Is a two-state solution even remotely possible?

Keir Starmer sets out to solve the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A UK government press release dated 25 July and titled “Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement on Gaza” includes this:

Alongside our closest allies, I am working on a pathway to peace in the region, focused on the practical solutions that will make a real difference to the lives of those that are suffering in this war.

That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace.

Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility to improve the lives of those who are suffering – which of course, will always be our ultimate goal.

And, now, Keir Starmer, is holding an emergency session of his cabinet to discuss the issue. So I just thought I’d throw in my two pennies’ / cents’ worth.

The war, which like all wars is hideous, was initiated by Hamas when they attacked Israel on 7th October 2023. It was an unprovoked attack carried out by people who slaughtered, maimed, raped and kidnapped more than one thousand men, women and children. It was all done under the imprimatur of Hamas, the governing body that has ruled Gaza since its single election win in 2006.

Hamas’s leader at the time of the 7 October attack, Ismail Haniyeh, had this to say shortly after the attack:

Today, the enemy has had a political, military, intelligence, security and moral defeat inflicted upon it, and we shall crown it, with the grace of God, with a crushing defeat that will expel it from our lands, our holy city of Al-Quds, our Al-Aqsa mosque, and the release of our prisoners from the jails of the Zionist occupation. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched from Gaza, but it will extend to the West Bank, to Al-Quds and to our people within the territories occupied in 1948, as well as to the Resistance and the Palestinian people abroad.

Our objective is clear: we want to liberate our land, our holy sites, our Al-Aqsa mosque, our prisoners. We have no hesitation about this. This is the goal that is worthy of this battle, worthy of this heroism, worthy of this courage. Al-Qassam Brigades made the enemy lose its balance in just a few minutes, with this grand and blessed incursion; with this epic presence of men who write history with their blood and their guns; with their footsteps that crush the occupying invaders. And we say to all countries, including our beloved Arab countries: you must know that this entity which is incapable of protecting itself from our fighters is incapable of providing you with security or protection. All the normalization and recognition processes, all the agreements that have been signed [with Israel] can never put an end to this battle.

No equivocation there, then. But that should come as no surprise because Hamas has been entirely consistent in its aims. From the same source as the above we learn that …

Since its creation in December 1987, Hamas has invoked militant interpretations of Islam to spearhead a Sunni extremist movement committed to destroying Israel. … by propagating resistance in the religious context of jihad, or a holy struggle and martyrdom. “Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes,” Hamas said in its first statement in the late 1980s. Predominantly Shiite Iran has armed, trained and funded Hamas since the late 1980s …

[Hamas] has called on members of the other two Abrahamic faiths—Judaism and Christianity—to accept Islamic rule in the Middle East. “It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and terror,” it decreed. Hamas also rejected any prospect of peace or coexistence with the state of Israel. “Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.”

Hamas’s connections with, and reliance upon, Shi’a Iran go deep and it was there, in the Iranian President’s compound in Tehran, that Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel on 31 July 2024.

At which point Yahya Sinwar took on Haniyeh’s role until he, too, was assassinated by Israel in October 2024. Sinwar at least had the distinction of actually living in Gaza. Haniyeh had for years lived in safety and luxury in Qatar.

Where does this leave everything?

Well, it’s quite clear that Hamas is and always has been committed to destroying Israel. It is, in fact, it’s raison d’être. The fact that Israel is the only democratic state in the entire region, and that it counts Arabs as equal citizens, is of no account. The original Hamas charter from 1988 clearly states the goal:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

And you kinda know they really believe it because, not least, had they changed their minds, they could have spent all those billions of dollars the world has given them on creating one of the loveliest and most productive places on earth rather than: shovelling all of it into tunnelling and weaponry; and brainwashing their population to hate Jewish people; and years and years of suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israel; and a preparedness to kill or maim any of their own people who dare to disagree with them; and the deployment of a global propaganda campaign that is worthy of the Joseph Goebbels special award for Demonic Chaos.

And yet, and yet, the British prime minister, our leading politician and an experienced lawyer, now asserts that he is hauling his top team away from their summer holiday buckets and spades for a while to discuss a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Meanwhile, the Israelis - who, not least, are a hell of a sight closer to the action - have concluded that there can be no peace for so long as Hamas exists.

Who do you think has the more realistic answer: the British prime minister or the Israelis?

Thanks for reading.