Editorial
Widening dimensions of Gaza conflict
Israel's actions will radicalise Palestinians even more
THE Israeli government's rejection of an appeal by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for it to declare a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza is the latest sad twist to an increasingly agonizing story. In the three weeks since Israeli forces launched their offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians have died through a demonstration of Israeli firepower, with most of the victims being women and children. In the last one week, Israeli soldiers have attacked local neighbourhoods in Gaza while Tel Aviv's airpower has relentlessly pounded away at residential buildings in the name of flushing out Hamas militants. Not even the UN compound there has been spared, an act of wanton aggression that has forced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to raise the issue with the Israeli leadership. Now Amnesty International has weighed in with a call for an investigation into the incident and has even hinted at the attack being regarded as a war crime.
The irony of the whole situation is that despite all the protests against Israel's actions worldwide, its leadership has defiantly resisted all calls for it to rein itself in. There have been other ironies at work as well. Consider this: while nearly the entire Arab region has maintained a studious and quite indefensible silence on Tel Aviv's pummeling of Gaza, the governments of distant Bolivia and Venezuela have moved decisively to cut diplomatic ties with the Zionist state. Even Egypt's moves toward bringing about a ceasefire have been marked by half-heartedness. Briefly, governments in the Middle East have not exactly endeared themselves to Palestinians and people elsewhere by the sheer inaction they have put themselves into. The degree of pressure that ought to have been mounted on Israel by these governments has woefully been missing, a fact that perhaps has led to the desperation of the Palestinians. The Hamas could be dissuaded from launching rockets into Israeli territory through other means, but what cannot be accepted is the brazenness of the Israeli response and the inability of the global community to compel Ehud Olmert's government to put a stop to its actions.
These next few days will determine the future for both Palestinians and Israelis. The Gaza attack has left the former more radicalised, while the latter will sooner or later understand that their victory will have been a pyrrhic one. Worse, the conflict threatens to leave the world even more polarised than it already is.
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