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Have any prominent politicians expressed their acknowledgement that the Israeli - Palestinian conflict seemingly has no solution in the foreseeable future?

Same question in a bit different phrasing: Some people would agree that "the last few decades have shown that all proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are futile" - How many of those people are politicians who said so openly, and who are they.

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Have any prominent politicians expressed their acknowledgement that the Israeli - Palestinian conflict seemingly has no natural (and humane) solution in the foreseeable future?

The leaders of a range of relevant groups and governments such as Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah have stated this on multiple occasions.

References:

Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian [...] at an international forum in Doha [...] reiterated Iran's proposal that a referendum be held to determine the fate of Palestine, with only descendants of those who lived there prior to 1948 being permitted to vote.

Iranian foreign minister says neither Iran nor Israel believe in a two state solution | Reuters


The Hamas Covenant

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August 18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant:​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​Goals of the HAMAS:

​"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." (Article 6)

On the destruction of Israel:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)

The exclusive Moslem nature of the area:

"The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)

"Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be." (Article 13)

The call to jihad:

"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article 15)

"Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about." (Article 33)

Rejection of a negotiated peace settlement:

"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility." (Article 13)

Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:

"Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such an act." (Article 32)

Anti-Semitic incitement:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)

"The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their money they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World War I ... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it." (Article 22)

"Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'." (Article 32)

"The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews." (Article 32)

The Hamas Covenant


Since its creation in 1982, Hezbollah rhetoric has been laden with inflammatory language threatening Israel’s existence and the U.S. presence in the Middle East. Its formal name is the Party of God. Its power base is among Lebanese Shiites, a sect that has historically been marginalized in Lebanese politics and the economy. Its fighters have been armed and trained by Iran since its inception. The movement—now both a militia and a political party—has received hundreds of millions of dollars a year from Iran, a predominantly Shiite country, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.

Its leader, Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, is famed for his fiery speeches and charisma among fighters and poor Shiites in Beirut and southern Lebanon. He has built the movement from an underground cell — that carried out terrorist attacks against American, European, Israeli and Arab targets—into the best armed non-state actor in the world by 2023. It has also evolved into a powerful political party that has held seats in parliament and cabinet posts since 1992. It has also allied with right-wing Christian groups to form a powerful political bloc.

Hezbollah rhetoric has made contradictory claims about its long-term goals. “We do not seek the application of Islam by force or violence, but by peaceful political action, which gives the majority in any society the opportunity to adopt or reject it. If Islam becomes the choice of the majority, then we will apply it. If not, we will continue to coexist and discuss with others until we reach a common ground based upon correct beliefs,” the organization said in 1998. But Nasrallah has also repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel. “It is an aggressive, illegal and illegitimate entity, which has no future in our land,” he said in 2005. “It’s destination is manifested in our motto, ‘Death to Israel’.” Hezbollah has also and angrily threatened to destroy U.S. “hegemony” in the Middle East. The military wing is tied to deadly attacks on two U.S. embassies and the Marine peacekeepers barracks in Lebanon as well as American targets in Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

Doctrine of Hezbollah | Wilson Center

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    The phrase "peace in the Middle East" has even acquired a secondary meaning of an unattainable fool's errand because it is so cliche to hope for but never seems to be achieved. See, e.g., comedian Dave Barry: "They can hold all the peace talks they want, but there will never be peace in the Middle East. Billions of years from now, when Earth is hurtling toward the Sun and there is nothing left alive on the planet except a few microorganisms, the microorganisms living in the Middle East will be bitter enemies." angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/cheap/cheap1_d.htm
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Jan 24 at 1:44
  • @ohwilleke I agree with you in that this conflict will take a very long time to heal. Dave Barry said something profound, and sad, and funny at the same time. But... Maybe in a few centuries, nation states and nation-level ethnicities will lose their importance, in the same way as small tribal identities and small inter-tribal conflicts lost their importance a while ago. Who remembers now the Italian mini-states? Or the tiny Slavic tribes of the present-day Russia? Today, even American Indian tribes are all bundled in together into "American Indian" ethnicity despire their past wars. Commented Jan 24 at 2:41
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    @TimurShtatland You were on a pretty good streak, but American Indian tribes are not a very good example and are not like the others.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Jan 24 at 4:26
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    @ohwilleke I only used American Indians to illustrate the fact that all wars, even the long wars, have an end. For example: "Conflict with migrating Lakota and Ojibwe people forced the Cheyenne further west, and they, in turn, pushed the Kiowa to the south. By 1776, the Lakota had overwhelmed the Cheyenne and taken over much of their territory near the Black Hills.", see Cheyenne - Wikipedia. But more people now know about Native Americans as a common ethnicity of these tribes than can name these individual previously warring tribes. Commented Jan 24 at 5:35
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    Another example of the above is the many tribes and countries mentioned in the Bible. Some of them actually existed, and did participate in bitter wars against each other, but most of these tribes have merged (or become extinct) by now. Commented Jan 24 at 12:17
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Israeli military strategist Dan Schueftan is an example (assuming you grant me extending "politician" to "significant governmental officials").

He served as an advisor to Israel's National Security Council and former Israeli PMs Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon and played a role in Sharon's disengagement from Gaza in 2005.

In this recent interview, he clearly identifies the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as something to be managed, not solved (around the 42:00 mark), and chides the idealistic "simple-minded" Americans for their views that everything should have a neat liberal solution (around the 1:01:00 mark).

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    Dr. Dan Schueftan is a known Israeli (quite controversial) scholar, who had a major impact on some administrations and research institutions (like all hyper-popular scholars in their democratic countries). I doubt he can be considered a governmental official. Israel is a democratic country, where you just need a bit of reputation in order to earn the privilege that some politicians should be interested to receive some advice from you.
    – Jacob3
    Commented Jan 23 at 18:30
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Netanyahu had been widely viewed as preferring "conflict management" to solving the conflict:

Netanyahu exchanged the striving for peace with “conflict management,” in a way that allows Israel to control territory while at the same time minimizing the cost in blood of that control. Thus, the only Israelis who actually feel the existence of another nation with whom Israel is in conflict (and is occupying) are the soldiers who maintain the occupation and a minority among the settlers. The Separation Wall helps most Israelis to forget the existence of the Palestinians, and the bypass roads, which enable access to even the most isolated settlements without encountering any Palestinians along the way, have greatly reduced the friction. The average Israeli, who neither lives nor serves in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), is liable not to notice that there is a conflict at all. And when you don’t feel a conflict, you're in no hurry to resolve it. Thus, while the younger generation has been spared the dramatic events which shaped my youth, they have also been denied the possibility of imagining a conflict-free reality.

I have just taken the first link that popped up when googling Netanyahu conflict management.

October 7 attacks likely showed the failure of this policy: indeed, there could be no 100% guarantee from a catastrophic intelligence failure. This doesn't mean that the conflict can be solved within a few months or years, but that managing it also requires having a long-term vision, i.e., addressing questions like:

  • How does all this end?
  • What will be the state of Israel and Palestine 10/20/50 years from now?

In this sense the hectic negotiations of the last 30 years also lacked long-term vision, as they typically tried to clinch a formal agreement within a few months or years - typically within a presidential term in the US.

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