Belgium announced that it is considering recognizing the state of Palestine, vowing to impose sanctions against Israeli occupation forces due to its genocidal war on Gaza.
Good. Half of Europe already recognises Palestine. 138 countries worldwide recognise Palestine.
Internationally only the PLO is recognized as Palestine by many, and is granted observer status at the UN. But they don’t rule in Gaza anymore. The PLO lost Gaza to the Hamas during civil war in 2007. The leadership of Gaza is not recognized by anyone as a state. Russia, Norway and Switzerland are the only three states in Europe that uphold any official relation to them (for different reasons).
Almost all countries that do not recognize the State of Palestine (PLO) still have official formal relations to the entity in all but the name. Many simply cannot legally recognize it as long as it officially claims Israel’s territory as theirs.
Isn’t the PLO claiming only the West Bank which is Palestinian territory?
This is what they are ruling. Their claim is all of Palestine and Israel.
None of those groups consider Hamas a legitimate government (because they aren’t - they literally seized power and canceled elections forever while stealing humanitarian aid for themselves and literally robbing the civilians in Gaza) and thus Gaza is not a state.
It would be really cool if the Palestinian government had any interest whatsoever in creating a Palestinian state. Literally tens of thousands more people would be alive if they had taken any of the many deals offered to them.
I kinda wish there was more discussion about the long term outcomes. I personally don’t think a two state option is going to work, especially those that hinge on control of Jerusalem. An independent Palestinian state could be established, but would almost certainly be controlled by Hamas or other like minded groups.
Hamas believes in a two state solution so far as it gains territory, but I think that as soon as that is accomplished the long term plan would be to eventually destroy Israel and make a Reunified Palestine.
If this is true then there will never be peace until either Palestine or Israel is utterly destroyed.
Conversely, if Israel doesn’t just take over Palestine completely things are likely to continue as they have since the 60’s. Hamas does a terrorist attack, Israel responds by blowing up a school, rinse and repeat forever because the groups in control of each side are fucking extremist conservative monsters that believe their magical space daddy is right.
I’m not making excuses for the atrocities committed by Israel or Hamas, I’m just laying out the road map for the next 100 years. If you had to pick between Hamas (or Hamas like) controlled Palestine or Zionist controlled Israel which would you prefer?
I guess there is a third and fourth option, the third option is to have no opinion and whatever happens happens. The fourth option would be to, somehow, maintain the status quo and wait till a time where both sides stop believing in the extremist religious dogma. The fourth option could be something like a UN occupation of Israel Palestine to prevent the two sides from killing each other?
EDIT: Also, if you look at the proposed maps for a two state solution you should already know that a two state solution wouldn’t work, it’s like if Cold War Germany had a baby with the Michigan UP and somehow the offspring was even worse.
WW3 incoming?
