“China is deeply concerned over the resumed fighting in Gaza,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin stated in the Ministry’s press briefing yesterday. “Facts prove once again that the use of force will never bring lasting peace. Heavier civilian casualties will only create more hatred and hasten the next round of escalation.”
“China strongly calls on the relevant sides to exercise restraint, and the international community, especially countries with influence on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, to earnestly play a responsible role” in implementing the two United Nations resolutions on the conflict (one each from the Security Council and the General Assembly). Countries need to “promote a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire, protect civilians, ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, resume talks for peace as soon as possible and work relentlessly for the peaceful co-existence between Palestine and Israel and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
On Dec. 4 China Daily’s Opinion page published a call for a two-state solution to this conflict, which also warns that Israel’s “violence-must-be-met-with-violence approach is more likely to turn the situation from bad to worse.” While that strategy might create what looks like peace at first, “that stability will prove to be a short-lived illusion,” author Li Yang writes. “The painful losses of the weak side will sow seeds of hatred in its younger generation more quickly when their appeals are stifled and suppressed, passing the fury to the future and turning the buffer zone into a new hotbed for violence. Not to mention the complex cultural and religious backgrounds of the Palestine-Israel conflict.”
