EDITORIAL: That the Chinese government has had to make the latest push for peace in Gaza, inviting ministers from several Muslim countries to Beijing, proves at least two very significant points. One, there is growing international resentment against Washington’s blank cheque to Israel even when the latter upgrades its assault on Palestinians to pure, naked genocide.
The Chinese foreign minister said Beijing was “a good friend and brother of Arab and Muslim countries” and it “always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and interests”.
The delegates are scheduled to meet officials representing each of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a special video summit of BRICS leaders on Tuesday. Therefore, the international community is clearly seen mobilising to put an end to the madness in Gaza.
And two, Muslim states have disappointed their brethren, especially the miserable, suffering people of Gaza, yet again. OIC and Arab League bothered with the formalities of a joint summit earlier this month, but nothing came out of it.
Even with the spotlight on them, they bickered about the appropriate response to Israeli atrocities, and that was the end of it. Now, if it weren’t for countries like China and Russia, there would be no platform to air uproar about the war in Gaza.
It’s a shame, though no surprise, that even the UN is helpless in getting the US to draw a line, unable to check its blind support for Israel. Sadly, it has taken the merciless massacre of Gazan women and children to expose the inhuman double standards of the so-called standard bearers of the free world, which was supposed to be built on equal rights and opportunities for all citizens of the world.
Apparently, there is some progress in the matter of hostage release, with Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh confirming progress in a rare public statement. But, given the backdrop, international media outlets should be careful about presenting this development as a prelude to peace, even a truce.
So far, all Israel is reported to have conceded is a few minutes of cessation of hostilities each day, and that is where the matter stands for now.
Should this deal go through, it would mean little more than Hamas returning some of the hostages in return for Israel pausing its war crimes for a short while every day, and that’s all.
There’s no question that a ceasefire is urgently needed. The fact that the world’s most powerful countries continue to give Israeli aggression blanked protection under the garb of “right to self defence” hasn’t sparked a wider regional war yet does not mean that it hasn’t widened cleavages in the global order.
It’s no coincidence that the two main countries that have been at the forefront of the anti-imperial alliance of the 21st century, China and Russia, are taking a very firm stance on this issue; one that directly contradicts America’s controversial position.
Indeed, the Kremlin has said that Russian President Putin will present his view of “a deeply unstable world situation” at the upcoming G20 summit, the first event in a long time that will include Putin as well as western leaders.
Gaza’s dead innocent children have pushed the world closer to confrontation than at any time in the so-called unipolar world only because the strongest and most powerful countries are complicit in their cold-blooded murder. If better sense does not prevail immediately, the future is sure to be darker and bloodier.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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