Our Wednesday News Analysis | The ‘Two State Solution’: Illusion, Delusion and Distraction

US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

Having watched the genocide since 2023 without intervening, without supporting the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court’s findings against Israel and its prime minister, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and others in the international beltway are now declaring their support for Palestinian statehood and a ‘two-state’ solution.

What accounts for this? Has rising public outrage forced them into the sudden realization that they have been wrong all along? Are they really determined to compel Israel to accept a Palestinian state? Or are they just covering their backsides on the home front, and will subside into their usual subservience once the heat is off?

The spate of declarations began on May 19, when the prime ministers of the UK and Canada and the president of France threatened, if that is the right word, that “if Israel does not stop the renewal of its military offensive (on Gaza) and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”

‘Further to what?’ is the question to be asked here, as there have been no “actions” by these three governments against Israel recently, let alone concrete ones.

On the other hand, there have been numerous concrete actions in support of Israel, including the sale of arms, reconnaissance flights over Gaza to help target Hamas and find where Israeli captives are being held, the suppression of public protests against the genocide, and, in the UK, the listing of Palestine Action as a terrorist group. Thus, anti-genocide is to be punished, not genocide.

On July 21, 2025, the UK and 31 “partners” signed a statement on the occupied Palestine territories – assumed to be only those occupied in 1967 – declaring that the “war” on Gaza “must end now” as the suffering of civilians “has reached new depths” and “the denial of essential humanitarian aid is unacceptable.”

Moving on from “unacceptable,” the partners insist that Israel “must” comply with international law as “we are prepared to take further action to support a ceasefire” (same question as before – further to what?).

Finally, “we strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the occupied Palestinian territories.”...

Read more: The ‘Two State Solution’: Illusion, Delusion and Distraction

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OPINION | IT'S NOT JUST WAR. IT'S GENOCIDE – AND IT'S BEING DONE IN OUR NAME

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-07-30/ty-article-opinion/.premium/its-not-just-war-its-genocide-and-its-being-done-in-our-name/00000198-5c7c-d843-af99-de7d5dfd0000?lts=1754396522067

By Gideon Levy
Published July 30, 2025

Two leading Israeli rights groups have named what others still deny: the campaign in Gaza is not just brutal or disproportionate – it is the deliberate destruction of a people. The evidence is overwhelming, the intent undeniable, and the silence complicit

A journalist displays the executive summary of B'Tselem and PHRI's "Our Genocide" report at a press conference in Jerusalem, Monday.Credit: Maya Alleruzzo/AP

The time has come. It is no longer possible to beat around the bush and avoid answering the question. We can no longer hide, evade, mumble, mollify, and obscure. Nor can we hang on to legal sophistry about the "question of intent" or to wait for the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which may only be handed down once it's too late.

It's already too late. That is why the time has come to call the horror by its name – and its full name is genocide, the extermination of a people. There is no other way to describe it. In front of our horrified eyes, Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. It did not begin now; it began in 1948. Now, however, sufficient evidence has accumulated to call the monstrous child in the Gaza Strip by its full name.

This is a moment of despair, but it is also liberating. We no longer need to avoid the truth. On Monday, in the basement of a hotel in East Jerusalem, two important Israeli human rights groups announced that the die was cast. B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights stated that they had reached the conclusion that Israel was committing genocide. They did so in front of dozens of journalists from all over the world and a shameful, sparse representation from the Israeli media.

Incomparably reliable and brave, they took a historic step. It was clear that their spokespeople didn't find it easy. The discomfort was in the conference room.

B'Tselem called its report "Our Genocide" – and it is genocide, and it is ours. The dramatic declaration was met in Israel with almost total disregard. But this, too, proves the severity of the situation. Genocide is almost always denied by those who carry it out.

The significance is severe. To live in a country whose soldiers are carrying out genocide is an indelible stain, a distorted face peering back in the mirror, a personal challenge for every Israeli. This term raises deep questions about the country and our part in the crime. It reminds us where we came from and raises tough questions about where we're going. The easiest thing now is the burden of proof. The legal corroboration may well come from The Hague, but the moral evidence is piling up every day.

For months, the very few in Israel who see in the Gaza Strip the question of intent have been suffering. Does Israel truly intend to commit genocide, or perhaps it has unintentionally caused the results? This question has become superfluous. It is not the amount of killing and destruction that has taken it off the agenda, but the systematic way they are carrying it out...

Read more: Opinion | It's Not Just War. It's Genocide – and It's Being Done in Our Name
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THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS FACING 42,000 FORCIBLY DISPLACED PALESTINIANS IN THE WEST BANK

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/the-humanitarian-crisis-facing-42000-forcibly-displaced-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/

By Zena al-Tahhan
Published July 28, 2025

Six months since Israel’s expanded military assault on the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, over 42,000 Palestinian refugees remain forcibly displaced and have no stable access to food, water, or shelter.

People carry their belongings as they cross a destroyed street while fleeing the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarem, February 26, 2025. (Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images)

Abdelsalam Odeh and his wife have been living in a bus for the past three months. The couple had nowhere to go and no means to pay rent after being expelled at gunpoint from their lifelong home in the Tulkarem refugee camp by the Israeli army earlier this year.

But desperation has a way of unlocking ingenuity — and for 71-year-old Odeh, that meant repurposing an old vehicle, piece by piece, and turning it into a home.

He converted the inside of the small bus into a bedroom and attached a small kitchen extension using corrugated steel sheets.

“It is our duty to be patient and persevere. Our expulsion will not last, no matter how long it persists,” Odeh told Mondoweiss from the bus.

“The occupation wants to expel us all. They want to take every single part of Palestine and its lands — not ‘1948’ and ‘1967’ occupied lands — they want it all to be a ‘Jewish state’. And God willing, this will not happen,” he continued.

Amid displacement and poverty, the couple has carved out small pockets of life. They fashioned fabric walls using worn tarpaulins and turned old car wheels into flowerpots now blooming with color...

Read more: The humanitarian crisis facing 42,000 forcibly displaced Palestinians in the West Bank