In the last week alone, one hundred and seventy-two Palestinians – mostly civilians, women and children – have been slaughtered by Israeli bombs and they (the Palestinians) have only a few damaged buildings to show for their efforts. What is more disheartening is the fact that the Israeli government and their supporters- mainly America – keep calling the raids self-defence. Against whom are they defending themselves? Are they defending themselves against Palestinian stones and old and outdated rockets?
The question one may ask is, why is America so petrified of the Jews to an extent that whatever the Jews do is fine by them. When they rain bombs on poor civilians killing hundreds of women and children, they brand it self-defence. But when the Palestinians kill one Jew, it is branded terrorism. What actually is terrorism in the first place? The Israeli Government has made it clear that they want to use their fighter planes to scare the Palestinians into stopping their miserable rocket attacks. If that is not terrorism then please, someone tell me what is?
Israel was formed not more than half a century ago and is now the most powerful country in that entire region. This is largely because of the fact that America gives them billions in not only economic but military aid as well. The entire aid that America gives to the rest of the world put together is still less than half of what they give to Israel. The Israelis use the holocaust that took place in the Second World War to justify every attack they launch against the Palestinian civilians. Whatever they do is hailed as defending themselves from attacks and not wanting to endure what happened to them again. Are the Israelis the only ones who have ever been wronged in the history of the world? If anything, the African continent suffered a worse fate in the hands of the West than what the Israeli suffered. Is anyone thinking about the atrocities committed against the black race during the slave trade? The scars of that are still fresh in the minds of the black people of the world but they carry it stoically about and work for their progress.
The Israelis should stop crying foul and start behaving like grownups and not like a scared child who runs to his father anytime his age mate raises a hand against him. In fact, not everyone agrees that the holocaust took place or that it was as bad as it is made to sound. But no one, and I mean no one, ever doubts the reality of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which destroyed millions of lives of the black race. Truth be told, the main reason people still talk about the holocaust is the fact that the media continues to brand as anti-Semitic anyone who says something even remotely offensive to the Jews. Talking about the media, they are indeed the real culprits in this heinous terror against the Palestinian people. It is the media that the politicians in America are so scared of that they never seem to find the courage to take the right stand and do the right thing. Politicians in America are held ransom by the media moguls – who happen to be Jews – that they neither take the correct stand nor do anything meaningful towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.
There are those who blame the violence on the Palestinians like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and say that they should stop the violence so as to have a better chance at a peaceful resolution to the problem. But, just think for a minute, of a person who has been driven from his home and is restricted from doing any of the things that we take for granted – going to school, going to watch a football match, going to the cinema or even going to the mosque to pray – what do you think will come to the mind of such a person, especially if all these restrictions are done using the law and he has nowhere else to go to for redress. The situation in South Africa comes to mind here because even though Nelson Mandela was an advocate of peace, when all legal channels were closed to him he had to go to the jungle and train as a soldier so as to take the fight to another level. I am not in any way advocating for suicide bombing as that is against the teachings of Islam but just opening the debate to what the Palestinians should do as sitting and waiting for the UN Resolutions is out of the question. The UN is a toothless bulldog which can neither harm nor benefit anyone so long as the unjust veto system is in place. How many UN Resolutions about this conflict has America vetoed to date? The answer to this question will be most shocking to many people in the world. America is what I will call Resident Evil today for better or for worse!
The rest of the Arab world is also to blame in this issue. Most of the Arab countries are allies of Israel; I mean, can you even begin to fathom that! A state that is thrown in the middle of these Arab countries, massacring hundreds of women and children (Arabs) and still it is the ally of most of them. In my opinion, the Arab countries could have ended this terrorism (the Israeli terrorism) long ago by simply threatening an oil embargo. With that, America and her allies will compel Israel to stop bombing civilians and they would have done it long ago. Alas! Where is the unity and political will to do that?
By Musa Bah (Tha Scribbler), a published novelist and poet is a teacher at Nusrat Senior Secondary School
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