By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News
Published September 12, 2024

People of Palestine alone must resolve the question of their rightful representation

Palestinians amongst debris in a tented area following Israeli shelling near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Image Credit: Bloomberg

In April 2021, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree postponing parliamentary and presidential elections, which were scheduled in May and July.

"…. who shall rule the Palestinians? Who shall govern Gaza after the war? Who are the ‘moderate’ Palestinians to be included in future US-led Western schemes?

The Palestinian people should resolve the question of representation.

Until that task is achieved,
we must invest in centering Palestinian voices in
every political, legal, and social platform relevant to Palestine,
its struggle, and its legitimate aspirations."

The then-85-year-old Palestinian leader justified his unwarranted decision as a result of a ‘dispute’ with Israel over the vote of Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian city of East Jerusalem.

Though contrary to international law, Israel considers Palestinian East Jerusalem as part of its “eternal and undivided capital’, the cancellation of the elections stemmed from a purely internal Palestinian matter.

Marwan Barghouti, though a member of Abbas’ Fatah party, had decided to throw his hat in the ring, entering the elections under a separate list, the Freedom List. Opinion polls showed that, if Barghouti entered the fray, he could have decisively beaten Abbas.

However, Barghouti, the most popular Palestinian figure in the West Bank, is a prisoner in Israel. He has spent 22 years in Israeli prisons.

One can only speculate regarding the possible outcomes of the canceled May and July 2021 elections should they have taken place as scheduled. A duly elected government would have certainly addressed, to some extent, the question of legitimacy, or lack thereof, among all Palestinian factions.,,

Read more: What we mean by ‘centering Palestinian voices’

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HOW ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE IN GAZA IS CREATING ENEMIES ON ALL SIDES

Source: Jews for Justice for Palestinians
https://jfjfp.com/how-israels-genocide-in-gaza-is-creating-enemies-on-all-sides/

David Hearst writes in Middle East Eye on 11 September, 2024

Netanyahu's refusal to end the war on Gaza and settlers' terrorism in the West Bank have sowed the seeds of hatred across the region

Demonstrators take part in a march in Amman in support of Gaza and to salute the slain Jordanian who killed three Israeli soldiers at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, Jordan on 8 September 2024

"As the widespread celebrations that followed the killings showed,
Jordanians do not need Iran’s active incitement.

Gaza has radicalized the Arab world …"

When three Israeli security guards were killed near the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that Israel was “surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran”.

In December, his government said Israel was fighting a war on seven fronts, all led by Iran.

If this is an acknowledgment that Netanyahu’s refusal to end the genocidal campaign in Gaza is making all of Israel’s borders insecure, then it is belated. However, Netanyahu was right to say there is hatred for Israel on the east side of the Jordan Valley.

As the widespread celebrations that followed the killings showed, Jordanians do not need Iran’s active incitement.

The Israeli military’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the settlers’ terrorism against the Palestinians in the West Bank have sowed the seeds of hatred in a neighbour all by itself. Jordan, which has been quiet for 50 years on the Palestinian question, is quiet no more.

Gaza has radicalised the Arab world in a way not seen for over a decade since the Arab Spring...

Read more: How Israel’s genocide in Gaza is creating enemies on all sides