Yasmin Atuallah
Smoke billows from a fire following Israeli airstrikes on multiple targets in Gaza City on May 16, 2021. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Smoke billows from a fire following Israeli airstrikes on multiple targets in Gaza City on May 16, 2021. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Letters
Mon 17 May 2021 11.53 EDT
Last modified on Mon 17 May 2021 12.25 EDT
Jonathan Freedland aptly captures the Groundhog Day character of the recurrent deadly Middle East war/ceasefire cycles (Once this violence in Israel and Gaza ends, there can be no return to ‘normal’, 14 May). Israel, as the dominant and occupying force, has the capacity but not the motive to bring this to an end. Benjamin Netanyahu, who has no interest in the receding prospect of a two-state solution, is happy to accept the collateral damage to his own population as a price worth paying to maintain the status quo. If necessary, Trump-style encouragement of extreme-right thugs can usefully provoke the expected response. Hamas, committed to a pyrrhic form of defence, gains prestige, but no practical benefit for the Palestinians, while the weak and directionless Palestinian Authority has no leverage, and the international community has effectively washed its hands.