The war between Israel and the Palestinians is a battle that has been going on for decades. The war has happened right after the establishment of the state of Israel, when the Jews returned to that area (Gaza) in 1948. In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 on the Partition Plan for Palestine and Arabia, despite Palestinian rejection, led to a series of wars. Gaza was ruled by Egypt from 1948 to 1967. The fighting between Israel and Palestine has occurred since 1967 in a way to identify who was the owner of the land and how it is controlled; as a consequence, the West Bank and Gaza Strip were under the control of Israel after they won the Six-Day War in 1967. In 2006, Hamas (Islamist militant group) won elections and control of Gaza, aiming to establish an independent Muslim state.
Despite many criticisms internationally related to the response of Israel towards the Hamas group, the United States has reaffirmed their commitment to help and support Israel at all cost. Joe Biden, the president of the United States has mentioned that “We stand with Israel … and we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack”. From the past until now, the U.S. has continued to provide aid to support the Israel government which is accounted for USD 158 billion since World War II. Since the fighting between the Israel and Hamas happened, the U.S. has sent guided missile carriers and F-35 flights with many other equipment. The support from U.S. will make this war last even longer.
Is Gaza ruled by Israel?
Gaza became the biggest open-air prison in the world right after Gaza took over. Israel has imposed sanctions on the region since 2007, including closing air transport, land and sea routes since they considered it as a necessary measure to protect the country from Hamas attacks. Gaza is surrounded by concrete walls and barbed wire fences. According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Palestinians are barred from entering or leaving the territory except for life-threatening medical conditions.
What happened in the conflict zone?
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an offensive attack in the southern part of Israel, which were surrounded by fenced and heavily guarded Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people. In response, Israel retaliated violently, including cutting off electricity and food supplies. So far, at least 23,000 Palestinians were killed. It is believed by many national and international analysts that the war won’t end very soon and will only bring the negative impacts rather than benefits to both sides.
Are there any benefits from this war?
Of course, war always hurts the innocent people and destroys the whole nation, however, it will benefit some individual as well. According to an interview and a rare share of The New York Times with six diplomats, Israel has quietly pushed Egypt to recognize a large number of Gaza residents as refugee as a humanitarian initiative for civilians to escape what they call the “the perils of Gaza” for a refugee camp in the Sinai Desert. The diplomats believe that the Israeli government, with the help of the United States, intends to search for “Nakba 2”, a major displacement of Palestinians since 1948, to claim all of Gaza for themselves.
It is also believed that the war won’t end very soon and the US’s aid will continue was due to political and economic gains. According to a study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the coast of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip is above the vast $ 524 billion oil and gas reserves. . This proves that they not only defeated the enemy, but also benefited economically from the bloodshed of innocent people.
The divisions between the United States and Israel
Lately, the United States and Israel have shown the differences between on how the future of Gaza strip looks like. Israel starts losing her international support while the United States are currently being accused as the supporter for the international genocide in the Gaza strip. As of now, the United States wants it or not they need to avoid the negative impacts on the civilians. In fact, the Biden Administration wants to show the world it is not their intension to kill thousands of innocent people but they just wanted to sell 14,000 tank shell to Israel armies.
The United States wants the two-state solutions which means that the Gaza Strip will be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). In contrast, the Israeli government wants to control the whole Gaza Strip and create the civilian authority with regional funding. With that, it leaves the two allies the uncertainty of the future in the post-war period.
ASEAN and Cambodia’s stance
Since the beginning of the war, ASEAN countries has not yet revealed its specific openness. Not all ASEAN member countries, except Thailand and Viet Nam have the diplomatic relations with Israel, and they all persevere in criticizing Israel despite Western pressure. Religious has played an important role in the politics of some ASEAN member countries, namely Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia, expressing unity with Palestine. No countries in Southeast Asia support the war. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim spoke to Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Politics, and expressed his support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. However, the end of the war in Gaza remains uncertain.
Despite there are numerous unclear stances of ASEAN members and some analyses have mentioned that it will affect the unity of ASEAN if its members have the difference stance towards the Gaza Strip issue. However, ASEAN has been known as the unity in diversity in very long period of time with its differences in culture, economy, political, and many more; ASEAN is still standing here strongly. Thus, it won’t affect or destroy even though there is a difference in how they see the war in Gaza Strip right now.
For Cambodia, peace is everything. Cambodia has come this far because of peace, which is something that the Royal Government of Cambodia has always reminded the citizens of Cambodia and the world. It should also be noted that on November 11, 2023, Samdech Hun Sen called on all concerning parties to start the negotiations in a way to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip through his personal Facebook page, adding that there is no ceasefire, Gaza will become “the world’s largest killing field and graveyard”. This proves that Cambodia hates war and does not support any involvement that incites and aggravates the problem.
write by SK
