FLASH
Shkruar nga Nikolla Kristof
Biden is the only one with the power to say "Enough" and help end this war and build a lasting peace on the ashes left behind.
With the Middle East going in the wrong direction, with many fresh graves in Israel and Palestine, with children maimed and killed in Gaza in staggering numbers, with anger and bigotry swirling to poison hearts around the world, the hope of in the end, the best may be President Joe Biden.
It may not be possible to end the Gaza war, establish a post-Hamas peace in Gaza and restart a process to give the Palestinians the state they deserve within this year. But if there is a solution, it's hard to see who could spark it but Biden.
Biden may be the single most popular person in Israel today, and the United States wields influence as Israel's most important ally and diplomatic protector. Biden's strong support for Israel in the wake of the Hamas terror attack earned him a standing ovation from a nation not quite accustomed to such unequivocal support. And now that he has accumulated this political capital, he must use it.
To his credit, Biden has tried to push Israel in this direction, as has Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They have been rejected. But too many lives are at stake in Israel and Palestine to accept indifference; they need to push harder.
The debate in America has often focused on a truce, but that seems to me to be the wrong question. I'm fine with Israel removing Hamas military leaders or surgically destroying tunnels, but not with the one that flattens large parts of Gaza. It is true, as Israeli officials note, that Hamas hides behind civilians – but Israel has a responsibility to value Palestinian lives even if Hamas does not.
At the moment, Israel is turning entire neighborhoods in Gaza into ruins. About 100 United Nations workers have been killed in Gaza along with more than 30 journalists - and more than 4,300 children, according to the count of the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is under the Hamas government but whose numbers are generally considered reliable by the state. The department and humanitarian agencies, the United Nations, say 1,350 children are missing and may be buried in the rubble.
Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself, but war is not a binary choice. At one end of the continuum is complete disregard for civilians, and at the other end is an intervention that is entirely surgical, but perhaps less effective. These are the compromises.
The Biden administration has already encouraged Israel to speed up its attack on Gaza at points toward the end of the operation, using smaller bombs and allowing humanitarian pauses. Biden should apply more pressure. I am skeptical that the Israeli military can actually eradicate extremist forces from Gaza, so it seems to me that what is unfolding there now – with American complicity as we supply Israel with bombs and artillery shells – is neither militarily promising nor morally right. stable.
Looking ahead, the next initiative should be a major push by Biden for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. A peace process is not possible now, even if war were not going on, because both sides lack the credible leaders to get there - but perhaps it is possible to create conditions that will encourage the emergence of leaders of worthy after the end of the war.
To begin with, it is imperative that Israel freeze settlements and curb violent settlers, because they are a cancer in the region. To his credit, Biden has condemned "extremist settlers" and said their attacks on Palestinians must "stop, now." But he is not reaching out to Netanyahu, who seems to believe that Biden can be fired up but will ultimately bow to his intransigence.
There is probably nothing more Biden can do, especially at a time when Israel feels so devastated and threatened, to convince Netanyahu to rein in settlers and reduce civilian deaths in Gaza. But it's worth trying, which means applying strong pressure and sending signals such as reopening the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which traditionally handled Palestinian affairs, and reinstating the State Department's legal opinion that the settlements violate international law. . The United States could also abstain in the United Nations Security Council on a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause, instead of vetoing it as it did last time.
Israel will most likely have a new leader after the war; I hope that person will understand that the way to keep Israelis safe is a peace deal with the Palestinians.
On the Palestinian side, one possibility is for Hamas to exchange hostages for Israeli prisoners, leading to the freedom of Marwan Barghouti. He is a charismatic figure who has been called the Mandela of Palestine for his advocacy in recent years of unarmed resistance and calls for Jewish and Palestinian states to exist peacefully side by side. But he is also called a terrorist, since earlier he advocated violence and is now serving several life sentences in Israel for murder. Regardless of how one views Barghouti, polls suggest he is the most popular Palestinian leader in both Gaza and the West Bank, and he may just be the person most capable of uniting Palestinians and seriously negotiating for a lasting peace. .
All this is extremely strange and politically dangerous. But the current course is even more dangerous and morally dubious.
Children in Gaza are dying at a rate of about one every 10 minutes, so I ask again a question I posed in a column when the war began: "How many dead Gaza children is too many?"
People will search their conscience and answer this question differently. But Biden's answer will be the most important. This is because Biden is the only one who has the power to say "Enough" and help end this war and build a lasting peace on the ashes left behind. / Adapted "Pamphlet" from "The New York Times"
Lini një Përgjigje