Guterres’s speech,
During 25 years, the IRA killed nearly 2.800 people, a third of them innocent civilians. Let’s keep in mind that the IRA was a terrorist organization- but in January 1994 Bill Clinton opened diplomatic relations with Gerry Adams, the President of the political arm of the IRA.These horrific events did not arise in isolation. They must be viewed in the context of decades of military occupation, political deadlock, grievances and hopelessness, and a failure to address the core issues at the heart of the conflict.
Let’s also keep in mind - according to the Encyclopedia Britannica- that the Irgun Zvai Leumi (1931-1948) already mentioned here - a zionist military organization, committed acts of terrorism and assassination against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and it was also violently anti-Arab. Irgun participated in the organization of illegal immigration into Palestine after the publication of the British White Paper on Palestine (1939), which severely limited immigration.
On July 22, 1946, Irgun blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Politically, it was the precursor of the Herut (Freedom) Party, one of Israel’s most militant right-wing groups, which later merged with the Liberals into the Gahal Party.
The Stern Gang (1940-1948),another zionist military organization, extremely anti-British, attacked British personnel in Palestine and even invited aid from the Axis powers. The group’s terrorist activities extended beyond Palestine: two members assassinated Lord Moyne, British minister of state in the Middle East, at Cairo (November 1944).After the creation of the state if Israel (1948) the terrorist group was suppressed, some of its units being incorporated in the Israeli defense forces.
So eventually, the same thing could happen to the Hamas's military wing;the 2006’s elections resulted in a win for Hamas. The political wing needs to recognize Israel’s right to exist,without ambiguity, and Israel needs to leave the occupied Palestinian territory- the West Bank -including East Jerusalem- and the Gaza Strip. The UN -and the US- views Israel's control over West Bank as “occupation”.
Meanwhile, Hamas' Internal Elections Pave the Way for Legislative
But in the end, it’s always the same old story.The N.Y.Times wrote, in 2004, Opinion | Israel's Bloody Status Quo - The New York Times
--The story goes on and on. There is no denouement. Gaza, a small place jammed with 1.8 million people, does not recess to the Stone, Iron, Middle or other Ages. It does not get flattened, as Ariel Sharon’s son once proposed. The death toll is overwhelmingly skewed against Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s talk of a ground invasion is empty. The last thing Israel wants, short of a cataclysm, is to go into Gaza and get stuck.
What Israel wants is the status quo (minus Hamas rockets). Hamas is useful to Israel as long as it is quiescent.
Edit,
The Haganah was outlawed by the British Mandatory authorities. According to Israel, as a result of the British government Anti-Zionist policy.
Noa Baum writes in "A Land Promised Twice", chapter 10, addenda.Her mother and her uncle belonged to the Stern Gang.
"..after World War II, when British government refused to open Palestine to unlimited Jewish immigration, the Haganah turned to terrorist activities, bombing bridges, rail lines, and ships used to deport "illegal" Jewish immigrants"
After the United Nation's decision to partition Palestine, the Haganah clashed openly with British forces and successfully overcome the military forces of Palestinian Arabs... By order of the provisional government of Israel( May 31, 1948) the Haganah as a private organization was dissolved and became the national army of the state"