As Israel intensifies ground strikes into Gaza, observers ponder what peace could look like
Former negotiator says there is little political momentum behind two-state solution
Israel is intensifying its ground incursions into Gaza this weekend in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the "second phase" of its war against Hamas.
In interviews airing Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, a number of officials, experts and politicians involved in the region spoke about how they view the ongoing conflict as it's currently developing — and how it might end.
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a D.C.-based think-tank, said he is concerned about further escalation in the conflict, including from the West Bank.
"It's harder to separate Palestinians on the West Bank from Jews and Israelis, and I could see that becoming a real war — a war that is very hard to untangle," he told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.
Israel has responded to Hamas's devastating Oct. 7 attack, which killed over 1,400 people, with weeks of airstrikes. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says 8,000 people have died in the strikes. And on Saturday, Israel said it would increase ground operations in Gaza.
Naftali Bennett, a former Israeli prime minister, told Barton that Israel is willing to endure an extended conflict in order to accomplish its goals of destroying Hamas and rescuing hostages.
"Our goal is total victory over Hamas, [to] eliminate Hamas from the face of the Earth," he said.
Bennett, whose political party campaigns on a platform opposing the creation of a Palestinian state, said that the Oct. 7 attacks showed Israel cannot coexist with a Hamas-controlled Gaza.
"We thought that we could live side by side. Israelis did not imagine the depths of hate, atrocities and murder of this ideology," he said. Throughout the conversation with Barton, Bennett put forward an uncompromising vision of Israel's stance in the next stages of the conflict and eventual peace.
"You can't live side by side with total evil. You have to eradicate evil."
Two-state solution in deep crisis, former negotiator says
Yezid Sayigh, a former peace negotiator in the conflict, said he believes the two-state solution he had attempted to work toward is further away than ever.
"I wish that were still possible. It's one I worked for and negotiated for and still was, at least in theory or still is, the best possible outcome. It is not politically feasible today."
Sayigh theorized that Hamas might attempt to negotiate an extended truce with Israel, in which they would not recognize Israel's right to exist but nonetheless normalize relations enough to bring livable conditions back to Gaza.
But in the immediate term, Sayigh said, Israel faces a difficult question about how to approach its mission to destroy Hamas.
"The core problem facing the Israeli government on the one side and the military command on the other is that they have no answer for the question of what we do with Gaza once we have destroyed Hamas or achieved victory," he said. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip from 1967 until 2005.
He said that Hamas's decision to take hostages indicated they were willing to negotiate, and that the group's full demands would likely only be known once a preliminary deal to release hostages was hammered out.
"Whether they're still achievable politically because of what they did on the seventh of October, or not, is of course another matter," he said.
Alterman also expressed skepticism that a conversation could be had between Israel and Hamas in the short term.
"The reality is you can't have a conversation with a lot of the [Hamas] military leaders. You can arguably have a conversation with political leaders. I don't think Israel is interested in that," he said.
Negotiated settlement needed, humanitarian worker says
Looking ahead to a possible end to the conflict, Alterman said Egypt, which currently holds significant influence over humanitarian access to Gaza, would also need to play an enormous role in a future reconstruction of Gaza. That would carry with it "tremendous ability to shape what Gaza looks like and who's in control," he said.
Hossam Elsharkawi, regional director for International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, appealed for parties to come together to seek an immediate resolution to the conflict.
"This is my fifth war to deal with in Gaza and I hope we have wiser leaders and politicians and statespersons that can see beyond this and say enough is enough," he said.
"Let's stop the madness and let's go back to negotiating peace agreements because this will just repeat itself, unfortunately."
"It's a political, diplomatic solution we're asking for."
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With files from Rosemary Barton, Lisa Mayor and Sarah Ramsaran