The unholy war and death of conscience: the story of Gaza strip – BY Dr. BOBBY SRINIVASAN

August 4, 2014 | Posted by bobbysrinivasan << back to blog

The recent developments in the Gaza strip bring to the attention of the civilized world that how humaneness has ended and annihilation of the harmless human beings through fire bombs is in full force. A strip of land measuring approximately 360 kilometres with 1.8 million Palestinian citizens living is being carpet bombed by the arrogant and militarily superior Israel. This has resulted in the death as of date of over 1900 men, women and children and wounding 12,000. For those currently living in Gaza strip, the bell is tolling and they are awaiting their turn to be massacred by the Israeli army.

Currently, 2.5 lakh Palestinians in Gaza are now in shelters. The UN has run out of resources and is in its last legs as far as food and medicine supplies go.

Pierre Krahenbuhl of UNRWA made a heart rending statement about the current situation and I quote, “children are killed in their sleep. This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today, the world stands disgraced.”

Israeli bombing has already destroyed the only power plant. This will impact the water purification process, food storage and the sewage. The United Nation Council appealed to Israel a few days back to stop the bombing and to accept an “immediate and humanitarian ceasefire” and this has fallen it in to deaf-ears.

Who can stop the holocaust? None in the world. The ceasefire plan, lasting 72 hours brokered with Qatar and Turkey has already failed and the bombing has since resumed. Now the war has deepened significantly. The bombing by the Israeli planes and drones have gone deep into the territory and covering the entire Gaza strip. The secret tunnels which the Palestinians built over the last 50 years through which food and people moved into Egypt in times of war have all been unearthed and destroyed. The Israeli government has vowed “peace or no peace”, the tunnels must go. So, the Israeli army sent a battalion of 17000 troops to do this job and they have made significant progress. The army expects to destroy all of them before they return back to Israel.

The American secretary of state, Mr. Kerry has been trying hard to bring about an acceptable peace plan but with Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, a hard liner, who has neither the compunction nor the qualms, is not possible. When asked whether he is bothered about the US intervention, he is supposed to have said, “not at all, especially today with America. America is something that can easily be moved. 80% of Americans support us. We have that kind of support.” Seventy-nine of the 100 US senators supported the US Israel strategic partnership act which will allow far more arms to be delivered to Israel in the event of a war. The US political class, despite the abuses from Tel Aviv seems eager to support the Israeli government war initiative with all its means namely politically, and economically. So you see, the average Palestinians, namely, men, women and children have nowhere to turn to and live day by day in perpetual fear of being killed or maimed.

The entire world is watching this inhuman act in horror. India has shown scant respect to this human suffering. We have leaders who are so overwhelmed by local politics and seemed to close their eyes and hearts to this human misery. UK ambassador, Sir Mark Lyall made a statement which shows how he is reflecting the global thinking. He said and I quote, “the people of Israel have the right to live without constant fear for their security, but the people of Gaza also have the right to live in peace.”

Finally, the Hamas leader is a proud, egoistic man. Death of innocent women and children don’t move him emotionally. He is unconcerned about how difficult it will be for Gaza to recover after the war and its destruction. His ego is satisfied. He reminds me of Hitler in the last few years of his life when he invaded Russia knowing well that his soldiers will die of hunger and extreme cold. For those who don’t believe that history repeats itself, this should be an eye-opener. For the number of innocent children, it is a life of permanent despair and destruction. One can aptly describe the situation in a couplet by an English writer, Jane Austen in Emma, and I recall,

“Fully many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its fragrance in the desert air.”

For India, our scriptures – Mahabharata talked about it long ago. In that epic, justice won and in the Gaza strip war will it be the case. Only time will tell.

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