M Saad
Israeli strikes have so far killed more than 1600 people in Gaza
By 1946, Israel was a tiny, scattered nation on the world’s map hanging by the Mediterranean littoral that relied largely on foreign aid to manage its affairs. Today, the Jewish nation is synonymous with power, military prowess and swaggering diplomacy and is clearly bestriding the Middle East, where the majority of Arab nations are subservient to its policies due to its growing influence in the region. This nation is well-poised to make the world polycentric by becoming the second greatest power on earth after the United States.
The present retaliatory strikes of Israel on the long-blockaded Gaza Strip and gun battles in border towns come fifty year after the sixty-hour of combat that we know as Arab-Israel war of 1967, which began when Egypt under the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser occupied Sharm El Sheikh and blocked the Straits of Tiran despite the insistence of the United States and Britain to keep it open to all shipping. This made the conflict inevitable. Nasser automatically became the leader of an embattled Arab world that had been defeated a decade earlier in the 1957 Arab-Israel war.
The war ended in a matter of days with the majority of damage to military equipments of Arab nations, despite the fact the Arab side had 1200 tanks to match 800 of Israel, which still had Washington as a friend for all seasons. Nasser had the support of Syria and Jordon and the Soviet assurance of support, which never came. However, the victory of Israel was sealed in the air on the authority of superb French fighting planes in the hands of brilliantly trained pilots (who knows if they were Israeli, American or French pilots). What hurt Arab nations most was their negligence— they waited for the enemy to strike first. The Israelis managed to destroy 350 grounded aircrafts on the first day, which is considered one of the greatest achievements in modern history of war with the Jewish nation still in its infancy ending up occupying Sinai and Gaza.
Back to the present, the images emerging from Gaza are heart-wrenching to say the least as in the case of any war, the worst sufferers are innocent civilians. And that to me is the harshest reality of warfare. The ongoing war has brought back the memories of 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza that left thousands of homes in rubble and over 2,310 people dead, according to official figures. The western media in particular has always been biased when it comes to all matters concerning Israel. It has always shown the country as a victim, sweeping under the carpet, all the atrocities subsequent Israeli governments have unleashed over the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, for decades.
Mohammad Omer, a Palestinian journalist put it aptly, when he wrote, “Israeli security nearly always stands as priority in the media. We hear of the need for the security of Jewish settlers, security of Israeli military personnel, security of Israeli police and security of Israeli diplomats — but no one ever addresses the security of millions of Palestinians under constant attack or expelled from ancestral homes and land well-tended and cherished for millennia, prior to the state of Israel in 1948. This absence of recognition — or selective ignorance — feeds and reinforces the oppression experienced by millions of Palestinians. Very few in the mainstream media ever talk about the right of the people of Gaza to defend ourselves, or even just to exist. After all we are not the ones with the navy, air force, army and nuclear weapons.”
With Israel adamant on laying a siege to Gaza and cutting off all supplies (electricity, food, water and fuel) to the “open-air prison” as we know it, it is likely the death toll would continue rise with the world watching the ‘spectacle’ on their television screens as the battle between the “right” and the “wrong”; the “powerful” and the “miserable” continue to rage. There will only be one outcome of this war and that would be in favour of the side which has economic, military and political power to prevail.
The present conflict stoked by ill-equipped Palestinian militia’s breach into Israeli territories coupled by rocket strikes can turn into a grim situation for the global economy which is grappling with the rising crude oil prices, if other Middle Eastern nations intervened, which is as unlikely as the Quranic birds “Ababeels” emerging upon the Arab skies to change the outcome of war by dropping stones on the enemies. The Arab disunity on the issue of Palestine is the main cause of genocides against Palestinians that occur on a regular basis. The prolonged injustices in occupied Palestine, and miserable lives of traumatised people of Gaza, who have been rejected as mere terrorists, mean nothing to the world because the majority of minds are controlled by the mainstream media owned by Zionists. To call them terrorists is unfair as resistance against oppression is after all, the natural right of man if we go by the prevailing western thought during the French Revolution. Liberty, safety and prosperity are natural rights of all human beings, and of Palestinians as well.
The Palestinians are fighting for the land where for over 1400 years Christianity, Judaism and Islam coexisted with harmony. After defeating the Byzantines in the year 636, the Muslims under the leadership of Rashidun caliph Umar ibn Khattab had allowed Jews to enter the holy city of Jerusalem for the first time in 500 years, where now they could worship.
In this war, as in all previous Israeli assaults, the balance of power is in favour of Israel because the nation has legitimised its occupation of Palestine over the decades and has support of the United States. The growing Israeli influence in the Middle Eastern geopolitics has made Arab nations its silent allies and the cause of Palestine is seemingly lost on the agendas of these rich nations competing among themselves for supremacy in the region.
If we are to go by the history of conflicts in occupied Palestine, Israel will not stop until it has achieved its objectives, which this time is the siege of the Gaza Strip. The United States and Russia (formerly Soviet Union) have historically sided with one war party — Americans with Israelis and Russians with Arabs. These nations have barely intervened in the regional conflicts in the Middle East barring the yet-to-be concluded Syrian war. Preventing war or keeping the peace is a complex process as can gauged by the past conflicts in Palestine, where the worst crimes on humanity have been persistent for decades. Will any powerful nation come to the rescue of the people of Gaza? Answer is no. Because history is repeating itself. What was done to Jews in Europe is being done to the Palestinians at present. Gas chambers have been replaced by raining rockets. Everywhere in occupied Palestine Muslims are being persecuted. When will this conflict end no one can predict — it is the great contingency.
The political settlements in Palestine as was expected have brought prosperity to Israelis alone. The objective pertaining to the status of Jerusalem has been partially accomplished. And Israel has had the unrelenting support of the developed world. But the cause of Palestine has been long-forgotten and the prolonged injustice still persists — we must if we cannot do anything else as human beings respect the resilience and self-determination of the Palestinians who have suffered for generations due to Israeli occupation and oppression. We must not turn our backs to their unrelieved despair or turn deaf ears to the cries of their children. For they too are humans like us who have been deprived rights to live with dignity as human beings.
Originally published as Dispatch from Delhi
Also published on Medium.
