Israel cannot imprison 2.3 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the world’s largest open air prison, forever. It will have to either release them or eliminate them.
The Zionist state seems to have opted for the latter option as its troops prepare to enter Gaza, which is rapdidly running out of food, electricity, fuel and drinking water due to Israel’s heavy bombardment and complete blockade.
The West Bank situation is somehow different, although Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers in this landlocked territory of Palestine have killed more than two dozen unarmed Palestinians in the last five days.
Not only are the Israeli settlers in this area formidably armed, they also receive impeccable security from the Israeli military that has a very strong presence across occupied West Bank where Palestinians’ neighborhoods have been turned into cantons and where no Palestinian neighborhood is contiguous with any other area or district that is inhabitated by Palestinian people.
That Hamas’ attacks have constituted another 9/11 for the US, the principal supporter of Israel, is a fact. Neither Israel nor the US-led West is in a position to reinvent the wheels of history. Metaphorically speaking, the Arabs’ target was not Tel Aviv per se; it was in fact Washington DC.
Be that as it may, not only have Hamas’ attacks rattled Israel and the US-led West in an unimagined manner, they have also trapped ultra-right BJP/RSS-ruled India into committing a Himalayan blunder. Expressing ‘solidarity’ with Israel instantly or immediately has deprived New Delhi of a possible opportunity to act as a mediator between warring Israel and Palestinians.
Needless to say, the Hamas’ attacks have provided both Russia and China with a golden opportunity to reassert their presence in the Middle East to reshape the regional dynamics. In other words, Hamas’ attacks have rewrittern rules in theMiddle East.
It increasingly appears that Vladimir Putin of Russia is extremely good at both chess and Russian roulette. Prima facie, Iran, too, seems to have helped the Hamas conceive, plan and execute attacks on Israel.
Shocked by the sheer audacity of the Hamas, the US is trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to officially blame either Russia or Iran for helping, facilitating and assisting the Hamas carry out attacks on the Jewish state, including its military installations.
Both Israel and the US are now paying a heavy price for humiliating Palestinians. In fact, Palestinians have been facing humiliation for more than a century or since the British government announced its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine in 1917 through the Balfour Declaration, a public statement.
In 2023, however, the Hamas has shown to the entire world that Palestinians are not the people who accept humiliation.
Syed Rizwan Shah (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023