Palestine: A Cause or a State?

by Amir Taheri

• Why did Hamas trigger its attack out of the blue? Hamas apologists repeat the usual shibboleths: occupation, colonial settlements, expulsions, Apartheid, the two-state solution.
• A closer look, however, shows that none of those "reasons" could explain, let alone justify, why Hamas did what it did on October 7.
• The [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas have preferred to pose as guardians of the flame rather than builders of state structures.... For a brief period, 2007-2013, the PA under Prime Minister Salam Fayyad tried to promote the state-building culture as opposed to the chest-beating posture of "the cause". But both Hamas and the PA did all they could to derail Fayyad's project.
• The "Gaza first" scheme exposed the concept of "security through evacuation" as a dangerous myth that replaced another myth: land-for-peace, which has offered what amounts to lukewarm and always reversible peace.
• All along, Israeli leaders tried to jump through one hoop after another to avoid seriously dealing with the "two-state" formula, which the United States and its Western allies promoted regardless of its lack of support among Israelis and Palestinians.
• [T]he "Palestinian cause" [is] used, and abused, as a means of legitimizing regimes as diverse as the Islamic Republic of Iran; the AKP in Turkey and, believe it or not, the leftist outfit in Colombia. And that not to mention "return ticket revolutionaries" in the West who draw voyeuristic pleasure from watching others kill and die for "great causes.
• Throughout the Cold War, ignoring the geopolitical dimension of the Israel-Palestine issue encouraged wild-goose diplomatic chasings most notoriously symbolized by the "two-state" formula. Today, the same error is repeated by focusing almost exclusively on Hamas without asking who is funding, training, arming and manipulating Hamas in the name of "clash of civilizations".
• The current tragedy has shattered the status quo that took shape in the aftermath of the Cold War. Attempts at reviving it in one form or another would only provide a prelude to even bigger tragedies.

Pictured: Hamas terrorists who were killed on the way to murder Israelis, near the city of Sderot, Israel on October 8, 2023. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Why did Hamas trigger the current tragedy that has given the old Israel-Palestine conflict an even deadlier dimension? And what are the chances for shooing the two sides away from the edge of the abyss?

The tsunami of comments on the latest episode shows that the Israel-Palestine conflict remains a template on which advocates of rival ideologies project their fantasies and prejudices.

Why did Hamas trigger its attack out of the blue? Hamas apologists repeat the usual shibboleths: occupation, colonial settlements, expulsions, Apartheid, the two-state solution.

A closer look, however, shows that none of those "reasons" could explain, let alone justify, why Hamas did what it did on October 7.

The occupation claim is out because Israeli occupation of Gaza ended in 2005, and since 2007 Hamas has been in full control of the enclave and what is presented as its government.

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