EDITORIAL: It is heartening to note that US President Joe Biden has finally demonstrated a great deal of foresight and political will by stating that a two-state solution is the only answer to resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestinian people. His remarks that he made at a White House presser yesterday must have displeased rightwing racist Prime Minister of the Zionist state, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been vigorously seeking to accomplish his wicked mission, which is to crush Palestinian resistance to his pursuit of settlement policies aimed at shutting out the possibility of an independent Palestinian state.

After 11 days of fighting, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold on Friday, although it carries limited promise. Earlier on Wednesday, the US had blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement that expressed “deep concern” over the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Even if passed, the resolution though important for its moral value, would have made no difference in the on-ground situation. For, there are scores of unimplemented UN resolutions that have been urging an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands it got to control through an act of war. As for the instant situation, while opening Wednesday’s debate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the latest round of violence “only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace.” Fighting, he averred, must stop. “It must end immediately.”

Muslim countries, especially Arab states, need to take good faith measures to end the reign of terror in occupied territories. They must zealously support the demand by the Pakistan foreign minister that the UN deploy a peace-keeping force in the region as is the practice in so many other flashpoints in the world.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021