This is the result of multiple wrongs repeatedly ignored in Israel, Palestine and US

SAM BAHOUR: Israel has proven it cannot win and Palestinians have proven they cannot lose. But not winning and not losing is not good enough

EVENTS IN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES are disturbing, to say the least, but far from surprising to anyone who has been awake.

In an opinion piece last August that was published in Haaretz, Pushing Palestinians back to armed struggle, I wrote: “If the US and Israel do not make an about-face soon, Palestinians will care less who blames them when the bullets and missiles start flying in both directions”.

My focus in these words was on how Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation would act if nothing changed. Regretfully, I was  spot on.

Allow me to also repeat something else I wrote in that opinion: “I am absolutely convinced that there is no military solution to this conflict. Israel has proven it cannot win, despite its military power, and Palestinians have proven they cannot lose, despite their never-ending sacrifices. But not winning and not losing is not good enough.”

Although Israeli state violence, called military occupation, has not stopped for one day since 1967, there will be much to analyse and write about this latest outbreak of violence once the missiles stop flying, the dust settles, the injured are attended to, and the dead on both sides are buried.

Short of invoking an end to Israel’s military rule over five million Palestinians, this latest round will end right where it started, except for further emboldening some on both sides who are bound to claim some false victory.

This current episode did not erupt out of the blue. It is a result of multiple layers of wrongs that have been repeatedly ignored by stakeholders across the political spectrum, both in Israel, Palestine, and across the international community, especially the United States.

We have been here too many times before.

The one seemingly new aspect of this violent episode shaking everyone’s sense of security in Israel, more than the indiscriminate missiles falling on Israeli cities, is the outburst of civil unrest in Israeli communities across Israel.