Time for more than lip-service
PAKISTAN and Turkey besides Palestine distinctively took to the podium in the UN General Assembly Session including the outgoing Secretary-General besides others, forcefully condemning indiscriminate and unbridled Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip the Zionists professed was in retaliation to rocket firing into Israel by Hamas, which was supported by an equally criminal act by the US vetoing a half-hearted French move in the Security Council calling for a ceasefire, terming the Israeli conduct their right to defend.
Notwithstanding the Hamas rocket firing which ought to have foreseen the extent of retaliation, blind are they not in refusing to see that killing of hundreds of innocent unarmed men women and children; 9 of just one family including eight children, razing buildings to the ground and a brutal attack on Muslims offering prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque; Islam’s first holy shrine, on the 27th of the holy month of Ramazan by Israel to deliberately desecrate the historic Mosque which was an open affront to the followers of the Islamic Faith, and ransacking foreign media outlets reporting on Israeli devastations which were by no means an act of self-defence.
Worldwide condemnation calling for war crimes trial of the Jew State Leadership, including the forceful Turkish and Pakistani Foreign Ministers additionally requiring the World Body to deploy an International Force to secure safety of Palestinians and their land, and expressing their indignation and contempt for those supporting the Zionist State Administration, followed up by sending of relief supplies are no recompense and nothing beyond symbolic gesture.
It is hypocrisy of the worst order for the US and others in the Developed world to offer help reconstruction after slyly witnessing the devastation.
What succour can they provide to those who have not just been rendered homeless but deprived of their near and dear ones for no crime! One wishes these champions of human dignity endure the same fate one day.
Most Arab States whose lands were usurped by Israel in 1967 have acquiesced to accept the hegemony of their demi-gods, hoping that their oil riches stashed mostly in the US Mainland would remain secure.
One may not live to see the day but mark my words; these riches like the oil which has been siphoned off by the US under its OPEC conduits will never return to them, as the moment they try to retrieve any heavy sums, their accounts will be frozen.
They are between the devil and the deep sea, and their goose is cocked if they do not see the writing on the wall.
The only option left to them is to unite under the banner of the Ummah to defeat the enemies of Islam.
The Jew State acting the way it has against the Palestinians, emulated by India in its occupied Muslim territories of the State of Jammu and Kashmir has been in accordance with the greater Israel plan drafted by the US in concert with Tel Aviv.
It is a shame that most of the Arabs whose lands have been usurped since 1967 have buckled down to establish ties with the usurper instead of forging unity in their ranks and looking to the Almighty for grace and sustenance against the enemies of Islam.
Tell me one instance in which these Imperialists who carved a State of East Timor out of Indonesia for the Christian minority overnight, have practically come to their rescue; be it Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the UAE or for that matter Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.
Raising an ostensibly Islamic Security Force under Saudi patronage but actually sowing discord and creating further fissures among Muslim nations by excluding those following the Shia Sect, pitching Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians against their fellows in their own countries, what right of self-defence was the United States or for that matter the NATO Forces exercising accounting for thousands of lives in Afghanistan and still looking to entrench in its neighbourhood.
This time, the International media in view off worldwide condemnation of the Zionist act was compelled to report the indiscretion, which for the consumption of the gallery, forced a ceasefire decision upon the Israeli Cabinet, but not before it had achieved its objectives of doing what they wished in the 11-day carnage caring a damn for world opinion and serving a warning that whosoever sought to interfere in its sinister expansionist plans, would meet the same fate as those in Gaza.
This underscores the importance of media in this fifth generation warfare, realized by Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia among those vocal countries standing against discrimination of Islamic nations.
Rather than chicken out of their plans of launching a joint media channel to express the voice of the Islamic world and strengthen the voice of the Ummah under Saudi pressure at the command of the US, they must seize the initiative and take measures to speedily implement the plan.
In response to the act of undeterred Zionist barbarism, while reaching relief goods to the devastated Gaza inhabitants whose hearths and homes have been brazenly razed to the ground rendering the homeless is our moral responsibility, take my word, the United Nations will do nothing beyond the cosmetic condemnation and at best generate a fund for rehabilitation.
It is time for the Islamic world to wake up in self-interest, and not suffice in mere resolutions of condemnation, ritualistic demonstrations and burning effigies of the enemy.
Economic boycott of Israel by Islamic nations under an OIC declaration is the least among practical steps that need to be taken by them.
In post-script, had Pakistan pursued its Kashmir cause from the very outset with the same vigour and gusto as shown for Palestine and rallied support from nations of the world looking for equity and justice, Kashmir may well have seen its freedom much earlier.
But if the UN continues its double standards, a revisiting of the post-League of nations script may well be on the cards.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
