The West Bank... Israel's Major Dilemma

Writer: Dr. Nabil Amro

After Israel has plunged into a war of extermination in Gaza, thus engaging in the longest continuous war in its history, and after having fought several wars that extended from Rafah to southern Lebanon and even to Bab al-Mandab and Iran, without decisively winning any of them, it now faces its greatest and most complex challenge represented by the West Bank with its narrow geography and dense demographics.

Since its resounding victory in the 1967 war and its seizure of Arab lands, which amounted to three times the area of Israel, the West Bank has become a project for comprehensive military and settlement control, as well as the displacement of as many of its inhabitants as possible, placing it under the threat of annexation at a time and under circumstances deemed suitable or feasible by Israel.

It is unnecessary to remind that the geography and demographics of the West Bank are the most intertwined with the geography and demographics of the Hebrew state, making its complete isolation from Israel nearly impossible.

Israel's war for control of the West Bank is now entering a phase that can be described without exaggeration as the most intense and fierce, where settlement projects race against time, military mobilization reaches its peak, surpassing what Israel has mobilized on all fronts, and the unleashing of armed settlers to assist the army in besieging cities and villages, mistreating their residents, and seizing their properties. What Israel is doing in the West Bank is a comprehensive occupation executing a calculated war to sabotage the lives of Palestinians and make the narrow space they inhabit unlivable.

The situation in the West Bank should not be viewed from a single perspective, which is what Israel wants and works to achieve, but rather it must be viewed from a counter perspective, that is, what the Palestinians possess in terms of capabilities to confront and hinder Israeli plans. In this regard, they have much and are effective; otherwise, what compels Israel to withdraw forces from combat fronts and concentrate them in the West Bank, incurring billions in losses by replacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers with foreign workers who have proven to be more of a burden on the economy than a support and rescue for it? What makes nuclear Israel uncertain about everything it does militarily and settlement-wise, resorting to artificial intelligence to monitor four million Palestinians who live and multiply every day in Jerusalem and the West Bank? Furthermore, the Palestinians have unanimously agreed on the duality of continuing to build their lives on their homeland as the most important and effective means of steadfastness against the Israeli war on them, and to prevent it from achieving its goals.

The West Bank is now under direct and comprehensive occupation, as if Israel were in the day after its occupation in June 1967. The collective, smart, and influential decision of the Palestinians does not require tunnels and factories for weapons and ammunition, but rather what they can actually do, which is to maintain and deepen their resilience and construction, and to provide the necessities of life on their homeland. This is something they have excelled at in the past and continue to do every day with remarkable excellence that has made the world agree on their right to freedom and independence, despite all the brute force resources that Israel possesses, which have never reached the point of seeing a white flag raised by the Palestinians.

Since its occupation in 1967 until today and indefinitely, the West Bank has established an equation that Israel has failed to break, based on remaining on the homeland and building life in it, and a collective commitment that is not subject to any slackening, aimed at freedom and independence. The Palestinians are well aware of how to provide credibility to their equation, which is based on clinging to the land and working with brothers and friends at the global level, where the Palestinian phenomenon is advancing, and Israeli influence is declining. The Palestinians can endure the pain of the difficult labor they are experiencing as long as the goal of freedom and independence is the priority of their lives, struggle, and steadfastness.

It is regrettable to see and hear some Arab media considering what Israel is doing in the West Bank, and what its leaders announce as goals, as if it were an inevitable fate. Many have even begun to use the phrase 'what remains of the West Bank.'

The truth says, with strong and convincing evidence, that the entire West Bank remains, and its people remain and multiply, and the consensus on the goal of freedom and independence, despite all obstacles, will not and has not left the certainty of the Palestinians who see in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem a homeland that has no alternative at any time and place.