Israel’s Conundrum – the World’s Conundrum
UN GA backs 2-state solution – a important 1st step
Sep 21, 2025
Normally when I start writing an article, I have an endpoint in mind but in the case of Israel and its war in Gaza, there isn’t one. There are so many contradictions in its actions that I find it impossible to find any logic.
What is their goal? Do they really want to eliminate Hamas? Well, yes, but we have to remember that Hamas ‘success’ was largely due to Israel’s desire to keep the Palestinians divided in order to stifle any chance of a Palestinian state. They may be physically divided now by walls, fences and checkpoints but they are more united in spirit today than ever before.
Also, and most rational people know this intuitively, for every Palestinian killed, there are two or more that will seek to retaliate in revenge – that’s a natural human reaction.
Israel appears to have superb intelligence about where the key Hamas leaders are located as long as they are in other countries but their intelligence in Gaza seems poor. (They found and killed Yahya Sinwar almost by accident after months of looking for him.)
In the first few months of the war Israel was boasting about how many Hamas ‘fighters’ they were killing but when you took the overall number of casualties and subtracted the number of women and children, it was clear that Israel regarded every male in Gaza as Hamas. That pretense was quietly dropped after a few months.
Now they go after Hamas ‘infrastructure’ – a highrise building is demolished because it was a Hamas ‘headquarters’ – same with hospitals, mosques, schools, etc. But no documentation or proof. I’ve always found it peculiar that Israel says it wants to eliminate Hamas yet it ‘evacuates’ buildings before demolishing them – if a Hamas ‘fighter’ loses his home is he less dangerous?
And the tunnels – they were the key. They found some, they destroyed them, but that narrative has faded too.
If resilience and determination plays any role then the Palestinians have earned their statehood.
The Israelis must be dumbfounded by this point – they’ve thrown everything at the Palestinians and they keep fighting. But what did they expect – a caged animal will try to escape but when escape is impossible, they fight like hell – to the death if necessary.
Or do they want to depopulate Gaza? Well, we know that some of Netanyahu’s ministers (Gvir and Smotrich) want exactly that, but Israel provides only a trickle of exit visas on extremely narrow criteria. (There are thousands of foreign nationals trapped in Gaza, including Canadians and Americans, that would desperately like to leave.)
It’s hard to depopulate an area if you won’t let them leave.
Does Israel want to disappear (kill?) all the Palestinians in Gaza. I’m sure many Israelis harbour that dream but, of course, no one will actually say it. So they send in the army and do it slowly. A recently retired general admitted a few days ago to a group of settlers that Israel has killed or wounded 200,000 – roughly 10% of the population.
Does Israel want to move the Palestinians somewhere else? Well yes, that’s what several people, including Donald Trump, are saying. But if you won’t let people leave…. The problem for Israel is that if Gazans are moved anywhere else in significant numbers, they would, quite likely, become an external threat over which it has no control. It prefers them under its thumb. At least that’s the mindset of the Israeli government.
The Egyptian government has flatly rejected any thoughts of taking in any significant numbers because it knows that those Palestinians would likely embroil Egypt in a war with Israel. Note that Gaza was actually part of Egypt up to the 7-day war in 1967.
Does it want to move them to the Negev Desert? That’s an almost biblical scenario that’s popular with some Israelis. But the logistics of moving 2 million people against their will is even more biblical in scope. The IDF was tasked with developing a plan but that has faded away too.
So the Israeli government is flattening Gaza into a dessert – with 2 million people in it. Does any of this make any sense?
Why destroy everything?
Well, the problem for Israel is that if anybody gets access to Gaza and starts digging, they’re going to find tens of thousands of bodies. Israel has relied on denial and press suppression to persuade its citizens that “There’s no genocide, nothing there to see”. And the Israeli propaganda machine has largely captured Western media as well, but it’s wearing thin. In some ways, Donald Trump’s ‘Riviera’ was an ideal solution. Not only would they flatten everything but by building on top of all those bodies, it would preclude anybody from digging them up.
Is a 2-state solution still possible?
Definitely not easy but it’s been done before. Ireland and South Africa provide the closest analogies. And, yes, Ireland in particular has had a difficult transition.
Ironically the previous Israeli government of Ariel Sharon provided a blueprint – sort of – by evacuating 25 settlements (most of them in Gaza in 2005. This involved forcibly removing some 9,000 people.
Until Netanyahu, there was a general acceptance of some sort of Palestinian state. When Sharon evacuated the Jewish settlements in Gaza he acknowledged that he was withdrawing Jews from areas that inevitably would be ceded to a Palestinian state. Israel still intended to extend its borders and take most of the West Bank but they accepted that there would be a Palestinian state there.
Ceding the West Bank to a new Palestinian state would be difficult but doable. It would almost certainly require a new government in Israel – one that is willing to abandon the ambition of a ‘Greater Israel’ and a willingness to accept the inevitability of a Palestinian state of some practical dimensions. Israel has to hold an election by October 2026 (just over a year) and the world should work to ensure that public opinion in Israel is such that a suitable government is elected.
Netanyahu must go. Unless a subsequent government further manipulates the legal system he is likely to go to jail for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud – charges that have been pending since 2016 but are currently on hold (again) because of the war.
At long last, the world is coming to the realization that Israel is a terrorist state – not just in Gaza but in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and now Qatar – Israel accepts no borders and refuses to acknowledge international law. This really should come as no surprise given the origins of Israeli statehood in 1948 led by the openly terrorist Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang who undertook to drive the British and Arabs out.
Given Israel’s militarist reality, forming a Palestinian state would have to be an international operation backed up by a large contingent of troops from numerous countries around the World.
Both sides would have to make compromises. New borders would likely be negotiated but the new Palestinian state would need to be of viable size.
Settlers would have to make a choice – stay put and be subject to the laws of the new Palestinian State or leave. Most would likely leave. They could sell their property ONLY IF you could show acceptable ownership. (Most of the land was stolen so no compensation there and most of the homes were built with government or donated money.) Many would have to be dragged away as they were in the Gaza settlements in 2005.
As of January 2023, there are 144 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem. In addition, there are over 100 Israeli illegal outposts in the West Bank. In total, over 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and an additional 220,000 Jewish settlers residing in East Jerusalem. It would be a massive and messy job and it would take at least a generation before the two countries could develop a trusting relationship.
But the world took an important step last week with an almost unanimous vote for the the 2-state solution at the United Nations General Assembly (142 for, US, Israel and 8 others against and 12 abstentions). On Monday (Sept 22) the UN will reconvene an on-going conference on implementation at which Canada and several European countries will formally recognize Palestine ( in addition to the almost 150 which do already).
What are the alternatives? – further and even more blatant genocide.
