Jul 31, 2025


Arab and Muslim states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have for the first time issued a joint call for Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to end the war in the territory.

The 22-member Arab League, the entire European Union and another 17 countries backed a declaration signed at a United Nations conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France on Tuesday.

The meeting in New York aimed to address “the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the Two-State Solution,” and the declaration lays out what steps the signatories think should be taken next.

“Governance, law enforcement and security across all Palestinian territory must lie solely with the Palestinian Authority, with appropriate international support,” the joint document read, adding that “in the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State.”

The text also condemned the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel,and proposed the deployment of “a temporary international stabilization mission” upon invitation by the PA and “under the aegis of the United Nations.”

“We welcomed the readiness expressed by some Member States to contribute in troops,” it said.

France, who co-chaired the conference, called the declaration “unprecedented.”

Speaking at the UN Tuesday, Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, said that “on the part of Saudi Arabia and the Arab and Muslim countries who for the first time will condemn terrorism, the acts of terror on the 7th of October, a call for the disarmament of Hamas and expressed their hope to have a normalized relationship with Israel in due time.”

Both mediators in ceasefire negotiations, Qatar and Egypt have maintained ties with Hamas and Israel throughout the war.

In March, a plan for Gaza formulated by Egypt excluded Hamas from governance of the enclave once the war ends, a draft of the plan obtained by CNN showed.

The plan was discussed by Arab leaders meeting in Cairo in an emergency summit, with Egypt’s president proposing a Palestinian committee to temporarily govern Gaza – taking over from Hamas and eventually handing power to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly pushed for a revival of the two-state solution.

France has said it will vote to recognize a Palestinian state in September, to Israel’s dismay. The United Kingdom also said it will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. Both Israel and the United States condemned France and Britain’s statements.

Hamas has, however, shown no signs of relinquishing power in the enclave, yet officials within the militant group have in the past given contradictory statements about the movement’s role in a post-war Gaza.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/30/middleeast/arab-league-hamas-gaza-israel-intl

Hamas has, however, shown no signs of relinquishing power in the enclave

freediver wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2025 at 3:34pm:

What do you mean by 'the Muslims'?

Ben-Gurion's legacy has always been marred within the Israeli political and ruling classes for not having finished the job when he had the chance.

For the vast majority of Jewish Israelis, there is no place for a Palestine established within the borders of the ancient Jewish regions, and there never was... and there never will be.

The international community forced Jewish soon-to-be Israelis to accept non-Jews within its 1948 borders as the price of recognition... non-Jews have never been welcomed or welcome.

The EU could pick up the tab for the next, say, 50 years.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 11^th, 2025 at 9:49am:


Most Palestinians are from Egypt, Lebanon and other Arab states so wouldn't it be easier for them to just return to their homelands?.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 11^th, 2025 at 9:54am:


Caused what conflict?

By the same token if Egypt, Syria, Jordan and others prevented the invasion of arabs into palestine this would never have happened.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 11^th, 2025 at 10:51am:


They originally come from Israel but were driven out by islam.

A fact that must always be applied to the Palestine-Israel conflict is that Arab peoples did not initiate war or persecution against Jewish people.

The conflict is the direct result of European non-Jewish (historically Christian) peoples' persecution of the Jewish diaspora, reaching as far back as, if not Tiberius, then Claudius Caesar, to the end of WW2 in 1945.

Elie Wiesel constructed a calendar with each of its 365 days commemorating a pogrom/ forced exile/ persecution of Jewish communities from somewhere across Europe over those 2000 years.

When foreign heads of state/government make their first official visit to Israel, they are shown Yad Vashem as a mandatory part of their trip.

As it is historical European persecution that gave drive and power to Zionism, which, in its turn, caused the conflict, the responsibility for resettling Palestinians should fall on Europe to bear.

Given Zionism's original mission, which is still alive in the minds of Israeli political and ruling classes, requires the establishment of Israel that completely incorporates ancient regions, there is no place in their strategy for accommodating a Palestinian state.

Hence, there will never be peace in the region... Palestinians will always be aggrieved by the original invasion, and Israelis will always find ways to leverage that grievance to foment conflict, which justifies further annexation or, at least, occupation, until the Zionists' original strategy has been achieved.

Leroy wrote on Aug 11^th, 2025 at 12:05pm:

No... It's too late for that.

Between 1948 and 1967, Europe and the democracies did not hold out much hope for Israel's survival, with the US taking the lead with a wait-and-see policy.

The Six-Day War in 1967 stunned and electrified the world, and galvanised the democracies' opinion overnight... Israel had proved itself to be a viable state more than capable of defending itself against enemies that should, on paper, have wiped it off the map.

The Arab and Muslim hopes of the region returning to the old status quo died after that war and were subsequently buried in 1973 after the Yom Kippur War.

The notion of a Palestinian state was stillborn.

It's been dead for 60 years.

As with the ancient Judeans with the Romans, and like all Semitic peoples, death is usually preferable to abandonment of god, religion and culture...

And the ancient Judeans got the full Roman hamburger for their implacable resistance... the complete destruction of their Temple, their mass slaughter and expulsion of survivors from their homeland... For 2000 years, they passed on the memory of the catastrophe of their Temple's destruction and their expulsion ('Next year in Jerusalem').

Is it so surprising that another, fully Semitic people - Arab Semites - also feel the same way?

freediver wrote on Aug 12^th, 2025 at 11:05am:

Nobody knows what you are talking about... You don't belong in serious debate...

A fact that must always be applied to the Palestine-Israel conflict is that Arab peoples did not initiate war or persecution against Jewish people.

The conflict is the direct result of European non-Jewish (historically Christian) peoples' persecution of the Jewish diaspora, reaching as far back as, if not Tiberius, then Claudius Caesar, to the end of WW2 in 1945.

Elie Wiesel constructed a calendar with each of its 365 days commemorating a pogrom/ forced exile/ persecution of Jewish communities from somewhere across Europe over those 2000 years.

When foreign heads of state/government make their first official visit to Israel, they are shown Yad Vashem as a mandatory part of their trip.

As it is historical European persecution that gave drive and power to Zionism, which, in its turn, caused the conflict, the responsibility for resettling Palestinians should fall on Europe to bear.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 11^th, 2025 at 11:22am:


The ancient regions were their original homelands/Kingdom.

There was no such thing as a Palestinian prior to 1948.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Aug 12^th, 2025 at 11:08am:


Are you sure you don't know what I am talking about Meister? You seem to have a very short memory.