Palestinian Disarmament and ONLY Palestinian Disarmament

President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu just spoke to each other for this first time in a month, apparently, as Israel continues to obliterate Gaza with weapons made in and provided by the United States.

Several things became obvious after the news reported the contents of the conversation. First of all, nothing is going to change. Second, the attack on Gaza, which has created world-wide protests, and split the Democratic party, hasn’t convinced the United States that nothing nothing is going to change. The Israeli government thinks everything is going to change, and the United States is going to approve of any changes Israel suggests. The U.S. and Israeli government have convinced themselves, and convinced each other, that imposing government on the Palestinian from the outside is the correct solution. All of this means that nothing has changed and nothing is going to change – at least not from the perspective of Netanyahu and Biden.

The Associated Press reported that after “nearly four-week gap in direct communication” between Biden and Netanyahu, “fundamental differences have come into focus over a possible pathway to Palestinian statehood once the fighting in Gaza ends.” Netanyahu repeatedly rebuffed Biden’s called for Palestinian sovereignty that would result in “the oft-cited, elusive two-state solution” that President Biden believes is the “key to unlocking a durable peace in the Middle East.”

The call, the AP reports, “came one day after Netanyahu said that he has told U.S. officials in plain terms that he will not support a Palestinian state as part of any postwar plan.” This shouldn’t be news to the United States, although it appears that the Biden administration never got the memo. In September 2023, at his address at the United Nations, Netanyahu displayed a map of the “New Middle East” that didn’t show the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza.

This is not a new Netanyahu policy, or a new change in Israeli policy. Writing in 2017 about then-President Trump’s statement moving away from the two-state solution, Yousef Munayyer described that Netanyahu already envisioned a one-state solution – that in any agreement Israel would ‘retain the overriding security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River.’

Part of the control Israel envisions is the control of Gaza. It already occupies Gaza, and it’s 2005 withdraw of settlers and permanent military forces hasn’t changed its status as occupied under international law. Although Israel ignores this, as it ignores other parts of international law, the decision to withdraw settlers and troops has been a problem ever since for Israel, and with the current assault on Gaza it’s proposing and envisioning once again having settlers and a permanent military presence in Gaza. The United States says in one breath it’s its against these policies, and with the next gives Israel the diplomatic and military aid to make them possible.

In 1947, when the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) first proposed the idea of partitioning Palestine none of the members of the Committee knew anything about Palestine, and none cared what the Palestinians wanted. President Biden confronts the issue in the same way as the members of UNSCOP did. What Palestinians want doesn’t matter. The United States, is still operating with a racist mindset.

The New York Times reported that as part of his conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Biden, in an effort to convince Netanyahu that a two-state solution is the correct solution, “floated the possibility of a disarmed Palestinian nation that would not threaten Israel’s security.” The idea of a disarmed Palestinian, and in particular a disarmed Hamas in Gaza has been discussed before, in particular at the end of the 2014 Gaza war – Netanyahu was Prime Minster then as well. The idea of a disarmed Palestine has been promoted by Israel and the United States, but no one has asked asked the Palestinians if they want to disarm, or asked Israel, as part of a negotiated truce, to disarm.

Peace and violence have been imposed on Palestinians since UNSCOP decided that the two-state solution was the solution. The two-state solution, Netanyahu’s one-state solution, and the idea that Palestinians should disarm has been imposed on Palestinians. No one has asked what the Palestinians want, or whether Israel should disarm as part of permanent solution. According to the United States and Israel, Palestinians don’t matter.