Gaza is on fire again. And Israel is crying wolf again. All this is just three days after US President Barack Obama assured Benjamin Netanyahu of ‘unshakeable support' and hinted that the Israelis can easily violate all international laws to ‘defend' their interests.
The green light given by the world's sole superpower and Israel's precious ally can clearly be seen behind the unprovoked Israeli air strike which tore apart a Palestinian popular activist's car, killing him and his son-in-law. The assassination was followed by 10 other strikes. At least 14 Palestinians were killed by yesterday afternoon.
Israel's justification for killing those men is sheer nonsense. It is simply the arrogance of a government — run by right-wing lunatics threatening to drag the region into another conflict — that led to the weekend killings.
The Palestinians have the right to defend themselves. But they also need the help of all those who have been raising their voice, and investing their money, against the injustice and oppression in other parts of the Arab world.
Those western powers, particularly the United States, which have been putting a lot of pressure, including economic sanctions and severing diplomatic ties on Syria, need to exercise some of that pressure on Israel to stop killing Palestinians, release thousands of prisoners, halt land-grabbing and colony building in the West Bank, stop their racist policies in occupied Jerusalem, and come back to the negotiation table. But more urgently, Israel must stop this insane wave of air strikes.
Netanyahu must realise that the Palestinian cause remains the core Arab issue even though we have been focusing on Syria and other Arab crises since the Tunisian revolution.
The Arabs might diverge on many issues but we all agree on one — the just Palestinian cause. If the Israelis think the Arabs would simply ignore the plight of Gaza, they better think again.
