The murder of Yitzhak Rabin probably ended the hopes of a two state solution in Israel/Palestine. From Salim Mansur at unz.com:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas… This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
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At a special session on October 24, 2023 of the Security Council on the situation in Gaza-Israel following the explosive events of 10/7, the Secretary-General António Guterres opened the meeting stating the “situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour. The war in Gaza is raging and risks spiralling throughout the region…. I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring, and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. I respectfully note the presence among us of members of their families.” He then continued,
Excellencies,
It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.[2]
The Israeli representative at the UN, Ambassador Gilad Erdan, responded describing the Secretary-General’s remarks as “shocking.” According to the Times of Israel, Erdan followed his response by posting on “X”:
The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.[3]
Eli Cohen, Israel’s Foreign Minister, having arrived in New York to attend sessions at the UN on the Gaza-Israel situation cancelled his meeting arranged with the Secretary-General. And Benny Gantz, minister without portfolio in the current unity government of prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, on his “X” account posted, “Dark are the days when the United Nations Secretary-General condones terror.”[4]
Instead of rebuking, if not cashiering, Gilad Erdan for an unprecedented public display of undiplomatic and imprudent language in lashing out at the Secretary-General, the two ministers worsened the historically strained relationship of their country and government within the ranks of the UN by adding insults to the injury of Erdan’s outbursts, especially when they can least afford to alienate further the views of the majority of member-states in the world body.
