Could a ceasefire happen?
If that pause comes to past it may lead to a ceasefire - we live in hope. If it does, no-one will be happier than I and all MPs who have (wholly unjustly) been accused of being responsible for murder and genocide by some constituents.
But I do come close to despair when I read the Hamas spokesman saying that they will attack again and again like October 7th until Israel is ‘annihilated’, that Israel won’t stop until Hamas is destroyed; and meanwhile unacceptable Israeli settler and IDF violence and killings in the West Bank continue.
And having met some of the regional leaders, I’m also aware of the geopolitical complexities that explain why Palestine’s neighbours have not made any proposals yet to provide refuge to Gaza residents, or for Egypt to open the Rafah crossing much more freely.
Hamas and their Iranian masters are not at all welcomed in neighbouring Sunni Muslim states, and peace in a two-state solution will never be possible with Hamas ruling Gaza.
So, a ceasefire means different things to different people, and is incompatible with either Israel or Gaza’s current aims.
Which takes us to a longer-term solution – surely what every human must see as essential to human life, in both Gaza and Israel.
What could be the future?
Whether somehow the Palestinian Authority can take over Gaza and with a huge UN led programme restore Gaza and link the two (‘from the river to the sea’) in a viable Palestinian state that brings peace and prosperity to Palestinians, while allowing a smaller Israel to continue in peace is the key question that has to be considered.
That peace has been elusive for almost 80 years, invariably faltering when it comes to agreement over Jerusalem. But maybe, just may be, this time will be different because it has to be.
This is what the UK must help work for. It is very timely that David Cameron comes back to government on an issue so familiar to him from John Kerry/William Hague’s efforts a decade ago. They too failed to bridge the intractable gap between Israel and Palestine and the compromises needed on both sides. Can a new effort, with the UK strongly involved, do better today?
We must be trusted by both sides, and while we prepare for that it isn't helpful to take sides or pass motions for ceasefires. We must work to stop the fighting for as long as possible now, and then work for a ceasefire to be the outcome of talks when everyone realises war alone cannot deliver the solutions either side imagines it wants. Civilians deserve peace and talks, and while the UK and other nations work together to deliver that, we in the UK must avoid replicating the divisions of the middle east on the streets of Gloucester.
