Yet Another War on Palestine
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
While these words are being written the relentless pounding of Gaza has stopped and a peace deal has been adopted. According to news reports Benjamin Netanyahu has proclaimed that he is willing to give cease-fire a chance. The posture accepted also fits in with the Israeli strategy.
The Israelis have shown that there is nothing that can stop their command of supremacy over the skies of Gaza. This fact is widely believed except perhaps in the Arab world. Anytime they want to they can freely operate over the skies pretty much at will.
To this point no one knows the casualties inflicted but it is widely believed that close to 200 Palestinians have died with 4 Israelis. Countless Palestinians have fled the scene but they have nowhere to go.
For several days the Israeli tanks have been ready for invasion across the border. Once the border is crossed many more Palestinian deaths will certainly occur, perhaps leading into the hundreds if not thousands. We all know that Palestinians, or for that matter Arabs, generally can’t fight from what we have seen in the past wars.
Traveling in Southeast Asia Obama laid the blame on the Palestinians for causing the war. There would have been no war if the rockets had not been fired from Gaza. Because of the rockets Israel had to retaliate.
Obama mentioned several times that Israel has the right to defend itself. According to international law any country has the right to self-defense. Those countries under occupation are not even mentioned, but my guess is that they are expected to roll-over and play dead. However, an armed conflict is recognized as a legitimate means to getting rid of the occupier.
The Jewish members of the Congress made it their full time duty to lobby for Israel. The US Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution to support Israel and to declare that they have the right of self-defense.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been talking about this war for several days and was maneuvering itself for the action taken. The narrative of this war was written and articulated by him to lay the blame on the Arabs. In the world councils, where peace is negotiated, the Palestinians are seen as the guilty party.
I have yet to hear a Palestinian speak on this issue. No Palestinians have appeared on TV, or written an opinion piece in a prominent newspaper. On the other hand, Netanyahu has spoken several times and each time his words have gotten more and more belligerent. His words are picked up by the media in Tel Aviv spoken in a language, with American accent, that Americans can understand.
On the Palestinian side there is no one to do the same. Whatever language they choose to speak the content comes out in a garbled form. In fact, very few of the Palestinians are capable of speaking English in any form. Consequently, they are left high and dry.
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