Deciding what to write about in this month’s Owleye column on my blog, I had the general elections in India and the Israel-Gaza war as choices. Not having written about the Middle-East conflict for a few months, and with the war having taken a turn for the worse, the final decision was an easy one. The Indian elections are on in full swing and a column on it can wait until next month, when the results will be announced.
What is unfolding in the meantime in Gaza is horrific, as Israel plans for what it says is its final offensive: an attack on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza on the Gaza-Egypt border, where over a million Gazans are said to be holed up. Despite international warnings not to invade Rafah because it will create a humanitarian catastrophe and hell for civilians there, Netanyahu insists that they have to, in order to flush out Hamas. The Israelis say that they have created a safe evacuation zone, Al-Mawasi, within Rafah for Gazans, but I notice nobody in media reports is saying Gazans have been safely evacuated, except for Netanyahu. News reports use words such as fleeing, uprooted and the like to describe the situation on the ground.
The death toll of Palestinians killed in this seven-month long war has already crossed 35,000 according to media reports. And all the months of trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow aid to go through to Gaza have been fraught with violence and attacks on aid-workers as well. As I have been writing on my blog, America has lost its chance to use its leverage, the only country to have any over Israel. And Netanyahu thinks nothing of openly defying the US and the West, desperate as his regime must be to seem in control of the situation and to hang on to power. What irony then, that as the US completes the building of its much-touted floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza, the Gazans are not there to receive it. Worse, Israeli settlers are busy setting fire to aid convoys meant for Gazans.
In this completely one-sided and asymmetric war that has raged on for seven months, Gaza has been pummeled, its towns and cities razed to the ground, thousands of ordinary Gazans have lost their lives and there is no safe place to go to. Not even hospitals, which the IDF has attacked time and again. Who will bear responsibility for all this death and destruction, for thousands of Gazans being collateral damage in this war between Israel and Hamas? UN has been warning of a humanitarian catastrophe for sometime now, but with the world’s leading powers – notably the US – vetoing resolutions for a ceasefire, all that the international community can do is stand by and helplessly watch. No, not helplessly watch, for the US and western powers continue to help Israel with arms and ammunition.
How strange then it seems, to hear President Biden say that he will stop sending ammunition to Israel, if they enter Rafah. Isn’t it too late for this? And on the other hand, to also hear UK Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, say that stopping military assistance to Israel at this stage will only embolden Hamas.If statements like these are all that the international community can offer, are we to understand that finding a diplomatic and political solution is truly dead?
If confusion, indecision and lack of ideas and initiative reign among world leaders, the situation on ceasefire negotiations seems to be no better. Another draft ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt and Qatar seems to be floundering and it won’t be surprising if the Palestinians ditch it, because it doesn’t put Netanyahu under any obligation to call off his Rafah plan. As I write this, the Rafah operation is already under way. And TV news on CNN and BBC on May 15, 2024, spoke of a US$ 1 billion arms deal to Israel being discussed between Biden and the US Congress.
Nobody is talking about how to end this bloody and ugly war and go into a long and detailed negotiation for a political settlement on Palestine. The root of this and all the wars that have gone before this in the region. Serious discussions and negotiations are the only way to bring a semblance of enduring peace to the Middle-East region. Whether to send or hold back arms supplies to Israel, and whether to exchange hostages for prisoner releases will remain incidental as long as the main problem is sidestepped and not discussed. And while the world muddles along in this fashion, we are not merely losing the time and space for such a negotiation, we are losing precious lives. We are missing the wood for the trees.
I hate to say this, but with this Rafah offensive, my worst apprehensions and fears regarding this conflict have resurfaced: hounding Palestinians out of their home. The little-discussed sinister plan of Israel that I had referred to in one of my earlier blog posts, to eventually take over security of Gaza and resettle Palestinians in the Sinai Peninsula might be closer to reality than we think.
All along, the Gazans were told “Go south, go south!” Now that they are at the southernmost tip of Gaza, there is nowhere farther south to go to, except the Sinai Peninsula. Whether Israel finishes off Hamas or not, they might achieve their main objective. Only this time, through other means that the world might find more palatable.
The animated owl gif that forms the featured image and title of the Owleye column is by animatedimages.org and I am thankful to them.
Peripatetic Perch 