 |
| 28/12/2008 …For the Palestinians being massacred in the Gaza Strip, this is a déjà vu, especially that Arab leaders are in a hurry to hold a summit to address the Israeli attack…next Friday.
The UN Security Council on Sunday called in a non-binding statement, that neither mentioned Israel nor Hamas, for an immediate end to all “military activities” in the Gaza Strip and urged the parties to address the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
"No country would allow continuous rocketing of its civilian population without taking the necessary actions to stop it. Israel expects the understanding and support of the international community to its actions," Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev protested in a letter to the current president of the Security Council, Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica.
The United States agreed.
"We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Washington blesses the offensive but calls on Israel to avoid civilians, something the Zionist entity has failed to do since its creation on the corpses of Palestinians in 1948.
The Arab League is meanwhile mulling an “urgent meeting” to address the attack on Gaza, but the “League” is apparently not in a hurry. According to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, a meeting of AL Foreign Ministers is set to be held in Cairo Wednesday. The permanent representatives in the Arab League agreed to hold an “urgent” Arab summit in Doha next Friday. Sources told Al-Manar that the Egyptian representative expressed reservation with regards to the summit. Hussam Zaki, the spokesman of Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said that FM Ahmed Abul Gheit has been working with his Arab counterparts to hold an Arab FMs meeting during which discussions will take place into an urgent Arab summit and whether there is need for such summit or not!
And of course, the official stance in the Arab world is: We feel sorry for you.
During the “truce” between Israel and Hamas, the Zionist entity made hundreds of violations and killed well over 200 Palestinians. Dozens of rockets were fired at occupied territories in response.
Everytime the Israeli media reports rocket fire on settlements it further says that “the rockets caused little damage and no casualties.”
After Israel gained international and, unfortunately, Arab support for its bloody offensive, Foreign Minister chose Egypt to announce the beginning of "Operation Cast Lead" which killed 270 Palestinians in 24 hours.
It was until the offensive on Gaza began that an Israeli settler was killed in a Palestinian rocket attack. The Palestinians have no recourse but to defend themselves, and the makeshift rockets they fire are nothing compared to the world's most advanced warplanes and munitions, which the Israel army is using against them.
Anyone can see that the Israeli alleged response to rocket fire is disproportionate.
When the Aljazeera anchor was interviewing the Israel Army spokesman Saturday, she asked him: Haven’t you learnt yet that using force to stop rocket fire or achieve military gains is futile?
His response was: We’re acting in self-defense!
For self-defense, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has vowed Israel will expand its massive military offensive against Gaza.
But what goes in parallel?
Elections.
Israeli politicians have been under attack by the Israeli public for failing to deal with what they call “Hamastan”. Some Arab countries also share the Israeli public their opinion. The stunning victory of the internationally monitored democratic elections that led to Hamas’ control of Gaza was not pleasant news to Israel, the US, and many Arab leaders taking refuge under the so called umbrella of moderation. The obvious decision was first: to take Hamas down politically through boycott, discredit and putting behind bars its MPs, ministers and senior officials. When this failed, it was decided that Hamas should be toppled by the same people that brought it to power and so the blockade and suffering of three million people began with the blessing of the international community and the some Arab leaders on top of which were Egyptian leaders who kept the Rafah crossing closed. As this move also failed, Israeli officials were under extreme pressure as elections were looming. Military action became a must as it will benefit Zionist leaders and the axis of so called Arab moderate states that have been eager to empty the region from resistance movements as was the case in Lebanon in 2006.
Polls in Israel have shown that the gap between opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and other candidates has narrowed, after the former PM was in the lead because of his persistent calls to act militarily in Gaza.
Another possible factor that fostered Israel’s decision to launch its offensive was the near end of US President George W. Bush’s days in the White House, so Israel had to make use of Bush’s last days given the notion in Israel that President-elect Barak Obama is more disposed towards the Palestinians than Bush and therefore might not sanction a military strike when he takes office. |
No comments:
Post a Comment