Medieval Carnage in Modern Times

Published in The Daily Star, January 17, 2009

Bangladesh's Permanent Representative in Geneva described the recent and continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza “medieval carnage in modern times” in a special session of the UN Human Rights Council called to discuss the continued massacre of Gazans, including women and children, by the Israeli armed forces. Voices of condemnation of Israel's actions have resonated round the world but to no avail as Israel seems hell bent to annihilate Hamas' ability in future to launch rocket strikes inside Israeli territory no matter what it takes.

Israel and Hamas had been observing a tenuous six months long cease fire brokered by the Egyptians in July last year. In a debate similar to which came first, the chicken or the egg, Israel and Hamas have accused each other for breaking the cease fire which in any case had ended on December 19th with little hope of being extended. Hamas blamed Israel for not lifting the blockade of Gaza while Israel blamed Hamas for rocket attacks inside Israel. In fact, under the leadership of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Israel used the lull in fighting since July last year to draw a well thought out plan to take out Hamas' ability to launch rocket attacks on Israeli cities permanently. Two dates were uppermost in the minds of the Israeli leadership in launching its current onslaught on Gaza that has been named Operation Cast Lead. First, Israel needed to complete the task under President Bush's watch, which is ending on January 20th, because during his entire tenure his administration has given Israel a blank cheque to resolve the Palestinian problem militarily. Second, the Israeli Government wanted to take out Hamas' rocket-launching ability for good ahead of elections in Israel scheduled next month.

There is another reason for the Gaza carnage. Hamas has been branded a “terrorist organization“ by Israel as it does not recognize the state of Israel and has been fighting the Israeli occupation by all means available. In accusing Hamas, a pro-Israel international press has not acknowledged the fact that Hamas militants have been fighting for freedom of their motherland from foreign occupation. Furthermore, in 2006, they also won a democratic parliamentary election in Palestine but they have not been allowed a share of power because Israel, supported by the US, made it impossible for Hamas parliamentarians to take their legitimate seats in the Palestinian parliament that forced them to capture power in Gaza. In recent times, Hamas has been signaling that it wanted diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the border June 1967, which has international consensus behind it. This would however mean dismantling of Israeli settlements in occupied lands as well as giving part of Jerusalem to the independent state of Palestine that Israelis do not want under any circumstances. Israel is concerned that a new US administration would find it difficult to reject a PLO/Hamas joint effort for diplomatic solution along the 1967 border and with this apprehension in mind, Operation Cast Lead has been initiated, not for creating “deterrence” to Hamas' rocket launching abilities but for dismantling Hamas for good.

The Israeli carnage in Gaza has been ferocious and inhuman in terms of slaughter of innocent civilians and the worst onslaught on Palestinians on record. In the name of drawing out Hamas militants and their military abilities Israelis have bombed schools, mosques and hospitals that are recognized as safe under all international conventions related to military engagements on the plea that Hamas has used these as “human shields”. Israel has also used white phosphorous on civilians in violation of 1980 Geneva Treaty. The carnage has so far resulted in over 900 deaths on the Palestinian side, including over 200 children. On the Israeli side, only 13 have been killed, including 4 from “friendly fire”.

The Israelis have argued that they have dropped leaflets warning Gazans not to allow Hamas militants use them, their houses, their schools, etc for launching rockets into Israel and to flee to avoid Israeli reprisal in case they cannot help it. Of course, Israel's arguments are extremely weak and do not stand up to any rational analysis. Gaza is a small strip of 360 square miles where 1.5 million people live, surrounded by Israel on all sides except for a small part on the south where it borders Egypt, which too is under strict Israeli surveillance. Gaza has an opening to the sea on the west but that too, including her airspace, is controlled by the Israelis. Hence to say that they have asked Gazans to flee from Hamas is like causing an injury and then spreading salt on it. The Israelis have carried their military attacks in full knowledge that they would be killing innocent people but still they went ahead as their intention is to terrorize Gazans to submission. The conflict can thus only be described as one of David against Goliath and has rightly been condemned all around the world, including from many Jewish groups. The Gaza carnage has graphically highlighted the hell in which 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and 2.5 million Palestinians in West Bank live as a direct consequence of Israel's occupation. In the West Bank Israelis have built a wall to keep them in conditions worse than jail.

At the UN, the outrage of the world did not have much impact. The Security Council adopted a toothless resolution that has been rejected by Israel with contempt, and by Hamas as it made them appear aggressors whereas they feel they are the victims. President-elect Barak Obama, whom the world has begun to accept as a harbinger of a new era of morality and rationality to international politics after his predecessor had turned the world on its head, has disappointed many by his inability to condemn Israel. Those who had considered his overtly pro-Israel stand in the period leading to the November 4th elections as an act of necessity to appease the Jewish lobby in USA for its stranglehold on media and finance are now concerned and dismayed that his sympathies may be for real. There is also little hope for Palestinians to look towards the next US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose husband President Bill Clinton had shown quite a degree of fairness towards the Palestinians, for some support because her foreign policy adviser is former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk who holds extremely pro-Israel views and is among those mentioned as a potential Special Envoy to the Middle East.

President-elect Obama's silence over the Gaza carnage has also sent wrong signals to the Arab world, most importantly to Egypt and Jordan. Countries that have supported rapprochement with Israel to bring the Palestinian problem to a peaceful solution that has the best chance of resolution based on a two-state solution, an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel. Egypt fears that she will be forced to absorb Gazans on her borders while Jordan fears Israel will push Palestinians from West bank to create a similar situation for her that could undermine their peace treaties with Israel with dangerous consequences. The mood of the ordinary folks in the Arab streets has been enraged by the Gaza carnage. Thus when Barak Obama sits in the Oval Office for the first time, the ground reality in the Middle East would be a very difficult one for him to seriously seek a resolution of the Palestinian conflict upon which the success or failure of the war on terror rests to a large extent.

Bangladesh's Permanent Representative has hit the nail in the coffin with his statement at the Council for Human Rights. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also condemned the Israeli atrocities in strong terms. Will those who matter in world politics, the US in particular, pay heed? If not, dark days could be ahead for the way Israel has been allowed to carry out its carnage in Gaza unabated is bound to provide steam to those who look for a cause to carry out acts of terror and militancy in the name of Islam.