Today, October 7th, marks the second anniversary of ongoing war in Gaza. The day began with a coordinated assault by Palestinian guerrillas, mostly from the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. By motorcycle and hang-glider, Hamas fighters breached the southern border, attacking Israeli communities, army bases and a music festival.
Almost 1,200 people in Israel were killed that day, mostly by Hamas, and more than 250 people were taken as hostages back to Gaza.
Israel responded within hours with airstrikes. Almost a week later, on October 13, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his forces to invade Gaza.Over the past two years, at least 66,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed in the Israeli onslaught. 90 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, including most schools, mosques and hospitals.
An Israeli blockade on humanitarian relief has caused a famine, affecting most of Gaza’s nearly two-and-a-half million residents. International diplomacy has failed to stop what the United Nations has now declared a genocide in Gaza.
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump and Netanyahu announced a 21-point proposal to end the suffering in Gaza – including a ceasefire, a release of the remaining hostages, the resumption of humanitarian relief and disarming Hamas.
Over the last few weeks, I've spoken to many experts in the region — some of whom I've known for more than 30 years. They are divided about the viability of the proposal.
I spoke a few days ago to Hussein Ibish, a resident scholar at the Arab Gulf Institute in Washington, D.C. He's written extensively on the Middle East for various publications, including Bloomberg, The Atlantic and The Daily Beast. I began our conversation by asking him if the latest plan to end the fighting in Gaza has a chance of succeeding.
HUSSEIN IBISH: “Hussein, a week ago...”
to make them change their minds.”
That was Hussein Ibish. A writer and senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington D.C.
The success or failure of any diplomatic solution will ultimately be determined by how it plays out on the ground. So, I reached out to someone who has spent years reporting throughout Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Ori Nir has been a journalist for Ha’aretz and is the former Washington bureau chief for The Forward, an American-Jewish newspaper. He's also a former spokesman for Americans For Peace Now. We met each other more than 30 years ago, when we were both covering the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington.When I spoke to him a few days ago, I asked Nir how far the situation in Gaza set back relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
ORI NIR “We’ve gone back to the volcanic core of the conflict…
for the situation to worsen.”
That was Ori Nir, a longtime Israeli journalist, who has worked with Ha’aretz and The Forward.
While Nir expressed reservations about the latest plan to end the suffering in Gaza, others think there’s a genuine chance that the Arabs and Israelis could finally be ready to move toward an elusive peace.
Rami Khouri is a Jordanian-American journalist of Palestinian heritage, who has written extensively on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for five decades. A public policy fellow at the American University in Beirut, Khouri is also a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C.
I started the conversation by asking Khouri how he thinks we got here.
RAMI KHOURI : “You can’t analyze any of the events by only looking at October 7 til today...asserting their identity, peacefully.”
That was Rami Khouri, a longtime Jordanian-American journalist. And just a note, we want to clarify that Tony Blair was heavily criticized for backing the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but the International Criminal Court and British courts declined to prosecute the former prime minister.
The international community is playing an increasing role in ending the fighting in Gaza, and, ultimately in reaching a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One of those who has had a front row seat to international diplomatic efforts is Mark Quarterman. He served at the United Nations in a number of capacities for nearly a dozen years, which included working in Jerusalem and Gaza as chief of staff to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. We met each other 31 years ago, in South Africa, in the run-up to that country’s first-ever democratic elections.
I asked Quarterman if he saw any historical parallels to the present situation Israelis and Palestinians are facing in Gaza.
MARK QUARTERMAN :“This reminds me of South Africa…”
I can’t imagine it.”
That was Mark Quarterman, a former diplomat with the United Nations. And I’m Sunni Khalid. You have been listening to “How We Got Here,” an occasional public affairs show from KALW News. Thanks for joining us for the conversation on the crisis in Gaza.If you have any comments or questions, you can contact us at kalw.org.
Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute. He is a weekly columnist for The National (UAE), former columnist for Bloomberg, regular contributor to The Atlantic and The Daily Beast, and frequent contributor to many other U.S. and Middle Eastern publications. He has made thousands of radio and television appearances and was the Washington, DC correspondent for the Daily Star (Beirut). Many of Ibish’s articles are archived on his Ibishblog website.
Ori Nir is a Washington-based Israeli-American writer. As a journalist, he worked for Haaretz Daily, Israel's leading newspaper, where he covered Palestinian affairs in the 1980s and 1990s and Israel's Arab minority during the beginning of the Second Intifada. He also served as Haaretz's Washington bureau chief and later as its US West Coast correspondent and covered Washington for the Forward, America's largest and most influential independent national Jewish weekly newspaper.
Rami G. Khouri is a Palestinian-American academic and journalist whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. During his 60-year career in journalism he was Managing Editor of the Jordan Times and the Daily Star (Beirut) newspapers, and contributed reporting and opinion pieces from the Middle East to the Financial Times, NPR, BBC radio, and other outlets. He is currently a distinguished fellow at IFI-AUB, a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington, DC, a book author, oped- and analysis writer, and frequent media commentator. His texts and interviews are available for free on X @ramikhouri and at Substack.
Mark Quarterman served at the United Nations in a number of capacities for nearly 12 years. Most recently, he was chief of staff of the UN Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. At UN Headquarters, he served as special assistant (chief of staff) to the UN Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel and special assistant to the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs. In the field, he served in Jerusalem and Gaza as chief of staff to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and in East Timor and Indonesia as political adviser to the Special Representative for the East Timor Popular Consultation. He was a staff member of the Africa Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives; a program officer at the Ford Foundation for South Africa and Namibia.
