Some hope for Gaza
Stuff reports:
Hamas leaders could be forced to leave Gaza after Middle Eastern states united behind a new plan to end the 22-month-long war.
Qatar and Turkey, two of the group’s main patrons, have thrown their weight behind a French and Saudi peace initiative that sharply increases pressure on Hamas to disarm, surrender power and accept exile.
Senior Gulf officials said the rare display of regional unity could isolate the movement to the point where it has no option but to comply.
“We genuinely believe we have a shot at this,” one diplomat said. “Hamas is in a corner. They don’t have much choice.”
Israel’s long and bloody war in Gaza has left Hamas so enfeebled that Arab officials believe there is now a “golden opportunity” to deliver a final blow.
I’ll believe it when It happens, but this would be a great outcome which would give Palestinians in Gaza a chance to live in peace. The war has been terrible, but a Hamas free future for Gaza would at least make the toll of war slightly better.
Saudi Arabia and France are driving an initiative aimed at the holy grail of diplomacy: a two-state peace deal creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
With Washington struggling to make headway, Paris and Riyadh co-hosted a conference at the United Nations in New York this week that forges a grand bargain between Europe and the Arab world.
Under a plan led by Jean-Noel Barrot, the French foreign minister, Arab states agreed to isolate Hamas in return for European recognition of Palestinian statehood before – rather than after – a final deal with Israel.
I support there being a Palestinian State, but it is somewhat performative to recognise a state without being able to say what are its borders you are recognising.
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