It’s not that world leaders don’t know that Israel really broke the ceasefire of the last 6 months, assassinating 5 Hamas generals in November as part of their ongoing extra-judicial assassination campaign. It’s not that they don’t know that the people of Gaza have been slowly starved over the last year and a half by the Israelis. It’s not that US, EU and Arab leaders are not complicit already in the slow destruction of a country that was once twice as large as it is now. There is certainly enough information on the internet and around the world for public opinion to have swung long before now. The long list of injustices and cruelties since the creation of Israel in 1948 have, in fact been chronicled, and will show, eventually, that the decimation of Palestine was far more vicious, over a span of 60 years, than 10 Holocausts perpetrated on the Jews. The writings of independent observers and true humanitarians (not Jimmy Carter) will be a subject taught to school children in the near future, as examples of the worst among us, and what greed will do to otherwise peaceful people.
It’s not that the world doesn’t already know who the true oppressors are, but you have to admire the way Israel continues to play the victim card. After 3 days of coverage, major news outlets like BBC and CNN switched their lead story to a fire in a Thailand nightclub that killed 54 people. After 1 day of coverage, even their websites no longer carried news of worldwide protests against the Israelis. While any disagreement with the Israeli point of view is firmly branded as anti-semitic, the news outlets carefully filter their news to ensure that they portray a ‘balanced’ picture of the conflict. This means equal coverage between the 400 dead in Palestine, and the 4 dead in Israel.
In the last 5 years, 40 Israelis have died in the region. 5000 (yes, that’s FIVE THOUSAND, no mistake with the zeroes) Palestinians have been murdered by the Israelis. Israel holds a further 5000 (FIVE THOUSAND) Palestinians in their jails under suspicion of terrorist activities. These men, women and children are in the Israeli equivalent of Guantanamo Bay (where do you think Bush got the idea from?), held without trial and often, without any hope of release.
What startles me, however, is that Israel has still failed to learn: They drove millions of Palestinians out of their homes, used the world media so effectively, that Palestinians around the world are forced to moderate their rage at the torture of their loved ones and the theft of their home land and speak to their oppressors as though it was a sunny day and nothing was the matter. The Imperial Master is at their beck and call. They receive aid, weaponry, diplomatic support and coercive machinations to ensure that their immediate neighbors (fat arab leaders, redolent on western luxury, and unlikely to do more than wiggle a toe at Israel’s aggression) are no threat to them (nor somewhat distant neighbors, as the world scrambles to clip Iran’s wings at every opportunity).
And yet, the fight is still not over, and Palestine, such as it is, still stands, though not as originally planned (it’s interesting to note that, like Pakistan, land was not divided into one solid block, but in strange, overlapping segments):
Palestine 1948
The fact is that the threat of an ‘Islamic bomb’ has nothing to do with the fear that it may fall in the wrong hands. It’s the fear that an Islamic bomb will finally be used to redress the wrongs of 6 decades of oppression. 2 World Wars in the last century were fought between Europe and America. Africa and Asia had no part in either (except colonial states), and the fight that is now raging in Asia has been forced upon this part of the world by remote control.
Two nations, notably, have been carved, raised, and carefully molded for this role: Israel and India. It’s not a coincidence that India has been playing to the media just as Israel does. The media posturing after the Mumbai attacks were an excuse for India to bring troops to the border, and solidify Pakistan’s worsening reputation in the world. Considering the language coming out of India, its ludicrous that they call us the war-mongerers. Yet a belligerent bully is still Incredible India, and a country crushed under weekly terrorist attacks itself is still a haven for terrorists.
Like I said, it’s not that the world leaders actually believe their own press. They just prefer things this way. Strip away the rhetoric and diplomatic double-speak, and their desire for dominion and greed for resources is all that’s left. Civilization? Hah!
I’m just waiting for the day when, as Jesus Christ promised, the meek shall inherit the earth.
Must read:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/12/20081230122143645275.html
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index2b.asp
http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/
http://www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk/