Gaza is burning
Photo: AFP
THE world is witnessing a replay of Israel's 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, with some variations. Israel is unleashing hell to "defend" itself as President Bush and president-elect Obama would have us believe. In 2006, the invaders received a befitting response from Hezbollah, but Hamas has been operating in an occupied zone with severe limitations of finances and training facilities. So, Hamas may be unlikely to give Israel the punishment which Hezbollah inflicted on it. But the war on terror started after nine-eleven at the behest of the US has been thoroughly discredited, not only morally but also militarily and strategically. Yet, Israel is still inclined towards subduing its opponents with consistent zeal -- disregarding the fact that Hamas was democratically elected. After several attempts, Hamas and Israel finally agreed to a ceasefire in June last year. But there might have been confusion because both parties came away with a different understanding of what they had agreed to. In reality, although Israel slightly increased the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, the restrictions remained severe. The so-called ceasefire was far short of what the Hamas was looking for. Since winning the elections, Hamas has sought international credibility and shown maturity by inviting the Fatah to form a national unity government. On the contrary, the PLO has lost all moral legitimacy and become a stooge of the very imperialist force that it once resisted. The Fatah is colluding with Israel to render Hamas ineffective so that an Israeli -Palestinian settlement is no more hostage to the militant groups that pledge commitment to Jihad and are uncompromising on vital issues. With Abbas on their side the Israelis can be tempted to eliminate Hamas because the US as well as Arab regimes have so far been silent spectators to the perpetration of a "Holocaust" against the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the world media has attempted to depict the conflict as a symmetrical one, as if Hamas has the capacity to injure Israel in any meaningful way. What has, however, been most unbelievable is the willingness of "enlightened elements" in the Muslim world to condemn Hamas for initiating the rocket attacks against Israeli. Israel has little chance of translating its diabolical game plan into reality. As Israeli troops marched into Gaza, Hamas seemed to goad then on. A Hamas spokeman promised that the Strip would become a graveyard for Israeli soldiers. This represents Hamas's goals, which are to challenge the might of the Israeli military, and to emerge as intact as possible. According to Nicolas Pelham, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, the struggle on the both sides is simply for self-defence. Secondly, the Islamist group appears to have built up its arsenal in recent months, though it does not match the weaponry of the Israeli military. Still, with the size of its military' force estimated between 10,000 to 20,000 and its experience in guerilla fighting, Hamas is likely to put up a hard fight. Hamas also has broader goals defined by the particular nature of the crisis in Gaza. Last week, Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas prime minister, set out the movement's position in blunt terms: "Our message; end the aggression without conditions, end the siege and open the crossings, then after that we can speak positively nationally [...] and we can start all the dialogues." With that, the movement has sought the leading role in the "resistance" against Israeli occupation; a strategy that it insists brings results and which it frequently contrasts with the path of negotiation adopted by Fatah. Mouin Rabbani, a senior Fellow with the Institute of Palestine studies, says that ultimately the Hamas goal is for leadership in the Palestinian movement, both in the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. The outfit with such an ambition can hardly be neutralised in Palestinian affairs. Thirdly, the Iraq war has left Iranthe primary sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollahwith far more influence in the region than it would have had. The last is Israel's anachronistic strategy of implementing the very tenets of the war on terror that has served the US so badly. On almost every front in almost every part of the world, including in the US, the war on terror is now seen as a colossal mistake. It will be futile to try to solve intractable political problems solely with the aim of not simply bombing the opponent into submission but eliminating them altogether, and then creating resolutions on one's own terms from the rubble! Israel is doing exactly that in Gaza! The Palestinian cause is not one that can be expressed in any millenarian religious ideology, nor is it a cause of the Muslims only. So, Gaza must not fall; if it does it will be a defeat for the oppressed and wretched people of world who constitute the vast majority of humankind.
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