The current Israel-Palestine escalation took place against the backdrop of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and right-wing forces in Israel pushing for tougher policies toward Palestine. Also, the US’ partiality toward Israel leads to an imbalance between Israel and Palestine, making it harder to mediate the conflict, said Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University. While the trend toward reconciliation has been advanced among Gulf countries in the Middle East, it is a pity to see there are no signs of improvement in the Israel-Palestine issue, with the situation in some areas getting even worse, Sun told Global Times. The international community, including China, has called for the parties concerned to discuss the issue on multilateral platforms. On Wednesday, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland appealed for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to exercise restraint following the latest violence. Sun noted that the current predicament for Israel and Palestine highlighted the fact that traditional views on security are at a dead end and related countries should get rid of their zero-sum mentality. One country should not defend its security by violating another country’s security, he added. China’s proposal and role on promoting a solution to the Israel-Palestine issue is important, as it has never picked sides nor sought to fill a vacuum of any country in the region or cultivate a proxy, which is why China was able to successfully mediate the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, said Sun.