Israel defiles peace moves with evil deeds

Every single Israeli step towards peace is questionable. Every single Israeli gesture for peace is doubtful. And every single Israeli promise for peace is unreliable.

It is Israel's quest for dominance, its adoption of aggression, and its embrace of violence that brings into questioning its true intentions for a just and lasting peace with the Palestinians.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza has witnessed the latest Israeli belligerence against innocent Palestinians civilians. The air raid on a house claimed the lives of six Palestinians, including four children ages one-and-a-half to five years as well as their mother.

The family's morning breakfast turned into mourning, for Israeli shells do not distinguish daylight from night; neither do they recognise disarmed children from armed militants.

The Israeli arsenal of sophisticated weaponry is blind to the age range of its victims as much as the activity they are involved in when the merciless firing is unleashed. But what it detects best is the nationality of its victims - Israeli weapons never fail to identify their Palestinian victims.

The deaths in Beit Hanoun could only question Israel's belief in a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians. This is being said as different Palestinian groups come together for an Egyptian sponsored meeting to discuss various possibilities to reach a ceasefire with Israel.

"This aggression does not serve efforts being exerted to achieve calm, and it obstructs the peace process," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

As Middle East envoy Tony Blair awaits Israel's response to his list of West Bank travel and trade restrictions, he should instead question Israel of its actions towards the gradual annihilation of Palestinian lives.

A blind belligerence undermines all peace prospects and those who are now in mourning should not be blamed when their grief turns into revenge.