Defeating the ideology of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is essential, but Israeli methods will only reinforce that creed. While pursuing Hamas is legitimate, erasing vast areas of Gaza is not, and while the use of proportional force is legal, collective punishment and forced displacement of civilians are not.
These words summarize an article in the Sunday Telegraph by British MP Ben Wallace, who stated that arrests in Northern Ireland taught them that "disproportionate response by the state can be the best recruitment tool for a terrorist organization," to use his words. Thus, watching the events in the Gaza Strip unfold daily is causing increasing discomfort for many.
Although the author unequivocally condemns Hamas, considering it anti-Semitic, undemocratic, and uninterested in peaceful coexistence with Israel or in a two-state solution, he also strongly believes in the obligations arising from the Geneva Conventions, insisting that all signatories adhere to them.
As such, the former UK Defense Minister believes that Israel is undermining its original legal authority to defend itself through its actions, thereby making the error of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one.
The Murderous Rage Will Not Fix Things
Ben Wallace sees that the shame felt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to his failure to anticipate the Al-Aqsa flood attacks on October 7th is profound, especially since he presented himself as a security hawk and strong man. However, he is mistaken if he thinks that murderous rage will fix things; such tactics may well fuel the conflict for another 50 years.
The result, according to the writer, is that once all this ends and the Israeli army withdraws from what remains of Gaza, Hamas will still exist, and what will have disappeared is the voice of moderate Palestinians who want a two-state solution. Sympathy from the international community will have waned, and Israel will be forced to live in an even larger state of siege.
Ben Wallace denied calling for a ceasefire on the condition of changing Hamas' charter, but "what I am saying is that Israel needs to stop this brutal and random way of attacking, and must fight Hamas in a different way," he expressed.
But the lack of wisdom among the new generation of Israeli politicians, as the author says, has led them to act like "a bull in a china shop," moving from one crisis to another. In the end, the two-state solution has been "the solution since the creation of modern Israel."
Wallace concludes that the path to peace in the Middle East is the same as in Northern Ireland, which means trying and doing everything possible to "marginalize extremism." With the Oslo Accords, we came close to achieving a two-state solution, and now is the time to re-energize that process.
