Since October 7th, the day when the Arab terrorist group Hamas has attacked Israeli territory with rockets, an intense debate has been going on among the leaders of many countries which are directly or indirectly involved in this conflict that originated in 1948 officially. This short contribution aims to analyse some of the heads of State’s point of view and explain them.
Starting from the “protagonists” of the affair, it seems like the leaders of the State of Israel are firmly convinced of their nationalistic and sovereignty ideals. As the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that every country has the right to self-defense, including Israel. This statement is true as a matter of fact, nevertheless, not everyone would agree on it because of the complex struggle that Israel fought to obtain legitimacy of its existence. It is still harshly debated whether the State of Israel has the right to exist. As it is well known, legitimacy as such was given by the United Nations in 1948 by The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, but at the expense of other people, therefore the counterreaction of local Palestinian/Arab population creates doubts about the morality of the law.
Although these were the premises of the foundation of the Israeli State, the Prime Minister stays insensitive to Palestinian people’s rights and he has even refused Hamas’ ceasefire proposal,- which included six weeks ceasefire and the release of the most vulnerable people -, claiming that a “total victory” by Israel in Gaza is possible within months. Moreover, he added that such negotiations would be “bizarre” and “they would not lead anywhere.”
Such declarations do not sound diplomatic; however, some Right party leaders share Netanyahu’s perspective, and these are Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister, and Matteo Salvini, the Italian Minister of Infrastructures. Indeed, it is not surprising since they share the same political ideas about immigration and minorities’ rights. As Giorgia Meloni has announced: “Hamas’ brutality must be condemned unambiguously” and she has also expressed all her solidarity to the hostages kept by the Arab group. At the same time, Matteo Salvini has confirmed such a statement by claiming that there is a will to destroy the Israeli and the Jews along with their culture. Furthermore, the Minister of the infrastructure has condemned the Turkish President Erdogan for having justified such attacks, as the Israeli Prime Minister claims. This is not exactly the reality, as President Erdogan has declared: “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, 'mujahideen' waging a battle to protect its lands and people". It is worth to notice that Erdogan is a conservative too, but, since he is considered as “the Muslim” par excellence, it was predictable that he would have protected the Arab part in this issue.
On the other hand, Left-oriented political parties’ leaders have expressed their solidarity to the Palestinian people, looking at the situation on the other perspective, according to which they are the true victims of this conflict since they had to pay the highest price for the “creation” of this State. Politicians like Giuseppe Conte, leader of the Party Five Stars Movement, and Elly Schlein, leader of the Democratic Party, have stated that “Netanyahu must be stopped, Gaza’s territory needs a cease fire.”
This is an opinion shared also by the Brazilian Left Representative Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, who “provoked” a very harsh reaction in Benjamin Netanyahu by affirming that Israel’s repression of the Palestinian people is no different from the Holocaust. To such a claim, Mr. Netanyahu replied that it is not acceptable to compare these two situations since the anti-Semitists who intend to destroy every Jewish cultural element are still alive, and Palestinians are among these.
Another leader who turned Israel down - whose voice is very influential on the international arena- is Vladimir Putin. According to some geopolitical analysts, Moscow has other priorities right now, it is engaged in a war itself, therefore the head of the Kremlin did not say much about what is happening in Gaza. Moreover, it is supposed that Israeli elites fear Russia’s allies, such as Iran, given that it is one of the greatest enemies of the “land of Sion and Jerusalem''.
To sum up, it is possible to remark that the perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very differentiated, and the decisions taken by the leaders are based on the relations that they have with it. An objective evaluation of the issue is rare to find.