There is no forgiveness for the Israelis for what they did and are doing to Gaza. There is no excuse for this cruel and continuous collective punishment, and this siege that prevents food, drink, electricity, and medicine from children and adults, and is the culmination of a wave of ethnic cleansing of an epic calibre. There is nothing to mitigate the ugliness of Israel’s contribution to intensifying and renewing hatred among the peoples of the region and bringing it to unprecedented heights…
If the right to resist such actions is beyond doubt, it remains that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” was the only form of resistance that should not occur, nor should it be cheered.
Hamas fought a war that it began by killing and kidnapping civilians, and in its war it forced the civilians of Gaza without providing them with any of the conditions of a war that only an idiot would make a mistake in assuming its exceptional cruelty. It did not build shelters and fortifications, despite the fact that it has been the sole authority there since 2007, and despite the many wars that were previously fought between it and Israel, and even despite its continuous announcements that it will liberate Al-Aqsa.
There was no economic preparation imposed by a confrontation that was as radical as the “Al-Aqsa Flood” in its severance with donor countries. We know that the European Union is the main donor to Gaza, and that more than three-quarters of Gazan families receive food and cash aid from international organizations.
But what about the balances of power and alliances that can protect and fortify war?
Among the influential international parties, the American and European West, and with it India, took a position of almost absolute identification with Israel. Although the examples are too many to count, from visits by ministers and politicians to visits by aircraft carriers, the subsequent astonishment seems surprising as it comes from political language that has always linked the West to its “protégé” Israel.
On the other hand, the support expected from China and Russia, which we often praised for breaking American unilateralism, was absent. China promised to work with Egypt to push the warring parties to negotiate, and reminded of the “historical injustice” inflicted on the Palestinians. As for Russia, its President, Vladimir Putin, was interested in proving the failure of American policies in the world, and stressed that a “middle solution” must be sought. In general, Moscow and Beijing’s utmost support for the Hamas war is embodied in their refusal to condemn it.
What about the Islamic world? Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew wiser overnight. He combined his condemnations with an emphasis on “neutrality,” “reasonment,” and “mediation,” and recorded that the failure to bring essential materials into Gaza was “a disgrace on the forehead of whoever issued this decision.” As for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, their voice was not heard.
The Arab world, as we know well, is divided between countries mired in economic collapse and civil conflicts, and others that those who oppose them stigmatize as “participating in the normalization conspiracy.” As for the Arab League, in a formula it considered fair and conciliatory, it condemned the siege and the killing of civilians “on both sides.”
Palestine itself is politically divided, and even if the Ramallah authority wanted to support Hamas in Gaza, its hand would, for a thousand and one reasons, be tied.
In addition, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” came while Israel was experiencing the widest division it had known since its establishment in 1948. Thus, the military operation was responsible for stopping a transformation that could have led to possibilities that were difficult to determine in advance.
But the “Al-Aqsa Flood” did not completely lack supporters. In addition to Bashar al-Assad, whose airports in Damascus and Aleppo were bombed when he was showing solidarity, and Iraqi and Yemeni “factions” that expressed their willingness to fight, from their position in the mud of their internal conflicts, Iran, and its extension in Hezbollah, was the only serious source of support. However, Tehran’s contribution was limited to the first strike, that is, to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” itself, which was indeed impressive militarily and technically. But after that, when the need for “unity of the arenas” became severe, all the leaders of the arenas began to wait for the “appropriate time and place,” analyzing the “objective circumstances,” waiting for it to “mature” in one way or another.
Thus, even if we ignore all other considerations and focus exclusively on self-interest, we are left with a pressing question: Who would plan a strike like this without taking the aforementioned factors into consideration? Who is the author of the planning that does not give civilians, the Palestinians before the Israelis, any weight?
Most likely, two minds combined to bring us to this result: the mind of the Iranian regime, which buys and sells to the people of Gaza, and a Hamas mind in which the lightness of fundamentalist consciousness and the cruelty of totalitarian consciousness combine. While we were noisily celebrating a process that it would have been better to condemn with our minds, our consciences, and our sense of responsibility, but rather with the dictates of self-interest, the “civilized” brutality of Israel descended upon us, and the outcome of this tripartite convergence was the infliction of a disaster greater than the catastrophe of 1948 and the catastrophe of 1967 combined.
#…that #Israel #Iran #Hamas #annihilating #Gaza
2023-10-16 07:50:43
