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The blitz and the deaths

With more than 600 dead and still counting, the two-week manslaughter in Gaza has pushed more pressing upheavals in Iraq and Syria on the back burner.

Israeli intransigence has no limits. Moreover, the inherent policy of Israel to make Palestinians bleed and grab their lands has hindered resolution of disputes in the Middle East to this day, and no amount of honest brokerage has succeeded in setting in a thaw. Nor is the Jewish state listening to any international powers and calls for a ceasefire have once again fallen on a deaf ear. The million-dollar question is what’s next? The low-profile diplomacy initiated by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hasn’t made any difference, and it is quite surprising that its seriousness is not an item of debate in the power corridors of Tel Aviv.

Ban’s hobnobbing in several Arab capitals seemed to be more of a public relation affair than an attempt to save a dying nation. This apologetic attitude has buoyed Israel and motivated it to maim and discriminate the hapless Palestinians year after year. The American stand of expressing concern about Palestinian casualties but lending support to the Israeli military operation is hypocrisy. This will not result in scaling down the tension, lest a two-state solution that Washington so desperately wants to attain. Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks calling the indiscriminate bombardment and air strikes over Gaza as ‘appropriate and legitimate” are highly condemnable, and speak high of favouratism. Not different was the stand taken by the world body chief, who said that he “appreciated Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas”, but said restrictions on Gaza should be lifted “so that people should not resort to this kind of violence as a way of expressing their grievances”. This is unbecoming of the top UN diplomat.

The Obama administration’s inability to persuade or influence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow suit and further the peace process has come full circle. Now Tel Aviv, for all practical means, has achieved what it really wanted in the last many years, and that is to torpedo the achievements that negotiating teams from both the parties had so far achieved. Which is why the State Department’s deadline to broker a deal by June-end this year ended minus any progress. The latest blitz has only confirmed the notion that Israel is an expansionist state and believes in the erstwhile Nazi Germany policy of Lebensraum. As stated by the Israeli defence minister, the approach is to move from an Iron Dome to iron fist policy. And that is exactly what is happening over the occupied territories. At a time when militancy is on the rise in the Mideast, Israel is fanning more trouble for the region and the world at large.