Who will broker peace between Israel and Palestine?

There was a glimmer of hope in an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire. But the cease-fire collapsed on Tuesday and Israel has resumed its air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Gaza medical officials say 191 Palestinians, including at least 150 civilians, among them 31 children, have been killed by Israeli air attacks during the last few days.
The Israeli military said Hamas had fired 123 rockets at Israel, one killing a civilian -- the first Israeli fatality in the fighting, as reported by Reuters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had no choice but to "expand and intensify" its campaign on Hamas. Israel has already mobilised tens of thousands of troops for a ground invasion on Gaza.
The daily bloodshed in Gaza must fill anyone with shock and despair. Even those who say that Israel has a right to defend itself from incoming Hamas rockets can be appalled by the sight of houses razed, civilians, including children and the sick people, killed and injured.
The surge in hostilities was prompted by the murder last month of three Jewish seminary students in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the revenge killing on July 02 of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem. Though Israel assumes it was Hamas who were responsible for the Israeli teens' death, it may not be true as there are many other groups and organisations in Palestine that are acting independently and are not controlled by any major force within Palestine.
Israeli rockets fired into densely populated Gaza has been causing the death of numerous civilians, who are not at all responsible for the death of the Israeli teens or for the political decisions of Palestinian authorities, or for the missiles thrown at Israel by Hamas.
By now it is almost a foregone conclusion that the eternal conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will go on undiminished as the world community has cynically got used to witnessing the clash as a kind of a perpetual phenomenon not worth meddling in.
There would always be new bouts of escalation between Israel and the Palestinians over issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank or over a street-fight between Israeli and Palestinian kids and there will always be blame games accusing each other of being the first troublemaker.
One Israeli civilian will be killed by a suspect and in retribution there will be continuous bombardments on Palestinian habitats, killing thousands of innocent civilians. Agitated Palestinians, who will be losing their kith and kin in such Israeli bombardments, will shout at the top of their lungs and launch those ancient missiles that will either fizzle out in the midair while on their trajectory or land on a desolate area. In return, smart Israeli precision missiles, that are many times more powerful than those Palestinian 'slingshots', will in the name of ferreting out extremists be guided by computers to land on those areas where Palestinian civilians reside. So common and predictable are now these scenarios!
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is setting gory examples for the world to take note of how the weak can be subjugated to the domination of the strong with superpowers always backing the strong and watching as silent spectators the game of fight on a field always uneven against the weak.
When the Palestinians are being oppressed and deprived of their liberty, one is right in blaming America or Russia who had the power to prevent Israel, but did not use it.
Initiatives for a durable settlement of the conflict, including the most recent one undertaken by the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, failed. The existing instability in the region accompanied by constant bloodshed, extremist uprisings in Iraq and Syria and geopolitical clashes among the Arab nations is unlikely to encourage compromise between Israel and the Palestinians. Peace may now be a far cry, especially when Israel has decided to continue its operations.
Still, people of the world hope for peace and look to America or Russia for their intervention. Peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict could be so easy if only either America or Russia had warned both Israel and the Palestinians with the threat of financial sanctions and armed interventions.
America and Russia regard both Israel and Palestine as responsible for the escalation in the current crisis. The Russian authorities have sent warnings to Israel, along with other concerned members of the international community, against further escalation and are calling for a cease-fire.
Russia is presently in the most advantageous position to resolve the crisis by enforcing an immediate ceasefire. Russia has played important roles in negotiations concerning the Middle East crises and has all along stood strong on the importance of conflict resolution on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, Madrid principles and many other agreements made to bring peace in the region. Russia moreover has stable relations with the Palestinian authorities, good contacts with Hamas, and at the same time has friendly relations with Israel.
There is a huge Russian-speaking community of Soviet emigrants who are now settled in Israel and the two countries have diversified mutually profitable economic ties. Moreover, Israel has always behaved like a political ally of Russia whenever the world cried foul against Russian intervention in the neighbouring countries. One can remember how Israel maintained neutral position during the recent Ukrainian crisis. On the other hand, Russia maintains good contacts with the Palestinians and upholds its stance for conflict regulation and creation of an independent Palestinian state.
This is a rare political opportunity for Russia to meditate in the conflict as a powerful partner and make history if Russia's forceful persuasion could settle the conflict by creating two stable independent states on the basis of justice and equity. Thus, Russia could score an unprecedented victory over the United States in the international diplomatic domains.
There will be no peace until there are two independent states: one for Israel and the other for the Palestinians.
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