The Palestinian Puzzle

The Israeli army is at it again, this time advancing into Gaza strip. The excuse as every time is to stop the terrorism. Two years before, it had advanced into Lebanon to quell the Hezoballah terrorism. Israel knows that it can aggress into Arab lands any time it so desires because no Arab country has the power to stop it. On the political front, the world supports Israel all the way or at best remains mute and tongue-tied on Israeli aggression.

The Western world has a guilty conscious about the Jews. Hitler’s holocaust had eliminated millions of defenseless jews. To mitigate its guilty consciousness, the Western world created Israel as an independent country for the jews. They didn’t do it in Europe where majority of the Israeli jews belonged; they did it in the occupied Palestine from where millions of Palestinians were permanently displaced to accommodate jews. This created the never-ending Arab-Israel problem.

Israel and the Western world has projected Israel as a peace loving country; they pretend that the Arabs are the trouble shooters who do not want peace with Israel, The reality is however quite complex. As long as there is no peace, Israel has the pretext to capture and annex Arab land. This gives Israel an opportunity to expand and it is continually expanding. Why would Israel want peace and stop expanding particularly when all the wars are fought on Arab land and all the devastation of property and human life occurs there? America goes all the way with Israel. The Europeans show sympathy to the victimized Palestinians and that is all they do – the lip-service. The lip-service though of little consequence is at least something in the face of the huge Israeli propaganda. Some of the Arab countries, though the wealthiest in the world, do not have the will nor the know-how to counteract the Israeli propaganda. At best, they are the laughing stock of the world.

However, some facts regarding the Israeli high-handedness do come to light in the western press occasionally. Writing how the president-elect Barack Obama should try to foster peace between Israel and the Arabs, Aaron David Miller (If Obama is Serious, Newsweek, January 12, 2009) wrote, “If Obama is serious about peacemaking, he’ll have to adjust that balance in two ways. First, whatever the transgressions of the Palestinians (and there are many, including terror, violence and incitement), he’ll also have to deal with Israel’s behavior on the ground. The Gaza crisis is a case in point. Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas. But does it make sense for America to support its policy of punishing Hamas by making life unbearable for 1.5 million Gazans by denying aid and economic development. The answer is no.�

This is a lukewarm and very guarded criticism of Israel. Very few seem to have the will to criticize Israel for its aggression and inflicting terror and death on the innocent civilians. Some years ago, Ted Turner had commented regarding the Arab suicide bombers saying, what else do they (Arabs) have to resist Israel. There was such a huge uproar mounted against Turner that he hastily withdrew his statement.

Miller (If Obama is Serious, Newsweek, January 12, 2009) continued his criticism writing, “Then there’s the settlement issue. In 25 years of working on this issue for six secretaries of state, I can’t recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity – including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions – does to the peacemaking process.�

Commenting on the possible outcome of the forthcoming Israeli elections, David Gavron (Israel’s Arabs are the Answer, Newsweek, January 12, 2009) observed, “Should he (Netanyahu) become prime minister once more, there will be no meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians.

Construction of the security fence and the expansion of jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories will continue, as will the extension of a massive infrastructure of roads, water pipes, power lines and military installations that will make the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state physically impossible.�

Why would Israel seek peace if it has to continue grabbing the Arab land? A peace will demarcate the boundaries of all the countries and make Israeli encroachment impossible.

Now consider the fact of the Israeli democracy which is so loudly vaunted by Israel and its western cronies. There are about 14 percent Arab voters in Israel. According to Gavron (quoted above), “These (Arab) citizens have full rights under Israeli law but have long felt like second-class citizens, and their political parties, though allowed in the Knesset, have been barred by tradition from joining coalition governments.� In other words, they don’t have any voice. So much for the democracy in Israel.

Will there be any end to Israeli aggression? Not until there is another Arab or pro-Palestine (Iran, for instance) power to stop Israel in its tracks. That is one reason that Israel doesn’t want Iran to go nuclear. The U.S. is committed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear country. This doesn’t bode well for the world peace. The U.S. and its western allies have exerted great economic pressure to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Such pressure and threats have not been effective so far. If at any stage, America or Israel opened a war front against Iran, the war may spill out and not remain essentially a middle eastern war.

To avoid such a catastrophe, the U.S. should better rein in Israel (or at least withdraw its unconditional support) while there is still time to preserve the world peace.