Any time Israel commits atrocities in the Occupied Territories, the first reaction by the international community (led by the United States) is this: Israel has the right to defend itself. This assertion paves the way for "official statements" from Western governments. It has become an automated response. On the Arab side, we generally get a few days of silence, before any condemnation.
If only United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon didn't speak of Israel's brutalities in Gaza. At least, he would have avoided showcasing the glaring bias of the international community. Instead, he predictably started off with the declaration that Israel has the right to defend itself before going on to condemn Tel Aviv's disproportionate and excessive use of force.
Don't the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves from Israel's brutal and indiscriminate killings? Gaza remains under occupation; any country or region under occupation has a right to defend itself; the Gazans don't have the military power to fight back. So when Ban should bear that in mind while calling for both sides to stop the violence.
And what of the American reaction? As sponsors of peace and hosts to the last peace summit (in Annapolis), surely the US administration should have reacted immediately, instead of waiting for three days before releasing a statement calling for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian violence! Most American news headlines referred to Israeli killings of unarmed Palestinian civilians as "clashes".
This is becoming intolerable; what we can gather is that the occupier (Israel) and the occupied (the Gaza Strip) are being treated as equals by the international community in a very unequal situation. There is no comparison at all between the fire power of Israel and the Palestinians - a fact that is being totally ignored. And it is precisely this oversight that enables the Jewish state to behave the way it wants to.
Isolated and helpless
Lest we forget, Israel launched an offensive, which involved ground troops, air strikes, "targeted" assassinations and constant shelling, in order to stop a few rockets being fired from Gaza. That is a full-fledged war against an imprisoned people whose own leadership (based in the West Bank) stands isolated and helpless.
The sad reality is, we haven't seen the end of the Israeli aggression. Even though the Israeli army has started to withdraw from Gaza, the deputy defence minister, Matan Vilani, publicly warned last Friday that his country will have "no choice" but to invade Gaza if Palestinians step up rocket attacks. Vilani went on to say that Palestinians risked a shoah, the Hebrew word for a big disaster, which is normally used to denote the Nazi Holocaust. On Sunday, Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said an even broader offensive was on the cards, which he hoped would once and for all, get rid of Gaza's rulers - Hamas.
A massacre in Gaza has already happened; more than 100 people have been killed by Israel in the past five days. Half the casualties of this onslaught are civilian, including women, children and babies.
The question that begs itself is: what would reoccupying Gaza achieve for Israel? Would it guarantee "security"? Would it further isolate Hamas? Would it finally push the Palestinians to surrender to the occupation? The answer to all these questions is no. On the contrary, Israel's latest crimes will only bolster support for Hamas, and the resistance in general. In fact, perhaps the person who will suffer the most from what has happened may turn out to be Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who seems to have been abandoned by his American and Israeli counterparts, without any answers for his crying people.
Moreover, the latest crimes in Gaza have exposed the true character of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who claims to be committed to ending his country's occupation of the Palestinian territories and working towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict. His government is weakened.
Hamas has emerged as the sole representative of the Palestinian resistance. On the other hand, Israel's brutalities - inflicted casually on the Palestinians - have reached new heights. Unless there is serious action taken by the international community, Israel will not move towards peace.
