Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
October 7, 2024, marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. On that day, Palestinian resistance fighters broke down some walls surrounding Gaza and 1,200 Israelis were killed, nearly 250 hostages were taken, with 112 having later come out alive, and the remaining 97 are captives.
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The Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said on October 24, 2023, the attack "did not happen in a vacuum."
"The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," said Guterres.
Guterres was not justifying the killing of innocent civilians in their homes. He was explaining the facts on the ground. Only Israel complained of Guterres' comments because the rest of the world is aware that Gaza and the West Bank are under brutal occupation, and there is no peace plan to allow their freedom and independence.
Israel is focused on how to make their country safe from terror attacks from the North to the South. However, Israel will never be safe as long as they keep about 6 million persons under lock and key, and without human rights.
The core values of Americans are freedom and independence, which they fought for and died for in 1776. The American resistance used brutal and bloody violence to fight for their freedom, and they won.
The UN has deemed Israel as being an apartheid system. The US supported the fight to end apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was arrested for using violence against the government. He was offered release if he would denounce violence, but he refused. After two decades in prison, he was released and eventually became President of South Africa, and won the Nobel Peace Prize, while remaining on the US list of banned terrorists.
The solution in South Africa, championed by the US and Europe, was the collapse of an unjust government, and the development of a free and democratic government.
The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the two-state solution, which was ratified at the UN decades ago and is still referred to as the only solution offered by the US.
October 7 did not have to happen. The rules-based international order that the US and its allies always refer to does not exist in Israel.
When Hamas announced they had taken captives, they were sure those captives would be swapped for the Palestinian men, women, and children held in Israeli prisons without charges, trial, or legal representation.
But, a full prisoner exchange never materialized. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blamed by his citizens for not making a deal to get the captives released, now after one year underground in Gaza. Some were killed or died of illness, and the remaining 97 hostages are running out of time. Even on the day of the first anniversary of the attack, the hostage families were still protesting in the streets asking for Netanyahu to change course and make a deal for their release.
Netanyahu has a plan for Gaza, and that is why he has refused all attempts by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire. Netanyahu plans to destroy Hamas, remain occupying Gaza, and annex Gaza. The plan ends with the people of Gaza either dead or living in Egypt.
The second part of the Netanyahu plan is to empty the Palestinians from the Occupied West Bank into Jordan and annex the West Bank. Netanyahu's plan, which is being successfully executed so far, will end the two-state solution once and for all, because all of the original Palestine will be officially Israel.
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