World leaders have focused too much on short-term fixes, such as small-scale humanitarian efforts in Gaza, at the expense of meaningful progress toward establishing a Palestinian state, according to Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He shared these views in an interview with The New York Times.
Over the past five years, the international community has prioritized improving Gaza’s economy, hoping that better employment rates and living conditions in the enclave might prevent flare-ups between Hamas and Israel. Simultaneously, foreign leaders have concentrated on brokering diplomatic deals between Israel and other Arab nations, believing these agreements could eventually pave the way for peace with the Palestinians.
However, Wennesland argued that both strategies failed to address the root cause of the conflict in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank: the lack of a permanent resolution between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Politics has failed, diplomacy has failed, the international community has failed, and both parties have failed,” Wennesland said. “What we’re witnessing is a breakdown in addressing the real conflict—a failure of policy and diplomacy,” he emphasized. For over half a century, international efforts have shifted toward managing daily humanitarian issues while neglecting the broader political crisis, he added.
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Photo: Eiso Vaandrager/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS