Cease-fire in Gaza

A week after launching its murderous air blitz - coincidental to the new Hijri year - Israel has now sent troops and tanks into the Gaza Strip. As expected, the Hamas fighters are fighting back, both on the ground and in the air by firing retaliatory rockets into Israel. It is one of the most savage encounters between the two with heavy losses reported on both sides.
But the losses suffered by the civilian non-combatant population of the enclave are simply unprecedented. Over 500 Gazans, mostly women and children, have been killed by the Israeli air strikes and ground forces. Their predicament gets compounded by the fact that Israel has closed all the four supply points, and the one that opens into Egypt is also non-functional.
Over 1.5 million residents of Gaza enclave are being held hostage by the modern-day marauding Mongols in appalling conditions of fear and scarcity - that is the real Holocaust. But this would bring no victory to Israel. At the end of the day the Hamas would still be there, to the utter disappointment of those who had planned a regime-change in Palestine.
Israelis' expedition against the Lebanon in the name of hunting out the missile-firing Hezbollah in 2006 too had brought no victory to Tel Aviv. On the day of the cease-fire Hezbollah had fired more missiles into Israel than any day during the war. As to the timing of the Israeli assault against Hamas there is a weird commonality of motivation on the part of Israeli government.
Both misadventures seemed to be timed with elections in Israel. Somehow the Israeli voter is greatly influenced by a candidate's war credentials. Reports say since the start of action against the Hamas the Tzip Liven-Ehud Barak combine's electoral popularity has increased by 30 points. Thanks to barbaric psyche embraced by Zionism warmongering is Israeli politics' high point. But it is also possible that the Tel Aviv rulers timed the Gaza invasion with the twilight days of President Bush.
No doubt President-elect Barack Obama is also committed to defend and secure Israel but that was when he was on the election trail. Accepted, unprovoked massacres of the Palestinians are in the political genes of the Zionist regime, but what is it that is stopping the United States from voting a cease-fire in the blighted Gaza enclave.
The US representative has refused to accept the Libyan draft for truce branding Hamas a terrorist organisation - to the disbelief of the world community who saw Hamas scoring a comprehensive win over Mehmud Abbas-led Al-Fatah.
Is Tel Aviv then the cat's claw for Washington's design for a regime change in Palestine? But the Hamas is not the Taliban; it is extremely popular with the Muslims in general and the Arab populations in particular. Of course most of the Arab governments lack the matching enthusiasm for the Hamas.
That has have not helped the people of Palestine. These governments can and should change their outlook. Many of them have the financial and political clout to turn this challenge into an opportunity. They should weigh in heavy with their friends and allies in the west to secure immediate cease-fire; even if President Bush as delivered the parting kick to the international order by saying the US did not want a "one-way cease-fire".