It has cried wolf many times in the last 16 years, in order to justify continued aggression and mass murder in the Gaza Strip, but like in the nursery-school tale, the wolf finally showed up this time.
Since the total blockade of Gaza after a democratically elected government had been installed in 2006, Israel had needed little excuse to regularly attack and massacre the occupants of what former US president, Jimmy Carter, called the largest open-air prison in the world.
Of course, I’m not convinced that the Palestinian wolf, in the form of Hamas rockets, had attacked without prior knowledge of the apartheid government of Israel.
Because when it suits their purpose, the evil geniuses in Tel Aviv will gladly turn a blind eye to intelligence reports about planned attacks or suspicious movements in the occupied territories, since they have their eyes on the big picture.
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And the big picture is the total flattening of Gaza and its occupants, as Israel’s bloodthirsty leader Benjamin Netanyahu had said.
The idea that Netanyahu and his gang might have looked the other way while Hamas was having a field day in Israel, a few days ago, isn’t so far-fetched if you are familiar with the history of that apartheid nation and its rulers.
Every once in a while, some dispensable Jews had been sacrificed by their own leaders, so the act can be blamed on Palestinians and justify another round of atrocities against them.
It is a known fact now, that the much-maligned suicide bombing episodes that Palestinians were blamed for, were actually pioneered by Israeli intelligence officials.
Unwanted Jews, read: those who migrated from Africa and anywhere else outside Europe and America, were sometimes targeted for elimination.
From among them, youths were kidnapped and drugged. Then they were planted in buses on routes frequented by other dispensable Jews. The vest on the drugged young man would then be detonated by remote control.
The following day’s headlines would read that a Palestinian youth had entered a bus filled with Israelis and blown himself.
This stage-managed Israeli atrocity against its own people continued for a while before Palestinian shahada bombers took the bait; inspired by a heroism they didn’t know was fake.
This is why it’s hard to believe that Palestinians achieved the feat they did, in the last few days without a deliberate plan by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) to let it be.
They’ve now accomplished two aims. One is the Western world’s blanket sympathy that they were under attack, and the other is the international community’s complete approval that they could use any kind of force to defend themselves.
My take above is not to deflate from the Palestinians their seeming victory, at having ruptured Israel’s invincibility myth, no, indeed I’m happy to say that they finally have something to show after decades of a resistance they were left to pursue virtually all alone.
In fact, I was truly elated to read Hamas chief, Saleh al-Arouri’s comment on the issue.
“The freedom of our detainees (in Israeli prisons) is looming large. What we have in our hands will release all our prisoners. The longer the fighting continues the higher the number of Israeli prisoners will become.”
Al-Arouri also told newsmen that many senior officers were among the prisoners they captured.
This is truly cheering news, especially coming from a people who for 75 years have known nothing like security and peace, who are victims of the worst form of atrocities, dehumanisation and massacres.
Though the Western world seems united in saying Israel is today the victim, they should at least review the horrific events of the last eight decades and see if what Hamas did recently amounts to a fraction of what Palestinians have suffered.
In his book ‘Freedom Next Time’, famous investigative journalist John Pilger, has a chapter on Palestine named ‘The Last Taboo’.
In it he talks about the decades-long persecution of Palestinians, including how most Palestinian children grow up with hearing difficulties, due to over-exposure to the noise of bombardment, or are afflicted with perpetual bedwetting due to living in constant fear and insecurity.
They are living witnesses to attacks on them and their families at worship places, harassment at checkpoints, being thrown out of their homes and the sniping incidents they regularly see.
Yet with all these clear violations of their rights to life and liberty, the United Nations and the so-called international community, do not see it fit to call Israel to order.
Since the latest round of violence, their oft-repeated line is that Israel has the right to defend itself and how dare the Palestinians think they could attack Israel the way they did.
The emasculated Arab League is also engaged in the usual platitudes of calling for cessation of violence and honouring the two-state solution.
No firm word about dealing with Israel by refusing to sell them much-needed domestic gas (from Egypt) or stopping crude oil sales from oil-rich Arab nations or any other economic boycott of the apartheid state.
As usual, they are waiting for a nod from the United States before speaking up for their brothers. And that will never come. How unfortunate!
The days to come will be hard for Palestinians because Israel, with their supposedly bruised ego, will deploy all its arsenal (minus the nuclear of course) in order to wipe out Gaza with all its inhabitants.
But it will not succeed. No matter the amount of firepower it deploys Israel will not succeed in its one aim – wiping out all Palestinians and taking whatever remains of their land.
The effort and resilience of Palestinian freedom fighters will not fizzle out no matter the height of aggression. What sustained them in the last 75 years will guarantee their continued existence till Israel itself accepts defeat.
The will and might of their Creator is what will see the Palestinians through despite facing a very powerful aggressor, and having uncaring brothers, in an indifferent world.
In narrating the story of David and Goliath, the Holy Quran says: “How many times has a small army defeated a mighty one by Allah’s leave? Allah is with the forbearing ones.” Chapter 2 Vs 249.
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