Arabs should rise to the challenge

The wanton Israeli aggression against the mostly besieged civilian population of Gaza is an affront to the whole world. More than 1,200 Gazans have been killed and close to 6,000 injured, almost half of them women and children, by the war machine of the Jewish state. The massacre of the people of Gaza has galvanised masses throughout the globe against Israel and its awkward policies. Millions took to the streets in all four corners of the world to express their infuriation at Israeli atrocities which they see on their television screens.

This is an onslaught on a whole population which should be condemned in the strongest terms, and the international community should call on Israel to stop it immediately.

What is most alarming is the Israeli military tactics. They target civilians, and do not even spare mosques, homes, hospitals or health clinics. Even UN operated schools and UN food and medicine warehouses were bombed repeatedly. Israel goes as far as using prohibited white phosphorous and other banned weapons in its war against mostly civilians in Gaza. Such suffering prompted Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, to describe the death toll as unbearable.

The most devastating critique came from Miguel D'Escoto, President of the UN General Assembly, who lectured Israel on atrocities which it is committing in Gaza. "It seems to me ironic that Israel, a state that, more than any other owes its very existence to a General Assembly resolution, should be so disdainful of United Nations resolutions," he said. He also added, "[Israeli] Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert's recent statement disavowing the authority of Security Council resolution 1860 clearly places Israel as a state in contempt of international law and the United Nations."

That resolution called for an "immediate and durable ceasefire" in Gaza. So far, both Israel and Hamas have rejected it.

All these crimes have to be documented and Israel has to be brought before a tribunal to indict its political and military leaders for perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In my last column, I warned that one of the intended or unintended consequences of the Israeli killings in Gaza is inflaming feelings of revenge and strengthening the hardliners as well as marginalising the moderates. Israel's indiscriminate actions will also embarrass and weaken the West's allies and fan the flames of more hardliners and avengers.

The cracks in Arab solidarity have manifested in the divergence of views and the attacks on Egypt in particular for refusing to cave in and open the Rafah crossing.

The more the fighting drags on, the more likely the civilian death toll will rise. Fissures in Arab solidarity will widen and the gap between the two Arab camps, the moderates and the radicals will widen.

The collective Arab response to Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip has been polarised and fragmented. There's been a plethora of Arab summits competing with each other.

The Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh; a summit in Doha for the leaders who feel "the streets and the [Arab] people's pulse" as Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian President, boasted at the summit; and the scheduled Kuwait summit of the Arab Economic and Development forum which was preempted by the war on Gaza and forced major changes in its focus and agenda. There are generous donations topping $2 billion.

All these competing summits for the moderates and the less moderates have one aim - to rescue Gaza and push for an end to the Israeli aggression. But the untold story here is, we are witnessing a manifestation and another indication of Arabs' impotence emasculation and disunity which has become a trade mark in times of crises.

I find myself in agreement with a Gulf News editorial which said: "The great display of disunity among Arab countries with regard to the current onslaught in Gaza is disgraceful. In fact, the stark divisions in their opinions reflect a disappointing stance at a time of grave crisis. Gaza simply could not tolerate any of these divisions".

These disagreements were alive and well in the last few days. The moderate axis thwarted one of their member states, Qatar from hosting an Arab emergency summit on the Israeli aggression in Gaza. That summit went ahead but it was diluted into a meeting of mostly the rejectionist camp, where the Iranian and Syrian presidents were in attendance along with representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance factions.

Conspicuously absent was the head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. What was telling was the absence of most of the axis of moderates. Qatar and Mauritania froze their trade and diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Qatar launched a fund and donated $250 million (Dh919.5 million) to the Gazans. The Syrian President called for severing all ties, while the Iranian President called for bringing the Israeli leadership to account for their war crimes in Gaza.

Arab impotence when it comes to rising up to the challenges posed by Israel has to end now. A couple of years ago it was Lebanon; today it is Gaza and the Palestinians, tomorrow another victim will be slaughtered which undermines not only that country's and its people's national security and wellbeing but the national security of the entire Arab world.

When will the Arabs rise to the challenges and get their acts together to stand up to Israel and deter its reckless and wanton massacres?

Dr Abdullah Al Shayji is a Professor of International Relations and the Head of the American Studies Unit, Kuwait University.