Middle East Conflict: Just a crack of hope – Politics

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi only leaves a gap between thumb and forefinger. In Berlin on Thursday, he warned that there was little room left for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. And yet, as he agrees with the hostess at the Federal Foreign Office, Annalena Baerbock, as well as his Egyptian colleague Sameh Shoukry and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, there is no alternative. The so-called Munich group is meeting for the seventh time since it was launched at the security conference in 2020 – the date was set before violence between Israel and the Palestinians escalated again.

Baerbock and Colonna call on Israel to maintain proportionality – a criticism of the civilian casualties of the air strikes on the Gaza Strip. However, they also emphasize the right to self-defense. At least they do not publicly assess the fact that after the first rocket fire, Israel apparently deliberately attacked the military leadership of the Islamic Jihad group, which has been classified as a terrorist, and has meanwhile killed four cadres.

Baerbock: “The bloodshed must stop now.”

Shoukry and Safadi use the statements as an opportunity to claim a right to self-defence for the Palestinians as well. The Egyptian foreign minister castigated the “historical injustice” from which the Palestinians had to suffer, but at the same time criticized the fact that there were “extremist elements” in their ranks against which action had to be taken. Egypt has sealed off its border with the Gaza Strip militarily.

The appeal to stop the escalation and to enter into a ceasefire is unanimous. “With every new day that people die, there will only be more losers and no winners. Nowhere. The bloodshed must therefore stop now,” demanded Baerbock and thanked Shoukry for Egypt’s mediation efforts. Both Israelis and Palestinians need a perspective on how they and their children can live safely in peace.

The reality is making it more and more difficult to implement the two-state solution. “We’re not naive,” said the Federal Foreign Minister. But that was already the case when the group got together: At that time, US President Donald Trump wanted to solve the Middle East conflict by recognizing Israel through the Arab states – but without establishing a Palestinian state.

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