Holocaust by the Holocaust survivors
The writer is a retired major general and has an interest in International Relations and Political Sociology. He can be reached at tayyarinam@hotmail.com and tweets @20_Inam
Numbers do not matter anymore. Infants and children are dead in thousands. All patients in hospital intensive care lost on life for power failure, lack of oxygen and shortages of other life support medications and equipment. Women and elderly are dying for being unable or unwilling to leave their homes and become refugees again. City blocks are flattened to resemble the aftermath of atomic warfare. Collective punishment for a people banished from humanity is in full swing...sadly and paradoxically under appeasement by the only hegemon in the world. If your heart does not bleed for humanity in distress, across religious lines, across ethnicity and across race, there is something seriously wrong.
To say that Israel exceeded the right of self-defence is an utter understatement. The bully cannot be reined in by anyone...any leader, any nation, or any organisation. The world conscience is pricking in spasms at the callous and brutal loss of life among Palestinians...men, women and children, slaughtered without discrimination. The laws of warfare and armed conflict are thrown down the drains, brimming with sewerage from perpetrators’ polluted conscience. The contorted logic of ‘some’ in the civilised world still supporting Israel and its brutal military operation is exceedingly standing on shaky grounds. Even double standards are put to shame in comparison with contemporary Ukraine.
However, humanity mercifully and thankfully has spoken in Europe, in the US, in Latin America, in Asia and in the Middle East...even if leaders with no spine meekly ‘but carefully’ search for words when commenting on the situation. Sadly, most commentary in the ‘controlled’ media — print and electronic — is appeasement of Israel, technicalities of response and reiteration of Hamas brutalities etc, given the US’s full backing for the Jewish state. But alternative views are emerging. Thankfully human conscience is still not dead, if a little dazed.
The kind of language this conflict has brought to the fore...like describing Palestinians as ‘human animals’, ‘nuking Palestinians’ and ‘annihilating Hamas’ is pure and simple hate. And the fact that it comes from responsible high-level functionaries in Israel, a country built on the ashes of the Holocaust, is deeply disturbing. Dehumanising a foe by the children of Zion, like they themselves were dehumanised during World War-II, is dangerous, brutal and very unsettling. And one hopes the various organisations in the World Jewry, who have wise, respected and level heads among them, are mindful of the consequences of this mindless characterisation. Such callousness is not good for Israel and by extension, the Jews elsewhere, as two wrongs do not make it right. It stigmatises Jews ‘again’ like it was done to justify their extermination...an unfortunate saga of contemporary European history, with Palestinians taking no part in it. The influential and powerful Jewish leaders in media, business, politics and governance must take immediate steps to stem poisoning of the world opinion against them, and control further damage.
They need to remember that the festering wound of Palestine needs a two-state solution...PERIOD. And looking at it from Israeli...or more precisely, Bibi Netanyahu’s prism would get them nowhere. Demography of the ‘chosen land’ is irreversibly against them and would further accentuate, as most peace-loving Israelis leave the country to live elsewhere in peace, rather than face the daily tribulations of kibbutz on occupied lands. Modern version of ‘Exodus’ might recur overtime, as no commandment of Torah; no teaching of Judaism, one of the greatest Abrahamic religions; and no iteration of the revered prophet Moses, justify the brutal, inhuman, cruel and suffocating occupation of YHWH Elohim or YHWH Sabaoth i.e. God’s creations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Contemporary Christian America is dazed by the worldly ‘success’ of Jewry in business, academia and media, etc and that explains their dominance and outsized influence in the US/European foreign policy and support for Israel...the proclaimed ‘oasis of democracy in an otherwise tyranny-riddled’ Middle East. But that narrative is cracking. When in turbulent waters, miniscule ‘some’ cannot impose their will on the majority indefinitely, unconditionally and without costs. To prevent ‘never again’ the survivors of the Holocaust and their Ashkenazi pedigree should ensure ‘never now’ to everyone.
How can we all, the creations of one God that we all believe in, heap endless scorn and misery on fellow human beings and then live in piety of Heredi or Yehudit Haredi? How can a state created for the underdogs of Europe exact such heartless revenge from a people who gave them land, whose land they confiscated, and who face endless migration and misery in their own ‘promised land’ where they have lived for centuries? Do we have heart and humanity? Without resolving these contradictions, there can be no peace. And worldly success may not be enough for World Jewry as this crisis has painted the street in the US, Europe and elsewhere in a predominantly anti-Israel light. In this age of ubiquitous media, it would be next to impossible to escape the repercussions of Israeli vengeance. The latent anti-Semitic sentiment again rears its head. Time to take a note.
The military operation (under political direction) entails pulverising the ground through incessant employment of all fire power and executing a fire and/or ground maneuver under lax rules and acceptance of collateral damage. The military objective stays annihilation of Hamas and intimidating Palestinians through employment of excessive force. But if the history of urban warfare is any guide, conventional forces ultimately get bogged down. What will Israel do with a destroyed Gaza and its people, who were given self-rule to resolve similar predicament after earlier Israeli incursions. If the Israeli military calculus is to root out Hamas...an idea, a movement...which now enjoys the greatest ever recruitment pool, then the brilliant IDF needs to go back to the drawing board and advise their politicians with professional honesty and in the greater national interest. Because wars of revenge never bring lasting peace.
For the Muslim leaders, letting the conscience sleep after rhetorical speeches in the OIC is woefully not enough, as the street is seething with anger at their spinelessness. An economic boycott and showing door to the Israeli ambassadors is the least one expects, if any other form of robust response to the ‘bully’ is not possible.
A time for reflection and reckoning, as dead children of Gaza would define the future contours of geopolitics, Jewish power and Israel.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2023.
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