The Abraham Accords don't keep what Donald Trump promised.

In September 2020, he, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed treaties in the garden of the White House to normalize relations between the two Arab states with Israel.

The agreements, Trump also spoke of a "deal of the century", nurtured the illusion that the conflict between Israel and the Arabs had largely ended and had been decided in Israel's favor.

Rainer Hermann

Editor in politics.

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    The agreements create business opportunities, but they do not bring peace.

    Because they do nothing to change the core issues of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

    For example: How long are the settlers still allowed to (mostly illegally) appropriated land and houses from Palestinians so that a state of Palestine can no longer arise?

    When and how does Israel allow the people in the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is cordoned off on all sides, a perspective so that it is no longer a poor house and thus a breeding ground for violence?

    Damascus Gate locked

    The recent outbreak of violence comes as no surprise. However, the International Crisis Group rates the fact that the violence is escalating on several fronts at the same time for the first time as "extremely serious": between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army in East Jerusalem, and for the first time in the cities of Israel where Jewish and Arab Israelis are located have lived together peacefully so far. In the latest round of violence, Jewish Israelis learn that they are not safe in their own country either. It is worrying that cities like Lod and Akko have become war zones. In addition, Hamas missiles are now reaching distant targets, and they are firing far more missiles than in previous conflicts - which Israel reliably replies with massive retaliation.

    America and the EU rightly run Hamas as a terrorist organization. It approves of the deaths of civilians in its rocket attacks, and it rules Gaza with an Islamist dictatorship. Nonetheless, it is expanding its position among the Palestinians in this conflict. While the rival Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is corrupt, inefficient and passive, it is now acting and taking the lead on issues that do not affect Gaza alone.

    The current conflict was not sparked by tensions between Hamas and the Israeli army.

    Rather, incidents in Jerusalem since mid-April have created the current explosive situation.

    First, the Israeli police closed the Damascus Gate with barricades for the Palestinian residents;

    their protests attracted extremist Jewish Israelis who chanted "death to the Arabs".

    Then the Supreme Court approved the dispossession and eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, sparking new clashes.

    The Temple Mount is a central place of conflict

    Subsequently, the Israeli police in East Jerusalem banned the Palestinians' campaigning for the - now canceled - Palestinian elections on May 22nd and arrested campaigners.

    Eventually, police blocked access to the Al-Aqsa mosque, fueling tension and leading to violent clashes even inside the mosque.

    That was then the reason for Hamas' “ultimatum” to Israel and the start of their attacks.

    The key to resolving the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel lies in Jerusalem, but it is buried deep there.

    Because with the Temple Mount on which the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, Jerusalem is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

    But there can be no compromise on the sacred, neither side will give in.

    There are also no solutions in sight for other aspects of the conflict.

    Previous Israeli governments committed themselves to a two-state solution, but they would also find broad international support.

    But today there is not enough space for a state of Palestine.

    In the West Bank, the core area of ​​a state of Palestine, 2.8 million Palestinians live in twice the area of ​​the Saar, but according to the Israeli organization Peace Now there are also 441,000 settlers who are determined to expand their settlements.

    Most Arabs care about the question of Palestine

    The human rights organization Human Rights Watch documents in a comprehensive report that appeared in April, with a wealth of examples, the systematic privileging of Jewish Israelis and the systematic discrimination against the Palestinians. On the basis of norms of international law, she accuses Israel of a policy of apartheid and persecution. According to the current law, Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity, according to the authors.

    The National State Law of 2018, for example, grants the right to self-determination only to the Jewish people; it protects the Jewish settlements because of their “national value”. The Palestinians everywhere have fewer rights than the Jewish Israelis, are second class citizens, whether in the territory of the State of Israel within the borders of 1967, in East Jerusalem, in the West Bank or in Gaza. In the West Bank, which is subject to Israeli military law, a third of the area that was once private Palestinian land has already been confiscated. New settlements are always emerging there.

    Even if Palestine is not high on the agenda of many Arab governments, opinion polls show how important the question of Palestine is to most Arabs. In this conflict, too, the realization that one has to react robustly to violence in the short term is true. In the long term, however, one can only pull the bottom out of it through economic development and turn the downward spiral by giving people a perspective. More and more Palestinians have nothing to lose and therefore risk everything.