JERUSALEM: Overshadowed by last week’s showdown between the US and North Korea, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued an ominous warning in his address to the United Nations: With hopes running out for an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinian leader said he may have no choice but to seek a single, binational state with Israel.
While Abbas appears to be in no hurry to disband his self-rule government, his threat raises an awkward scenario for Israel and the Trump administration that could potentially spell doom for the century-old Zionist enterprise.
Abbas was a mastermind and negotiator of the historic Oslo peace accords of the 1990s — interim deals that set a five-year goal for reaching a final agreement. Since then, he has remained a vocal supporter of pursuing a negotiated peace agreement that would establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But after nearly a quarter century of failed US-led peace efforts, the 82-year-old Abbas told the world body last Wednesday that time is running out as Israel expands its settlements on occupied lands.
“The two-state solution is today in jeopardy,” he said, saying that the Palestinians will have to “look for alternatives” if the door is closed to independence.
“If the two-state solution were to be destroyed due to the creation of a one-state reality with two systems — apartheid,” he said, “this would be a failure, and neither you, nor we, will have any other choice but to continue the struggle and demand full, equal rights for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.”
Abbas has issued similar threats before. But the timing and high-profile venue of his speech gave his comments some added urgency. The Palestinians are eagerly waiting for President Donald Trump to present his vision for peace, and are desperately seeking his endorsement of a two-state solution.
“President Abbas sent a direct message to the US administration, saying: Either you save the two-state solution or we are going to end up in one state where our people are going to ask for full rights,” said Mohammed Ishtayeh, a top adviser to Abbas.
A White House official said the administration understands the difficulties involved, but remains optimistic and is having “productive conversations with both sides.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — for their future state. The international community, including Trump’s predecessors, has long supported the two-state solution, believing that partitioning the land into Israeli and Palestinian states is the best way to ensure peace.
The reasoning is rooted in demographics. Most demographers believe the number of Jews and Arabs in these areas is close to equal. Relinquishing control of territories with several million Palestinians would ensure Israel’s future as a democracy with a solid Jewish majority. Continued control over the Palestinians, on the other hand, could force Israel to choose between its Jewish character and remaining a democracy.
With this in mind, Israel withdrew from Gaza, now home to 2 million Palestinians, in 2005. Yet it also has strengthened its grip on the West Bank and east Jerusalem, together home to over 600,000 Israelis and an estimated 2.7 million Palestinians, making any future separation increasingly difficult. Israel has some 1.8 million Arab citizens and 6.5 million Jews, according to its Central Bureau of Statistics.
Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and considers the area, home to sensitive religious sites, an inseparable part of its capital. Although the annexation is not internationally recognized, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed never to divide the city.
The fate of the West Bank is even more complicated. Israel has established scores of settlements without declaring it to be part of Israel. The result is a complicated reality where Israeli settlers enjoy the protection of the Israeli military and the rights of Israeli citizenship, while Palestinians are subject to a combination of autonomy under Abbas’ Palestinian Authority and Israeli military law. Critics, including Abbas, frequently compare this two-tiered system to South African apartheid.
Israeli hard-liners have offered a host of reasons to oppose Palestinian independence. They claim Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries would be indefensible, point to past peace proposals rejected by the Palestinians and note the bloody second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s and Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. They cite the Jewish biblical connection to the West Bank, say that expanded Palestinian autonomy should be sufficient or claim that Abbas is weak or cannot be trusted.
But they have struggled to provide an answer if the Palestinians give up their aspirations for independence and instead seek equality and Israeli voting rights. Coping with this dilemma, Netanyahu offered conditional support for Palestinian independence upon taking office in 2009. But since Trump’s election, Netanyahu has stopped talking about a two-state solution.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Abbas’ speech. His UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, last week said Abbas had “spread falsehoods.”
“Today’s lies and excuses have proven once again that the Palestinian leadership is a serial evader of peace,” he said.
It seems unlikely that Abbas will follow through on his warning. The Palestinian president controls a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars, tens of thousands of jobs and travels the world with VIP status. His aides admit there are no immediate plans to disband the internationally backed Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian officials say his speech was meant to rouse an international community that has stopped paying attention to them and to remind the world that the alternatives to inaction are worse.
“We told the Americans it’s the last chance for the two-state solution,” Ishtayeh said.
Palestinian leader tries to put Trump on notice with warning
Palestinian leader tries to put Trump on notice with warning
Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since October 1 invasion
- Media reports: Israeli ground forces pull back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters
- Israeli troops earlier captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa
Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border early Saturday, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said Israeli troops were later pushed back from the hill.
It added that Israeli troops detonated the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa as well as several homes before they withdrew, but the claim could not be immediately verified.
Israel’s military said in a statement that its troops “continue their limited, localized, and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.” The military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Lebanese media reports.
The push on the ground came as Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as several other areas in southern Lebanon including the port city of Tyre.
The morning strike in Beirut hit an area known as Dahiyeh, which the Israeli military called a Hezbollah stronghold, saying its planes had hit multiple sites used by the militant group. Residents were given advance warning by Israel, and it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.
The increase of violence came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials are studying a draft proposal presented by the US earlier this week on ending the war.
Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80 percent of them in the eight weeks – according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister apparently urged Iran to try and convince Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel, which would require the group to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. The proposal is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006.
A copy of the draft proposal was handed over earlier this week by the US ambassador to Lebanon to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese official. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the secret talks said Berri is expected to give Lebanon’s response on Monday.
Another Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.
Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper that the draft does not include any item that allows Israel to act in Lebanon if the deal is violated.
“We will not accept any infringement of our sovereignty,” Berri was quoted as saying.
He added that one of the items mentioned in the draft that Lebanon does not accept is the proposal to form a committee to supervise the agreement that includes members from Western countries.
Berri added that talks are ongoing regarding this point as well as other details in the draft, adding that “the atmosphere is positive but all relies on how things will end.”
There is also a push to end the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting 250 others.
The UN Security Council’s 10 elected members on Thursday circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the UN Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support it or abstain.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives since the initial Hamas attack have killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those killed have been women and children.
Israel strikes south Beirut after Israeli evacuation call
- Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several strikes on the city’s southern suburbs
BEIRUT: A strike hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Saturday, AFPTV footage showed, shortly after the Israeli army issued a new call to evacuate the area.
Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several strikes on the city’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
AFPTV video showed three plumes of smoke rising over the buildings in the area on Saturday morning.
Shortly before the attack, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X a call for residents of the Haret Hreik suburb to evacuate.
“You are close to facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Israeli military will be acting with force in the near future,” the post said in Arabic, identifying specific buildings and telling residents to move at least 500 meters away.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “the enemy” carried out three air raids, including one near Haret Hreik.
“The first strike near Haret Hreik destroyed buildings and caused damage in the area,” it said.
Repeated Israeli air strikes on south Beirut have led to a mass exodus of civilians from the area, although some return during the day to check on their homes and businesses.
In southern Lebanon, Israel carried out several strikes on Friday night and early Saturday, according to NNA.
Overnight, Hezbollah also claimed two rocket attacks targeting the headquarters of an infantry battalion in northern Israel.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.
The conflict has cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with actual structural damage amounting to billions more, the World Bank said on Thursday.
Hamas ready for ceasefire ‘immediately’ but Israel yet to offer ‘serious’ proposal
- Hamas official Basem Naim says Oct. 7 attack ‘an act of self defense’
- ‘I have the right to live a free and dignified life,’ he tells Sky News
LONDON: A Hamas official has claimed that Israel has not put forward any “serious proposals” for a ceasefire since the assassination of its leader Ismail Haniyeh, despite the group being ready for one “immediately.”
Dr. Basem Naim told the Sky News show “The World With Yalda Hakim” that the last “well-defined, brokered deal” was put on the table between the two warring sides on July 2.
“It was discussed in all details and I think we were near to a ceasefire ... which can end this war, offer a permanent ceasefire and total withdrawal and prisoner exchange,” he said. “Unfortunately (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu preferred to go the other way.”
Naim urged the incoming Trump administration to do whatever necessary to help end the war.
He said Hamas does not regret its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead and prompted Israel’s invasion of Gaza that has killed in excess of 43,000 people and left hundreds of thousands injured.
Naim said Israel is guilty of “big massacres” in the Palestinian enclave, and when asked if Hamas bore responsibility as a result of the Oct. 7 attack, he called it “an act of self defense,” adding: “It’s exactly as if you’re accusing the victims for the crimes of the aggressor.”
He continued: “I’m a member of Hamas, but at the same time I’m an innocent Palestinian civilian because I have the right to live a free and dignified life and I have the right to defend myself, to defend my family.”
When asked if he regrets the Oct. 7 attack, Naim replied: “Do you believe that a prisoner who is knocking (on) the door or who is trying to get out of the prison, he has to regret his will to be? This is part of our dignity ... to defend ourselves, to defend our children.”
Italy protests to Israel over unexploded shell hitting Italian base in Lebanon
- Tajani said the safety of the soldiers in UNIFIL had to be ensured and stressed “the unacceptability” of the attacks
- The Italian statement said Saar had “guaranteed an immediate investigation” into the shell incident
ROME: Italy on Friday said an unexploded artillery shell hit the base of the Italian contingent in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and Israel promised to investigate.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar and protested Israeli attacks against its personnel and infrastructure in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, an Italian statement said.
Tajani said the safety of the soldiers in UNIFIL had to be ensured and stressed “the unacceptability” of the attacks.
The Italian statement said Saar had “guaranteed an immediate investigation” into the shell incident.
Established by a UN Security Council resolution in 2006, the 10,000-strong UN mission is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the “blue line” separating Lebanon from Israel.
Since Israel launched a ground campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, UNIFIL has accused the Israel Defense Forces of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watch towers.
Lebanon rescuer picks up ‘pieces’ of father after Israel strike
- Karkaba then rushed back to the bombed civil defense center to search for her fellow first responders under the rubble
- Israel struck the center, the main civil defense facility in the eastern Baalbek area, while nearly 20 rescuers were still inside
DOURIS, Lebanon: Suzanne Karkaba and her father Ali were both civil defense rescuers whose job was to save the injured and recover the dead in Lebanon’s war.
When an Israeli strike killed him on Thursday and it was his turn to be rescued, there wasn’t much left. She had to identify him by his fingers.
Karkaba then rushed back to the bombed civil defense center to search for her fellow first responders under the rubble.
Israel struck the center, the main civil defense facility in the eastern Baalbek area, while nearly 20 rescuers were still inside, said Samir Chakia, a local official with the agency.
At least 14 civil defense workers were killed, he said.
“My dad was sleeping here with them. He helped people and recovered bodies to return them to their families... But now it’s my turn to pick up the pieces of my dad,” Karkaba told AFP with tears in her eyes.
Unlike many first-responder facilities previously targeted during the war, this facility in Douris, on the edge of Baalbek city, was state-run and had no political affiliation.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Friday morning, dozens of rescuers and residents were still rummaging through the wreckage of the center. Two excavators pulled broken slabs of concrete, twisted metal bars and red tiles.
Wearing her civil defense uniform at the scene, Karkaba said she had been working around-the-clock since Israel ramped up its air raids on Lebanon’s east in late September.
“I don’t know who to grieve anymore, the (center’s) chief, my father, or my friends of 10 years,” Karkaba said, her braided hair flowing in the wind.
“I don’t have the heart to leave the center, to leave the smell of my father... I’ve lost a part of my soul.”
Beginning on September 23, Israel escalated its air raids mainly on Hezbollah strongholds in east and south Lebanon, as well as south Beirut after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.
A week later Israel sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.
More than 150 rescuers, most of them affiliated with Hezbollah and its allies, have been killed in more than a year of clashes, according to health ministry figures from late October.
Friday morning, rescuers in Douris were still pulling body parts from the rubble, strewn with dozens of paper documents, while Lebanese army troops stood guard near the site.
Civil defense worker Mahmoud Issa was among those searching for friends in the rubble.
“Does it get worse than this kind of strike against rescue teams and medics? We are among the first to... save people. But now, we are targets,” he said.
On Thursday, Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 40 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and east.
The ministry reported two deadly Israeli raids on emergency facilities in less than two hours that day: the one near Baalbek, and another on the south that killed four Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics.
The ministry urged the international community to “put an end to these dangerous violations.”
More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the ministry, the majority of them since late September.
