You can't do without a "two-state formula"

Rocket fire on Israeli territory began early in the morning of October 7 from the Gaza Strip. Israel has officially announced the country's transition to a "state of war." Details in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

Hamas took Israeli security forces by surprise, captured more than 50 armored vehicles, 14 Israeli tanks and one armored personnel carrier, captured 80 troops and a large number of hostages. The radical group said that 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel. An Israeli official said 2.2 thousand missiles fired from the Gaza Strip.

More than 700 Israeli residents were killed, more than 2.2 thousand were injured in the attacks. At the time of the attack by the Palestinian radical group Hamas, an open-air music festival was held near the border. It is reported that the radicals shot many participants in the event. Members of an Israeli public organization that is involved in rescue activities found at least 260 bodies.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll from Israeli strikes on the Palestinian Gaza Strip and clashes in the West Bank has risen to 424. Since the beginning of 2023, 676 Palestinians have died. According to the UN, more than 70 thousand Palestinians were forced to leave their homes.

Who said what?

Palestine blamed Israel for the aggravation. Palestine was supported by Qatar. Syria is in solidarity with the actions of the Islamic Resistance Movement. The Taliban (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) supported Palestine and called for preventing violence from Israel.

Iran called the attack "a new page in the history of Palestinian resistance." Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel was responsible for threatening the region's security. Turkish officials have called for peace; in the country's largest cities, demonstrators are demanding support for Palestine.

Washington supports the Israeli authorities, condemned rocket fire on its territory and will send an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Egypt brought the army into increased combat readiness. China called Palestinian independence a path to peace in the Middle East.

Russia is in contact with Israel, Palestine and Arab countries, calls on the parties to the conflict to cease fire, Russian President's Special Representative for the Middle East and African countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told TASS. Moscow regards the large-scale escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a result of non-compliance with UN Security Council resolutions and the West's blocking of the work of the Middle East quartet, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

And Russia warned

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed this situation with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri. In addition to "deep concern" about the sharp aggravation, as well as stating "the need to stop hostilities" and start negotiations, Lavrov recalled the Russian proposal to look for ways to a settlement according to the "two-state formula."

Lavrov called the "two-state solution" the only possible one, "as meeting the right of Palestinians to their own independent state with the capital in East Jerusalem and the right of Israelis to peaceful and safe coexistence with their neighbors and in the region as a whole."

The Russian Foreign Minister spoke about this in April this year at an open meeting of the UN Security Council on the agenda item "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue."

Lavrov then noted the growing tensions in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, as well as on the line of separation between Israel, Lebanon and Syria. According to the minister, "since the beginning [of 2023], as a result of military raids in Jenin, Jericho, Nablus, Huwar, clashes in connection with the violation of the status of Holy Places, more than 100 Palestinians have died, the number of wounded goes to thousands. The number of victims among the Israelis is also growing. "

Lavrov then recalled Israeli strikes on Syria - "at least 10 attacks in 2023," including shelling of Aleppo airport. He also recalled incidents on the Blue Line with Lebanon, including the largest missile exchange since 2006. Lavrov called the outbreaks of violence the result of "unilateral steps to create irreversible facts" on earth "and the choice of forceful methods to protect these" facts. "

Lavrov called "facts" "the record pace of construction of settlements with the legalization of outposts retroactively, land expropriation, demolition of houses, arbitrary arrests." The minister also warned of the increasing radicalization of the "Palestinian street" and the deepening "split between the main Palestinian parties, fraught with a violent confrontation."

According to some reports, there are more than 130 official Jewish settlements in the West Bank alone, there are dozens of unofficial ones. In total, over 430 thousand Jews live in them. At the same time, refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon have been home to millions of refugees dependent on the support of UN charities and benefits for decades.

The Capital of Contention

"We do not see an alternative to a two-state formula," said Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, four years ago, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on a Middle East settlement.

Nebenzya then called for abandoning the imposition of any ready-made solutions to the conflict on Palestine and Israel. He called the "bi-state formula"

the only realistic way to end the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation and mutual claims. The Permanent Representative also recalled the agreed internationally recognized parameters, including UN Security Council resolutions, the "principles of Madrid," in particular the principle of "land for peace," and the Arab Peace Initiative.

Vasily Nebenzi's speech was a kind of response to Donald Trump's White House plans to present his own, American "comprehensive settlement plan." Following that, his son-in-law Jared Kushner revealed it would be the "deal of the century." Trump was proud to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

The U.S. recognized Israel's independence in May 1948 and opened its embassy in Tel Aviv in March 1949. In 1995, the US Congress passed a law transferring the American diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (Jerusalem Embassy Act). Jerusalem has been called an indivisible city and the capital of Israel.

But Presidents Bill Clinton (1993-2001), George W. Bush (2001-2008), and Barack Obama (2008-2016) were delaying implementation of this legislation so as not to aggravate the situation. In December 2017, Trump announced the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The White House explained this by the desire to bring "in line with the historical and existing reality."

Lavrov on this issue in April 2023 said that "Washington claims to be the sole sponsor of the Middle East settlement process," not embarrassed by the loss of neutrality. He recalled that the Joe Biden administration did not reverse Trump's decisions.

In particular, she did not abandon the "Abraham Agreements," as the basis for normalizing Israel's relations not only with the UAE, but also with other states in the region. Indeed, the initiative undermines the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which provided for Israel's liberation of territories occupied during the 1967 war.

As a result, according to the minister, "instead of helping to restore the political horizon, the United States and the European Union continue destructive attempts to replace the real world with some economic half-measures and promote Arab-Israeli normalization bypassing a just solution to the Palestinian problem and bypassing the Arab Peace Initiative."

Russia on the status of Jerusalem adheres to UN decisions, including the status of East Jerusalem, as the capital of Palestine and West Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. On December 18, 2017, 14 out of 15 UN Security Council members voted for a resolution that did not recognize the change in the status of Jerusalem, but Washington vetoed.

On December 21, the UN General Assembly voted against the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As a result of the vote, 128 countries called on the United States to cancel the decision to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem, 35 countries abstained, nine supported the Americans (the decisions of the UN General Assembly are advisory in nature).

Jerusalem for the Israelites is the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state. Arabs venerate Jerusalem as the third holy city after Mecca and Medina. Even those Arab leaders who were willing to consider joining the "Abraham Accords" declared the inadmissibility of abandoning Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.

History makes its own "circles," large and small. The big one is the significance of Jerusalem to the warring parties. Small is the story of their major armed clashes. Hamas called the strikes on Israel an operation to mark the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the October 1973 Yom Kippur war.

The losses in that war were the heaviest of all three wars (1956, 1967, 1973), which forced the search for a diplomatic solution. As a result, in 1978, a separate Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement was concluded at Camp David. The history of UN diplomatic initiatives, agreements and resolutions form another, "enchanted circle."

Photo: Gazeta.ru