King of Jordan: A two-state solution would be a victory for our common humanity

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is king of Jordan.

For more than a month now, the war in Gaza has been dividing the world, with the deepening split aggravated by intense emotions. Two narratives, Palestinian and Israeli, have pitted demonstrators, media outlets, religions, peoples and regions against each other. In the process, the moral clarity that we should and must share about basic human values has turned into moral confusion.

So let’s start with some basic reality. The fact is that the thousands of victims across Israel, Gaza and the West Bank have been overwhelmingly civilian. On Oct. 7, Israel was wounded and deeply traumatized by the killings of more than 1,000 Israelis, including women and children, by Hamas. And since then, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by the indiscriminate Israeli shelling of Gaza. Thousands of children lie dead in the rubble of Gaza’s destroyed houses, schools and hospitals. In the name of our common humanity, how can such brutal acts and murders be accepted?