The Palestine Chronicle, February 8, 2026

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Over two years after the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, retired Israeli reserve general Yitzhak Brik acknowledged sweeping military, economic and social damage, saying the campaign has failed to achieve its primary objective.

Key Takeaways

• Brik said Israel failed to defeat Hamas after two years of war.
• Hundreds of billions of shekels were lost economically.
• Israeli soldiers face a rapidly expanding PTSD crisis.
• Suicide attempts and depression rates surged among combat troops.
• Ongoing multi-front deployments continue to strain the military.

Failure to Achieve War Objectives

In a Channel 13 television interview, Brik described the war as a prolonged conflict whose costs exceeded its gains.

“In reality, we have lost national and social resilience over these two years, along with hundreds of billions of shekels,” he reportedly said.

The retired general added that Israel had not succeeded in defeating Hamas, arguing that the campaign imposed heavy casualties while failing to produce a decisive outcome.

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“Over the past two years, we have borne severe losses,” Brik stated, referring to both battlefield casualties and long-term physical and psychological injuries among soldiers and civilians.

He also warned of diplomatic repercussions, saying Israel had “lost credibility in the world,” and suggested Washington has intervened after viewing the war as strategically stalled.

Expanding Psychological Crisis

Parallel reports from Israeli institutions and healthcare providers indicate a growing mental-health emergency inside the military.

According to data from the Israeli Security Ministry, around 22,300 soldiers and personnel are receiving treatment for war-related injuries, with approximately 60 percent suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Israel’s healthcare provider Maccabi reported that 39 percent of soldiers under its care sought psychological assistance, while 26 percent displayed symptoms of depression.

A parliamentary committee documented 279 suicide attempts between January 2024 and July 2025, with combat soldiers representing the majority of cases.

Authorities have expanded mental-health funding and alternative treatment programs, but specialists warn the scale of trauma could continue rising sharply in the coming years.

Clinical psychologist Ronen Sidi, director of combat veteran research at Emek Medical Center, also noted widespread “moral injury,” describing emotional distress linked to actions taken during combat.

Multi-Front War

The war has extended across several arenas simultaneously.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed that more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, while thousands more have been killed in south Lebanon. 

Israeli sources acknowledge over 1,100 Israeli soldiers killed during the same period. Resistance groups, however, have disputed these figures, arguing that Israeli authorities do not disclose the full extent of battlefield losses and that the real number of casualties is likely higher than officially reported.

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/resistance-fighters-in-rafah-injure-four-soldiers-one-seriously-resistance-roundup/embed/#?secret=edRi5Wa5vV#?secret=BwnEcXubon

Despite a US-backed ceasefire announced in October, Israeli occupation forces remain active across large areas of Gaza, with continued operations causing further casualties in recent months.

Israeli occupation troops also remain deployed in parts of south Lebanon and expanded areas in southern Syria.

Internal Debate over Strategic Outcomes

Brik’s remarks have intensified debate inside Israel regarding the feasibility of the war’s goals.

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-tuffah-operation-resistance-roundup-day-561/embed/#?secret=KvNBFj86u1#?secret=9gqY6yIgRE

The retired general has long argued that prolonged ground operations against an entrenched resistance movement would produce high costs without decisive victory.

(PC, Al Mayadeen Israeli Media, Arab Weekly)

Moshe Ya’alon says ‘Jewish supremacy’ becoming entrenched and could lead to Israel’s destruction if not reversed

Moshe Ya’alon, a former Israeli defence minister, gives a press briefing in Jerusalem on 15 March 2017 (Thomas Coex/AFP)

By Mera Aladam, MEE, 4 February 2026 15:38 GMT

Former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has compared what he described as Jewish supremacy in Israel to Nazi ideology.

Ya’alon – who, as chief of staff in 2002, said Palestinians posed a “cancer-like” threat – criticised rising settler violence in a post on X over the weekend.

The post was prompted by an attack last week by what he called “Jewish pogromists” against Palestinians near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, in which settlers stole Palestinian-owned sheep and set property on fire.

He said “Jewish terrorists” blocked ambulances from reaching the area, delaying medical care for three Palestinians wounded in the attack, who were later taken to hospital.

Ya’alon added that despite the Israeli military telling him the incident was being handled, no action had been taken.

“No Jewish terrorist has been arrested (as in many other cases), because Israel’s police are controlled by a convicted criminal, a racist and fascist Kahanist,” he said, referring to Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security.

He also alleged that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, is controlled by a representative of “Jewish supremacy”, referring to David Zini, the newly appointed head of the agency.

‘The ideology of “Jewish supremacy”, which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory’

– Moshe Ya’alon, former Israeli defence minister

Zini, a former major general in the Israeli army and a religious Zionist, has previously described Palestinians as a “divine existential threat” and said that “our enemies are the enemies of the Holy One”.

Ya’alon further criticised the defence minister for preventing the use of administrative detention against “Jewish terrorists”, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who also holds a post in the defence ministry – for “encouraging illegal outposts and equipping them with off-road vehicles in order to make Palestinians’ lives unbearable, to the point of dispossessing them of their land and settling it with Jews”.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal.

“The ideology of ‘Jewish supremacy’, which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory,” Ya’alon said. 

He warned that should the next Israeli government not reverse course, the ideology of Jewish supremacy would “bring destruction upon our state”. 

“The ‘Jewish supremacy’ government – the government of lies and betrayal, the government of messianists, draft dodgers and the corrupt – must be replaced before ruin comes.”

‘Palestinians must be fought to bitter end’

Ya’alon has had a decades-long career in the Israeli military. He took part in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the violent suppression of the first and second Palestinian intifadas, and the 2014 war on Gaza.

He served as the army’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005 and as defence minister from 2013 to 2016.

Ethnic cleansing in Gaza: Why did a former Israeli army chief speak out?

Read More »

In 2002, Ya’alon said: “The Palestinian threat harbours cancer-like attributes that have to be severed and fought to the bitter end.”

In 2015, he barred Breaking the Silence – an NGO of former Israeli soldiers who document army abuses – from engaging in activities with the military.

In recent years, Ya’alon has adopted a more critical tone towards the current government, accusing it of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza in 2024.

“The path we are being dragged down is occupation, annexation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip – population transfer, call it what you want, and Jewish settlements,” he said in an interview with the Israeli channel Democrat TV.

Israeli forces have killed over 71,800 Palestinians since October 2023 and destroyed nearly 90 percent of the territory’s infrastructure.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops and settlers during the same period, including 217 minors. 

News Line, 24th September 2025

HUNDREDS of thousands of workers and youth took  action throughout Italy on Monday after Italian  trade unions called a nationwide strike in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against the support given by the right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni to the genocidal Israeli regime.

While the governments of the UK, France, Australia, Canada and Portugal gave formal recognition to the Palestinian State, the Italian government has, along with Germany, resisted the overwhelming pressure from workers and youth to make even this token gesture.

While the US is the biggest provider of weapons to Israel, Germany is the second biggest supplier of arms and military equipment to the genocidal state, followed by Italy.

The staunch support of the Meloni government to Israel and its murderous drive to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza – for a war that has been massively stepped up with the bombing and ground invasion of Gaza City – has produced a mass movement by workers and youth across Italy.

On Monday, this mass opposition erupted following a call by Italian trade unions and pro-Palestinian groups for a one-day strike to force the Italian government to ‘choose whose side it is on’.

The strike demand was issued by the Autonomous Dockworkers Collective (CALP) and the Basic Union (USB) national grassroots trade union confederation.

Protests and strikes struck 81 towns and cities across Italy under the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’, the same slogan of the massive demonstrations in France recently, over government plans to slash workers’ pensions in order to cut 44 billion euros from the French national debt.

In Venice, thousands marched with banners reading ‘Gaza is burning, we will block everything’. Trains and buses were cancelled, schools and universities closed as transport workers, teachers and students came out on strike.

Italian dockworkers have been in the forefront of action against Zionist genocide. Last week, two container ships carrying explosives to Israel were blocked at the port of Ravenna after dockworkers reported their cargo to the authorities and refused to load them. In early August, dockworkers in Genoa prevented a Saudi-owned vessel from being loaded with Italian-made weapons destined for Israel.

Members of the dockworkers union (CALP) from Genoa are on board a boat that set off from the port on 30 August to join the Sumud Flotilla of over 70 ships loaded with medical supplies and humanitarian aid headed for Gaza to break the Israeli siege of the Strip.

50,000 workers and youth took to the streets of Genoa in a massive demonstration of support, while the dockworkers issued a warning that if the flotilla is attacked, as Israel has previously attempted, then the dockers will block all goods headed for Israel and halt all trade across Europe.

One dockworker told the rally held as the boat departed: ‘If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades, even for just 20 minutes, we will shut down all of Europe.’

This is no idle threat. The port of Genoa is the key Mediterranean shipping hub for Italy and the EU with 2.74 million containers passing through in 2023, closing the port would indeed shut down Europe. The dockworkers and trade unions in Italy have demonstrated the enormous power of the working class.

Their actions stand in stark contrast to the complete refusal of the TUC in Britain to organise anything other than lunchtime meetings to ‘discuss’ Palestine or pass harmless motions condemning the mass murder of Palestinians. The time for simply condemning genocide in Gaza is over.

The UK, EU and US working class have the power to end Zionist genocide by forcing their trade unions to immediately call indefinite general strikes to bring down the governments that are enablers of all the war crimes and genocide being committed in Gaza, going forward to workers’ governments and socialism.

Workers’ governments will break with the Israeli regime, and not only recognise the State of Palestine but provide it with all the material support required for the victory of the Palestinian Revolution. This is the way forward!

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The US ambassador has previously made clear that the Trump administration won’t oppose major expansions of illegal Jewish settlements

by Dave DeCamp | September 9, 2025 at 6:41 pm ET | Israel, Palestine

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview last week that the US has never asked Israel to “not apply sovereignty,” referring to the possibility of Israel annexing parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“The US has never asked Israel to not apply sovereignty,” Huckabee said, according to a September 5 post from a journalist for Israel’s Channel 14. “I have repeatedly stated that the US respects Israel as a sovereign nation and will not tell Israel what to do. This is also what Secretary Rubio has said as recently as this week.”

Israeli officials said last week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signaled to them that the US wouldn’t oppose Israel if it moved to annex the West Bank. He has also said publicly that annexation could be Israel’s response to Western states taking steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently outlined a proposal for annexing 82% of the West Bank and leaving six Palestinian population centers isolated as islands. He said that his plan aims for “maximum territory and minimum Arab population.”

Huckabee has also made clear that the Trump administration doesn’t oppose the recent major expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Smotrich said would “erase” the idea of a Palestinian state. Huckabee has claimed that the settlements are not illegal under international law despite their clear prohibition under the Geneva Convention of 1949, which both the US and Israel have signed and ratified.

Huckabee is a Christian Zionist, and his approach to Israel and Palestine is based on his view that God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, a theology that is rejected by the Catholic Church and most other Christian denominations. When asked in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post about the growing skepticism of Israel among Americans, Huckabee suggested Christian pastors who didn’t teach his viewpoint were to blame.

“There are pastors in the evangelical world who have not explained to their congregations where the support for Israel comes from biblically,” he said.

The Trump administration has provided backing for the settlement expansion plan

by Dave Decamp, Antiwar. com, August 20, 2025

An Israeli committee on Wednesday gave final approval for the construction of about 3,400 housing units for the expansion of an illegal settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a step that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “erases” a Palestinian state.

The housing units will be constructed as part of the controversial E1 settlement project, which has been frozen for decades due to international opposition, since it will essentially split the West Bank in two. Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Defense Ministry that gives authority to expand settlements, first announced the plan last week.

The Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now said that the vote by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, a Defense Ministry department, for final approval of the construction came at “record speed” as scheduling usually takes much longer. The settlement expansion is seen as the Israeli government’s response to several Western countries, including the UK, France, Canada, and Australia, announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and a woman hold a map that shows the long-frozen E1 settlement scheme, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, on the day of a press conference near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

“This is a significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel,” Smotrich said after the settlements were approved.

“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not by slogans but by deeds. Every settlement, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” he added.

Peace Now slammed the approval, saying that Smotrich and “his minority of messianic friends are establishing a delusional settlement that we will have to evacuate in any agreement.” The group added that the “entire purpose of the settlement in E1 is to sabotage a political solution and rush towards a binational apartheid state.”

The Palestinian Authority said that the plan “fragments… geographic and demographic unity, entrenching the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons that are disconnected from one another, turning them into something akin to real prisons.”

While historically, the US has tried to distance itself from Israeli settlement expansion since it is illegal under international law, both Trump administrations have been openly supportive of the land grabs. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed that the E1 expansion was not a violation of international law and said that the US wouldn’t oppose it.

Huckabee also claimed that the Palestinian territory was part of Israel. “It’s also, I think, incumbent on all of us to recognise that Israelis have a right to live in Israel,” he said.

By Ali Hamza Chaudhry

The News International, August 09, 2025

Twenty-one months into the protracted conflict, the Gaza massacre is marked by an ever-increasing number of innocent civilian casualties, with the death toll having surpassed 60,000, according to Reuters.

Calling it “genocide”, the former Israeli prime minister wrote a piece in Haaretz, a leftist Israeli mainstream newspaper, outlining the war crimes Israel is committing in Gaza. Now, a highly plausible threat of famine looms over innocent Gazans, with a large number being children. As the situation worsens manifold, people, both in the US and around the globe, are perplexed at the unstinted US support for Israel even when the genocide of the 21st century plays out on their TV screens.

Recently, the Trump administration announced that, in case of a natural disaster, the federal government would not assist US cities and states that boycott Israeli companies. This has led the core base of the Republican Party to question the veracity of Trump’s ‘America First’ slogan.

It is certainly difficult for Mr Trump to balance the factions within his party surrounding the issue; on the one hand, hawkish members of the administration, such as Senator Ted Cruz, routinely advocate for US involvement. On the other hand, some conservative voices in the Republican Party strongly oppose direct US interference in yet another conflict. For instance, Republican lawmaker and an influential voice in the party, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is among the very few who openly oppose Israel’s heinous actions.

It is, however, important to note that multiple US presidents, regardless of the party, have done Israel’s bidding. For instance, under the Biden administration, according to The Guardian, the US vetoed five UNSC resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, thus effectively allowing Israel to carry out genocidal actions without any ramifications and international accountability.

It is, therefore, a worthy question to ask: Why is the US blind to Israel’s genocidal policies that threaten regional peace and stability? Well, the answer to such a question is rather intricate and multifaceted: there are cultural, economic and political factors behind the US’s unconditional and sustained support for Israel.

First, elite Christian Zionism is one of the driving factors. Christian Zionism is the ancient belief among Christians, especially evangelical Protestants, that the modern state of Israel fulfilled biblical prophecy and that standing up for the state of Israel is a religious duty. It refers to the historical return of the Jewish people to the holy land.

Some of the key tenets of the ideology include: the establishment of the Temple in Jerusalem, which is a prerequisite to the arrival of Jesus; Israeli sovereignty over all of historic Palestine, including the West Bank.

With roots entrenched in ancient biblical narrative, evangelical Zionism has an overarching influence on American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East: it is mainly promulgated by conservative think tanks and right-wing political figures.

According to Dr Noam Chomsky, the extremist Zionism of the vast evangelical movement has now become “a substantial part of the Republican Party’s base”.

For instance, in a recent podcast with Tucker Carlson, a conservative media figure and former Fox News host, Ted Cruz, a Republican Senator from Texas and a former presidential candidate, stated: “Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught, from the bible, that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things”.

Consequently, evangelical Zionists have become a major political force in the American political landscape, playing a pivotal role behind the US’s unwavering support for Israel. Through effective lobbying, they have influenced significant US policy decisions: the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem – a region of profound cultural and religious significance claimed by both Israel and Palestine.

This religious fervour of evangelical Zionists has helped lay the foundation, but it is lobbying groups that turn this sentiment into legislative action. Chief among them is the American–Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has been instrumental in shaping both Republicans’ and Democrats’ positions on Israel.

Established in 1951, AIPAC began as a small advocacy group. However, since then, it has evolved into one of the most well-funded and powerful lobbies in Washington DC. While it claims to be bipartisan and focused on strengthening the US-Israel relationship, its influence often skews US foreign policy in favour of Israel – regardless of human rights or the concerns surrounding the violations of international law.

AIPAC lobbies Congress aggressively to ensure continued military aid, fiercely opposes any legislation critical of Israeli actions and promotes policies that shield Israel from accountability. For instance, it plays a key role in ensuring that Israel receives $3.8 billion in military aid. It also opposed the No Way to Treat a Child Act, which aimed to restrict US funding from being used to detain or abuse Palestinian children. Also, AIPAC supported legislation that penalised individuals and companies that boycott and condemn Israel.

In election cycles, AIPAC has funnelled millions of dollars through its affiliated Super PACs like United Democracy Project, targeting lawmakers critical of Israeli policies. In 2022, it spent heavily to defeat progressive candidates such as Rep Donna Edwards and Rep Andy Levin, both of whom supported conditioning aid to Israel. Meanwhile, it has helped elect more compliant figures by boosting their campaigns financially.

By exerting pressure through substantial campaign contributions, high-profile conferences, and mobilisation of pro-Israel political networks, AIPAC has ensured that challenging Israel’s policies comes at a heavy cost that few are willing to pay. AIPAC’s pervasive influence has led to dire consequences for the Jewish community as well. When Israel’s war crimes are justified as ‘Jewish self-defence’ – as AIPAC routinely does – it inevitably ties Judaism to the bombing of children.

The US’s unconditional support of Israel has fueled anti-American sentiment all around the world. Ignoring Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, turning a blind eye to the expansion of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and the US’s perpetual opposition to peace calls by the international community undermines the very principles the US has advocated for.

While Washington lectures Russia and China on human rights, its blanket defence of Israel’s atrocities exposes a moral bankruptcy that undermines US credibility worldwide.

If the US seeks to restore its global credibility and allow the true voice of its people to shape foreign policy, it must begin by curbing the disproportionate influence of lobbies that act in the interests of foreign governments – often at the expense of justice, democracy, and the public will.

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The writer lives in New York and aspires to be a legal scholar. He can be reached at:  alibilal4471@gmail.com

Soumaya Ghannoushi

MEE, 6 August 2025

Western leaders offering recognition of Palestine instead of consequences as Gaza is obliterated is symbolism, not sovereignty

Protesters rally outside the White House against Israeli bombing of Gaza on 18 March 2025 in Washington (AFP)

Recognising the State of Palestine may seem, at first glance, like a moral turning point – a sign of western conscience reawakened amid the devastation of Gaza.

France took the lead, hosting an international conference with Saudi Arabia under the UN banner.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer soon followed, pledging conditional recognition. His foreign secretary, David Lammy, spoke of Britain’s “special burden of responsibility” – a nod to the Balfour Declaration, which enabled Zionist colonisation of Palestine under British protection.

But peel back the optics, and this gesture is exposed for what it is: a facade, a diplomatic performance masking business as usual.

What’s being offered isn’t statehood. It’s a demilitarised, non-contiguous pseudo-entity with no control over borders, airspace, resources, or movement. It is a ghost administration under Israeli command, tasked with managing a shattered, occupied population. Less than the Oslo Accords and more like a glorified municipality dressed up as liberation.

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And yet, Western leaders present it as bold, visionary. Why? Because this isn’t about Palestinian rights – it’s about political cover.

Absurd contradiction

France, under President Emmanuel Macron, sees the Palestinian cause as a diplomatic bridge back into the Arab and Muslim worlds, after its decline across Africa.

Macron postures as a new Charles de Gaulle, despite France’s legacy of aiding Israel’s nuclear ambitions.

Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen have exposed the cracks in the Arab facade

Read More »

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is leveraging the recognition initiative to justify normalisation with Israel. It offers the illusion of progress while pulling Arab and Muslim countries deeper into the Abraham Accords.

Starmer’s motives are more immediate. With rising public anger over his unwavering support for Israeli aggression – and a new left-wing challenge emerging from Jeremy Corbyn and Zahra Sultana leading a new political party – he’s using recognition as a diversion.

It is not a commitment, but a tactic. He’s offered it conditionally – as leverage to coax Israel back to the “peace process”. If Israel cooperates, recognition is shelved. Palestinian statehood becomes a bargaining chip to be played – not a right to be affirmed.

It’s an absurd contradiction: if Starmer truly supported a two-state solution, recognising the second state would be the first logical step. But in the West, even symbolic gestures towards Palestine must pass through Tel Aviv.

And yet, even these hollow gestures have rattled Israel’s far-right coalition.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz scoffed that a Palestinian state should be built in Paris or London. US President Donald Trump threatened Canada with trade retaliation for considering recognition.

But that fury shouldn’t distract from the deeper truth: this initiative is a mirage, a tranquiliser for international conscience.

Gaza, meanwhile, is being obliterated.

Entire neighbourhoods flattened. Hospitals, schools, homes reduced to dust. Israeli ministers say it openly: “All of Gaza will be Jewish” and “We must find ways more painful than death” for its population.

These are not rogue extremists – they are ministers of state, shaping official policy. And the West watches in silence, offering “recognition” instead of consequences.

Empty diplomacy

In the occupied West Bank, settler violence intensifies and military raids escalate. Between 1993 and 2023, the settler population grew from 250,000 to over 700,000 – despite the Oslo Accords’ promise to freeze expansion.

A state that exists only on paper, that must be approved by its occupier, is not a state. It’s a lie and recognition without action is not diplomacy – it’s complicity

Checkpoint by checkpoint, hilltop by hilltop, the land for a viable Palestinian state has been erased.

This is not a policy failure – it is policy.

It began in Madrid in 1991, and was formalised in Oslo in 1993. That so-called “peace process” replaced international law with endless negotiations, and justice with delay.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation, under pressure, recognised Israel and relinquished claim to 78 percent of historic Palestine, agreeing to negotiate over the remaining 22 percent – the West Bank, Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.

In return, they were promised a state. But the core issues – refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders – were deferred indefinitely as “final status” matters. And in the meantime, Israel deepened its control.

Settlements multiplied. The apartheid wall was built. The West Bank was carved into a patchwork of isolated cantons. Gaza was blockaded, then bombed. The Palestinian Authority, born out of Oslo, became a subcontractor for Israeli security – tasked with suppressing dissent and policing its own people.

Instead of liberation, Palestinians got lockdown.

Instead of sovereignty, they got surveillance.

This wasn’t a peace process – it was pacification. And every time the Palestinian struggle gains momentum – whether during the First Intifada, the Second, or now with worldwide outrage over Gaza  – the same script returns: revive talk of the “two-state solution”.

Not to realise it, but to bury the movement beneath another round of empty diplomacy. It’s a strategy of containment disguised as concern.

That’s what we’re witnessing now.

A virtual state

Gaza faces a manufactured famine, yet instead of halting the siege or sanctioning the siege-masters, the West retreats into the fantasy of a “virtual state”.  Words replace pressure. Gestures replace justice.

France, Britain, and Germany continue to supply weapons to Israel. Political support remains ironclad – defended under the banner of Israel’s “right to exist”, even as Palestinians’ right to live is extinguished.

Instead of recognising ‘Palestine’, countries should withdraw recognition of Israel

Read More »

Nothing fundamental has changed. Only the rhetoric.

The flow of arms continues.

The flow of funds continues.

The flow of lies continues.

If the West truly believed in Palestinian statehood, it would start by ending the military, financial and diplomatic support that fuels apartheid and occupation.

Recognition without consequences is not a step forward – it’s a step around the truth.

We’ve seen this game before. An endless “process” that leads nowhere – by design. Even now, in Gaza, negotiations are cover. A ceasefire was within reach last January. Israel shattered it in March. No consequences. Just a return to “talks”,  while ethnic cleansing continues and officials speak of a “Jewish Gaza”.

Macron and Starmer talk of a Palestinian state while funding its erasure. They offer “recognition” that means nothing – except delay. What they propose isn’t sovereignty – it’s symbolism, a convenient fiction to pacify public outrage while cementing occupation.

But a state that exists only on paper, that must be approved by its occupier, is not a state. It’s a lie and recognition without action is not diplomacy – it’s complicity.

If the West won’t stop the genocide – if it won’t cut the weapons, halt the funding, or impose a single cost on Israeli war crimes – then its declarations are worse than meaningless. They are part of the killing machine.

So, for those pushing this fiction, let’s ask a simple question: Where exactly will this Palestinian state hold sway?

In Gaza, reduced to ashes? In the West Bank, carved up by walls and settlements? In Jerusalem, annexed and ethnically cleansed? In Jordan? In Sinai? In Saudi Arabia, as Netanyahu had mockingly suggested?

On Mars?

If it’s meant to exist on land occupied in 1967, then sanction the occupier.

If it’s to be built anywhere else, then call it what it is: a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, the crowning of genocide.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Soumaya Ghannoushi is a British Tunisian writer and expert in Middle East politics. Her journalistic work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Corriere della Sera, aljazeera.net and Al Quds. A selection of her writings may be found at: soumayaghannoushi.com and she tweets @SMGhannoushi.

Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to finally recognise Palestinian statehood, but is a two-state solution still viable?

ILAN PAPPÉ
23 July 2025

Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. (Photo: Alamy)

Many Palestinians, as well as many people within the solidarity movement for Palestine, have little faith in the current state of Palestine, as it is defined by Palestinian Authority (PA). 

The geographical space of this state of Palestine is not entirely clear, given the fact it is bisected by the partition offered by the Oslo Accord: to area A (which allegedly it controls), area B, (which it co-rules with Israel) and area C (ruled directly by Israel and constitutes 60% of the West Bank). 

Hence geographically recognising such a state, is tantamount to recognising a disempowered political entity stretching over less than 20 percent of the West Bank (as its role in area B is almost insignificant). 

No wonder, civil societies in the world have an issue with their governments’ position on Palestine, even if they decide to recognise Palestine; deeming that the Palestine the governments will recognise is the current state of Palestine. 

It should be noted that the PA demands recognition of a Palestinian state that stretches over the whole of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; a demand that is supported by those governments that had already promised to recognise the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. 

From this perspective, the recognition of Palestine is of a state that is not there yet, and its foundation depends on Israel’s position, the international reaction to it and the validity of the two states solution. 

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Britain is ensuring the death of a Palestinian state

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Nail in the coffin

Most of the political parties in Israel today are loyal to the constitutional nationality law of 2018 that stipulates clearly that there can be only one nation, the Jewish nation, and for that reason only one nation state, between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean. 

In many ways this was the last nail driven into the coffin of the two states solution; a solution that has already been dead for a while. 

The presence of more than 800,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the total destruction of Gaza (with a real possibility of annexation of part of it to Israel) and the political trends in Israel, leave very little hope for such a solution to be seriously discussed by Israel. 

Hence, those who believe that recognising Palestine will bring nearer the two states solution are unfortunately out of touch with the reality on the ground. 

And it does seem that for most of the governments which have already taken this move, the recognition is part of their unconditional support for the two states’ solution. 

History, however, might be kinder to them. It could record them not as supporters of the two states solution necessarily but as standing against the current Israeli wish to expunge Palestine as a nation, a homeland and as a people. 

Therefore, the timing here is crucial. Since November 2022, Israel has been ruled by a very extreme rightwing government. 

Its election reflected the fundamental changes that Israeli Jewish society has undergone in the 21st century. 

The move to the right of the whole society meant that a new ideological and political elite are now ruling Israel.  

This new elite is messianic, some parts of it prefer Israel to be a theocracy, and all its members share deep racism towards the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular.

If there were any signs, and there hardly were any, of a significant alternative force challenging this new Israeli orientation, they disappeared after 7 October 2023. 

The vast majority of Israeli Jews condone the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank, and the increased discrimination against the Palestinian minority inside Israel. 

Fresh approach

The recognition of Palestine as a state is still seen by European governments as a positive contribution to future diplomacy of peace. 

However, the inevitable dynamics inside Israel, and more importantly the continued genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank, call upon Europe to play a different role, and therefore in return recognise Palestine within a fresh and new approach to the Israel/Palestine question. 

The fresh approach requires the European political elite to accept the historical context of the developments on the ground. 

By this I mean to acknowledge that Zionism from the outset was a European project, born out of Europe’s inability to deal with its own antisemitism and opting instead for imposing a European Jewish state on the Arab world and the Palestinians. 

Israelis deem themselves as part of Europe and so does Europe. Given that the current Israel openly declares a war of destruction and elimination against the Palestinian people, it enjoys so far Europe’s indifference at best and its complicity at worst. 

This destructive Israeli campaign will have far reaching implications for European society itself as well as for Europe’s relationship with the Arab and Muslim worlds. 

Recognising Palestine in this context, is first and foremost acknowledging Europe’s complicity in the inception of the Zionist project and its disastrous impact on the Palestinians. 

Secondly, it has to be read as a commitment to defend the Palestinians, rather than involved in a diplomacy meant to “solve the conflict”. 

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Moral courage

This is a huge challenge to the political elites of Europe, which at best are not keen to confront Israel or the pro-Israeli lobby, knowing how easily the allegation of antisemitism and holocaust denial would be thrown at them. 

Therefore, to expect these politicians to commit to such a moral posture, necessitates a similar moral commitment in other areas where the political elites face strong lobbies: military expenditure, fossil energy, neo-capitalism and multinational corporations.  

One cannot be too sanguine about such a prospect, but one can always hope that one day politicians will show moral courage and not regard politics as a profession but rather as a vocation. 

To sum up, even those among us who are not enthusiastic supporters of the Palestine Authority campaign to elicit recognition of Palestine as a state, should differentiate between the current Palestinian state (a Bantustan) and Palestine the country (which stretches from the river to the sea). 

Until now the decision of how much the state will be part of the country was exclusively entrusted in the hands of the Israelis.

It is time for the Palestinians, the indigenous people of the country, and victims of more than a century of colonialism, to lead the way in determining the future of both Israelis and Palestinians in the land of Palestine. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ilan Pappé is professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Israel and Palestine. VIEW MORE ARTICLES

The first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, which drew 1,000 anti-Zionist Jews and their allies to Vienna, marked a significant moment in the rising tide against the settler-colonial state of Israel.

By Daniel Friedman, Mondoweiss, July 20, 2025

A billboard outside the first Jewish Anti-Zionist Conference, which was held June 13-15, 2025, in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Daniel Friedman)

The decision to hold the first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress in Vienna was significant for historical reasons – being where Theodore Herzl formed the ideology that became modern Zionism, as well as Adolf Hitler’s birthplace – and for modern reasons – Austria, alongside Germany, provides unconditional support for Israel, a symptom of its guilt over the Holocaust. 

Western nations’ complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has left the supposed ‘rules-based’ order they claim to represent in ruins. The U.S., UK, Europe, and their allies have provided Israel with the means to act with impunity through weapons, which flow freely, and information, which certainly does not. 

The Congress began just as Israel was bombing Iran, a reminder of the threat Zionism poses to global stability. Against this backdrop, over 1,000 anti-Zionist Jews and their allies from across the globe met in the Favoriten District in Vienna, June 13-15, 2025,at a time when the tide is turning, too slowly, but turning, against the settler-colonial ethnostate of Israel. 

Israel still has its well-funded lobby groups, and far too many people still believe its hasbara. It seems it’s up to a plucky group of not-so-well-funded anti-fascist dissidents in keffiyehs to turn the tide. While we have the truth and international law on our side, at times our goals seem insurmountable. But as several speakers highlighted, we must keep going, and we do not have the luxury of despondency. I was there representing South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) alongside Roshan Dadoo, the conference’s only South African speaker and coordinator of the South African Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) coalition.

SAJFP sent me to Austria to advocate for a united, Jewish Anti-Zionist movement that is inclusive rather than Eurocentric. Our experience in fighting apartheid as South Africans is also significant, in terms of both our successes and our failures. As United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese pointed out via live stream: While the political system underpinning apartheid was defeated in South Africa, the economic and social systems that enabled it remained in place.  

While the First Congress did not definitively represent the entirety of global anti-Zionism – hopefully, in time it will, as the follow-up Congress is already being planned for 2026 and is rumored to be taking place in Ireland – the turnout showed the movement is alive, well, and growing. Leading Jewish anti-Zionists in attendance included Israeli-born historian Ilan Pappe, U.S. journalist and filmmaker Katie Halper, and Hungarian/British Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos. 

The voice of Palestinians, crucially, was heard there too, through the presence of people such as Gazan journalist and author Ramzy Baroud, who argued that his people should become a model of resistance against imperialism worldwide. Palestinian physician, academic, and writer Dr. Ghada Karmi was there to emphasize the right of return and Europe’s role in having “created the monster” that is Israel, as was politician Awad Abdelfatah, who has worked from within the Israeli political system, advocating for one, democratic state with equal rights for all who live in it. 

The need to reclaim Judaism from Zionism – once seen as a fringe movement within global Jewry as UK writer and activist Tony Greenstein reminded us during a discussion – was a constant theme at the Congress, as was the need to embrace the Yiddish concept of doikayt, or hereness, the idea that Jewish people can, have and will live peacefully with their neighbors in countries across the globe, rather than needing to escape to a physical homeland.

We were also reminded that we were there not just as Jews, but as human beings, and that there is no place for exceptionalism of any kind in this struggle. We must join forces with anti-Zionists across the globe, and our primary duty is to the Palestinian people. Their suffering was highlighted through a video that made many in attendance emotional, in which a surgeon from Gaza detailed his attempts to keep going amid Israel’s systematic dismantling of the enclave’s entire medical system. 

The Congress demonstrated that some of the most effective opposition to the Zionist state comes from those born into it. Together with Pappe, others who were born in Israel or have lived there were heard. These included dissident activist Ronnie Barkan, filmmaker and academic Professor Haim Bresheeth-Žabner, and academic and activist Dalia Sarig. These voices provide hope that it’s possible to resist the propaganda that keeps most Israelis loyal to their state, regardless of its actions. 

Some speakers were not Jewish or Palestinian but simply anti-Zionists, reaffirming that this is an issue of common humanity. Alongside Albanese was Egyptian journalist Rahma Zein, providing another much-needed African perspective, and French/Palestinian juror and politician Rima Hassan, who managed to join the Congress virtually, despite having just been released from detention after Israel abducted her and other activists on the Madleen Flotilla.

A declaration written with input from all speakers at The Congress seeks to capture the collective positions that were reached during the three days. The declaration condemns the genocide as well as Israel’s apartheid-driven policies, rooted in ethnic cleansing. The document documents Israel’s systematic war crimes in Gaza, “including ethnic cleansing, militarised apartheid, urbicide, scholasticide, medicide, mass starvation”, and condemns Western governments, particularly the U.S., UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, for enabling these actions through military and diplomatic support.

It calls for immediate sanctions, Israel’s suspension from the UN, adherence to BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), and nuclear disarmament under IAEA oversight. The declaration also affirms Palestinians’ right to resist occupation and demands an end to Zionist claims of representing global Jewry, urging Jews worldwide to reject Zionism and stand in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.

The signatories reject Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state, and note that Zionism is a racist ideology that endangers both Palestinians and Jews. They call for decolonization, the right of return for Palestinian refugees (per UN Resolution 194), and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied territory since 1948. 

The Congress could prove important only if all who attended absorb its message, take it back to our communities, and work hard to grow the movement. The need for greater collaboration between global anti-Zionist groups was evident, as was the need for anti-Zionist Jews to unite as one cohesive movement. Zionism is a highly funded, meticulously organized, and well-oiled machine, and we only have a chance of defeating it together. 

To me, more important than anything that came out of the Congress is that it happened, that we united to continue our work, and that it symbolized a return to the roots of Judaism as a religion of peace. Despite all the damage that has been done in our name, Jews can and must be part of building a better world. I believe deep down that a day will come when we truly can celebrate our achievements as anti-Zionists, Jewish or otherwise. But who knows how long that will take? For now, all I really know is that our work has just begun.