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From blitz to ceasefire

Yet another ceasefire is on the cards. With Israel silencing its guns after a week-long blitz over the occupied territories, the balance sheet is as follow: more than 200 killed and around 2,000 severely injured, hundreds of homes destroyed and dozens of families completely uprooted.

All this because three Israeli teenagers went missing and later their bodies were found from Hamas-led territories. The Jewish state thought that it is well within its right to retaliate, and it played havoc with thousands of lives. At the same time, it’s unbelievable that not a single eyebrow was raised over the atrocities and for the world community it was business as usual.

This tendency has buoyed Tel Aviv to return with more fire whenever it feels that it should penalise a dispossessed nation owing to its weak and disoriented leadership. With this episode of death and destruction going down as another footnote in the history of Palestinian-Israeli imbroglio, neither are there any tears to shed nor any remorse. It is apparent that this style of mayhem and walking away without much ado has become a norm for Israel, and there is no accountability, per se.

It is an embarrassment, rather capitulation, for the newly formed Unity Government of President Mahmoud Abbas, along with Hamas, that it was not in a position at all to stand fast as the tragedy evolved. Though it acted in compliance, it was snubbed and cornered to the wall. Other than keeping a log of casualties, the leadership couldn’t do much. This marginalisation of leadership in Hamas and Fatah blocs has cost the Palestinians too dearly, and it will continue to do so until Israel is accounted for its crimes and it is compelled to work for a two-state solution.

PLO veteran and executive committee chairman Hanan Ashrawi, commenting on the new onslaught, says that Palestine should be put under the United Nations protection. This she calls basic protection, as it will save them from such a barbaric treatment. Not only does this sounds too Utopian, but lacks an understanding of Israeli psyche. Tel Aviv hasn’t ever respected any resolution or mandate from the UN, and Blue Helmets had never been sacrosanct for the Jewish state. Similarly, her demand that the Arab nations and the world community should call for a UN resolution would only serve to shelve the intensity of the issue.

Ashrawi — who had led from the front in negotiating with the Israelis — should realise that international laws and conventions haven’t ever come to the rescue of Palestinians, and they had always lived a nomadic life under fear and destruction. The problem is that Israel had never been held accountable. The Goldstone report is a case in point. This new ceasefire mooted on Egyptian proposal should be read as a lull before another storm.