Another holocaust !
Saeed Qureshi
Israel is callously bombing the Gaza strip to, what they say; teach a
lesson to Hamas for rocket and mortar fire at the Israeli territory
adjacent to Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while
uncounted numbers have been injured. Israel intends to continue this
brutal onslaught against the residents of Gaza whose majority is
impoverished civilians. While America as usual has endorsed the Israeli
raids, the world at large looks with agonizing indifference to the
massacre of a segment of human race with the most modern weaponry.There
is trading of accusation between Israel and Hamas on breaking the June
2008 Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement.
Hamas says Israel did not honor its commitments. Hamas blamed Israel for
the end of the ceasefire, saying it had not respected its terms,
including complete lifting of the blockade of Gaza to allow inflow of
food and other necessities of life. Israel said it initially began
easing the blockade, but this was suspended because of Hamas’s failure
to end rocket fire and stopping weapons smuggling into Gaza. Israel
maintains that the devastating aerial strikes were aimed at stopping
Hamas from firing rockets towards Israel and posing a constant threat to
the safety and peaceful life of its residents. In an unprecedented and
massive show of force, on December 27, in the first few minutes, 80
Israeli F-16 aircrafts and apache helicopters dropped 100 tons of
explosives on 100 targets in Gaza. The Israeli ground units numbering
175000 are waiting to launch the ground assault for occupation and
continue the offensive. In four days air strikes that continue
relentlessly, Israel is piling the dead bodies and the number of
injured. There is complete panic and the entire Gaza strip looks like a
war zone. The Israeli war machine being used in the so called “Operation
Cast lead”, almost equals to that of the American mobilization of troops
and equipment against Iraq in 2003. But While Iraq is a big country with
a vast area and a standing army, Gaza is a very small strip of land that
can be over-run within hours. Hamas reportedly has only 20000 fighters
which are woefully inadequate to even marginally match the Israeli war
machine.
It defies the common sense as to how Israel could launch a ghastly
offensive against an elected administration with such a stupendous fury
and frenzy. Granted that Hamas was firing rockets but after the signing
of June 2008 truce accord, the frequency of rockets had drastically
decreased. Hamas was ready to halt the rocket firing completely if
Israel had allowed the unhindered inflow of food and other commodities
for the Gaza inhabitants who remained subject to a stifling blockade
after January 2006 elections. Hamas won the January 25, 2006 elections
for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), by bagging 74 seats to
the ruling-Fatah’s 45, providing Hamas with the majority of the 132
available seats and the ability to form a majority government on their
own. But in a shameful display of duplicity and double standards, the
Hamas electoral victory through a genuine democratic process was not
accepted both by US and Israel.
Hamas had to establish its authority through use of force and by
wresting the control of Gaza strip from the American protégé Fatah
headed by Mahmood Abbas. To squeeze Hamas and cripple its administrative
viability, Israel has been sealing borders with Gaza from time to time
and disallowing all exports except only enough goods to avert a
humanitarian or health crisis. Even after the signing of June 2008
agreement, the blockade was neither lifted entirely, nor were other
conditions fulfilled by Israelites. As a result Hamas resumed its rocket
attacks including the lifting of the blockade and allowing unhindered
flow of goods to Gaza.After savage bombing of Lebanon in July 2006,
Israel has one against gone on a rampage in Gaza resulting in the
massacre of human beings, with unabashed impunity and total disregard of
global outrage and violation of all cannons of established morality and
humanitarian considerations. If US cannot see the difference between the
victim and the offenders then why should it blame those who killed 3000
human beings on the fateful day of 9/11? In the post June 2006
agreement, in all fairness Israel cannot be totally absolved of the
infringement of the agreement. There was no earthly reason to subject
the resident of Gaza to a blockade that nearly created conditions of
starvation and degradation of living conditions to an abysmally low
level.
The world at large and the standard bearers of the modern civilization
in both east and west, south and north are watching with callous silence
and folded hands the liquidation of a nation where blood of men, and
women, young and old, children and adults is being shed like water. The
Muslim world and the Islamic countries situated in the same region are
as silent as cold stones. They are powerless despite possessing all the
riches of the world. They don’t have the dignity and self respect and
even the courage or the intentions to express their affiliation and
solidarity with their own brethren of faith. Hamas may be opposed to
their philosophy of life but after all they are at least human beings if
their being Muslims is not a worthwhile consideration.If by a miracle,
Hamas like Hizbollah turns the tables against the Israel’s blitz , then
within hours the Security Council, the OIC, the Arab League, the US, the
Western Europe and the rest of the world would move earth and heaven for
a truce and cessation of hostiles. Otherwise they would like to see with
deliberate unconcern the genocide of a population and removal of a
government that was elected to power by its own people through a
democratic process.
— The writer is Texas-based correspondent of Pakistan Observer. |
