Where is the Israel-Palestine conflict going and what can Britain do about it?
WHERE is this latest Israeli/Palestinian clash going? And in the spirit of global Britain, can we do anything about it?
The answer is yes. We are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is our duty to use our influence, connections and statecraft to help find a solution.
🔵 Read our Israel-Gaza live blog for the very latest updates...
But let’s first place things into context: How did we get here?
We should start at the very beginning — this part of the globe has a lot of history.
It is here, in the fertile lands found between the mighty Nile, Jordan and Tigris-Euphrates rivers, that we now term the cradle of civilization.
This neck of the woods is home to the Seven Wonders of the World. And where great empires rose and fell more than 4,000 years before the first stitch in the Bayeux Tapestry.
From here evolved so many foundation stones of modern humanity, basic laws, agricultural techniques, the wheel, the alphabet and, of course, the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that underpin much of the beliefs across the world today.
And they all rub shoulders in Jerusalem. Here you find the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in the world for Muslims (after Mecca and Medina); the Western Wall, part of the most sacred site in the world for Jews; and finally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which marks the place where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, entombed and resurrected.
Israel declared its inde-pendence in 1948. Neighbouring Arab countries immediately invaded to capture Palestinian strongholds.
From the east, Jordan took the West Bank and Arab Jerusalem and, from the south, Egypt seized the Gaza Strip. Israel captured them in two lightning wars in 1967 and 1973. In peace settlements Israel hung on to those chunks of land — two fortresses for them but historic sores for five million stateless Palestinians.
It is this that forms the backdrop to the escalation of the violence we see today.
In 1993, there was a major breakthrough in the search for peace, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Israel would withdraw its troops from the West Bank and Gaza and hand over power to Palestinians to run their own affairs. Jerusalem would be a capital shared by both peoples.
After 50 years slugging it out, the objective of a two-state solution seemed within reach.
But a failure of trust, occasionally spilling into violence, has hampered any progress.
Today, much of the West Bank is administered by Israel, with some functions given to the Palestinian Authority.
The Gaza strip is run by Hamas, which does not even recognise the State of Israel.
And the Palestinian leadership under President Abbas on the West Bank has fallen out with Hamas.
To compound matters, Israel has chosen to build settlements in the West Bank, which complicates any eventual handover of power.
Such is Hamas’s violent agenda that many Western countries have labelled it a terrorist group.
The launch of more than 1,000 rocket attacks this week — a war crime — suggests it is receiving proxy support, very probably from Iran.
As with all conflicts, it’s the civilian populations which suffer most. More than two million people live in the Gaza Strip alone but, as no elections have taken place there in 15 years, Palestinians have been denied the opportunity to vote for fresh leadership.
Palestinian elections were supposed to take place this month but have been postponed because of violence.
Hamas’s rule of Gaza since 2007 has been a complete disaster, resulting in rampant corruption and poverty.
Its failure to cooperate with its counterpart on the West Bank is at the core of why no progress on peace has been made.
Politics in Israel is no walk in the park. Elections took place in March but with no overall winner, the country is in limbo.
It is a democracy in a tough neigh-bourhood. A relatively new state is surrounded by authoritarian regimes, some of whom sponsor terrorism.
Security is a daily concern for Israelis. If it were not for their Iron Dome defence system, many more of Hamas’s rockets would reach their targets.
Hamas has little respect for everyday Palestinians — basing its military infra-structure in urban areas, therefore deliberately endangering civilian lives.
The UN now talks of a full-scale war. The international community has called for restraint but neither side shows any sign of relenting.
So how do we, firstly, de-escalate the current violence and, secondly, return to the original Oslo Accords objective?
The big change, since a similar scale of violence erupted in 2014, is how the Gulf now recognises Israel.
Thanks to US mediating efforts, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have caught up with Egypt and Jordan in signing peace agreements with Israel.
Britain and America should encourage the regional Muslim voices to play a greater role in supporting the Palestinians’ advance towards greater transparency and fresh elections.
The Gulf countries can also help stop the funding streams that support Hamas’s terrorist agenda.
We can also lead the international community in helping to prevent weapon systems from entering Palestinian territory through increased maritime presence. Simply put, more ship inspections.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Get this far and more earnest discussions about a true road map to peace can begin.
If Britain and America don’t step forward to offer a way out, who will?