So here we are. Three European countries, Ireland, Norway, and Spain, have said they would recognize a Palestinian state. At the press conference that accompanied their announcement, they stated there would be no peace or solution to the current war without a two-state solution – a real two state solution.
Needless to say, Israeli response did not welcome this announcement and recalled their ambassadors from those three countries. What must be obvious to anyone is that the present situation is untenable. It’s clearly time for a new approach.
Calling supporters of a two state solution “anti-Semitic” is not helpful either. Although our government may think this move is “premature” and that the solution must be worked out between the leadership of Israel and “the Palestinians,” one must ask, which Palestinians? Between the old corrupt group that has held down new leadership for a generation and the violence of Hamas, there seem to be few choices.
Prayer for the Day
Full of anguish for their dead and wounded,
The people of Gaza and the West Bank cy out to you, O God;
Struggling to stay alive in their destroyed communities,
Mothers try to feed their children with little more than pollute water.
We cry to you, O God, as did the Psalmist and the prophets,
Do you hear us, O Holy One? Do you hear us?
In the name of the One who accompanies the suffering,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: two states, living side by side, in peace and security,
Jonas Gahr Store, Prime Minister, Norway
The time has come to move from words to actions, to tell the millions of innocent Palestinians who are suffering that we are with them, that there is hope … the land and identity of Palestine will continue to exist.
Pedro Sánchez. Foreign Minister, Spain
But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them trapped in holes and prisons,
They have become a prey with no one to rescue, a spoil with no one to say: Restore
Who among you will give heed to this, who will attend and listen for the time to come?
Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers?
Isaiah 42: 22-24a