The insensible Israeli-Palestinian war

It doesn’t make sense that at a time when reputable global institutions are awarding degrees in conflict resolution; our world is engulfed in more conflicts than when Satan and his hosts of hell were first unleashed on mother earth. Let’s forget about the forgotten wars in Yemen or the less important Sudanese conflict and dwell […]

It doesn’t make sense that at a time when reputable global institutions are awarding degrees in conflict resolution; our world is engulfed in more conflicts than when Satan and his hosts of hell were first unleashed on mother earth. Let’s forget about the forgotten wars in Yemen or the less important Sudanese conflict and dwell on two global examples.

Just last week: war-ravaged Ukraine celebrated its 33 years independence from evil and monstrous Russia. As a prelude to that celebration, the West’s powerful media spent several hours celebrating how the emergent Ukraine was giving its old mother, Russia, a bloody nose akin to the ancient example of David hitting an all-amour clad giant Goliath with a sling and a stone.

At the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, stoked of course by NATO and its allies; the all-powerful Western media’s strategy was to portray Russia as the bully hitting at Ukraine with an RPG instead of swatting it with a broom. They kept ramping up the campaign for their sponsor – the superpower nations to give Ukraine the weapon it would require to show that even in a digital world today, a David can still repeat that battle against Goliath.

The aim of this is to bring down communist Russia so that the world could become one unipolar field where the seeds of democracy could be grown and fertilised. Ukrainian allies have sought the permission of their parliaments and lately responded with glee, providing the weapons and training that the Ukrainian army require to give Russia a bloody nose. According to their news, Ukraine is doing just that and it won’t be surprising if Russia has ‘fallen’ as you are reading this. What a relief it would be to global leaders facing elections or re-elections to see Russia fall.

Moments like this should make Sadam Hussein and Muamar Gaddafi squirm in their graves. The duo that Western secretaries of heaven say are roasting in the hottest part of hell would be wishing that Russia and its communist allies had rallied with the weapons it needed to shield itself against the allied assault that dispatched them to hell. Everyone has given up on finding those weapons of mass destruction for which Bush and Blair invaded a sovereign nation.

It is also certain that the Iranian regime wished it had the backing of godless nuclear allies against the imminent war for regime change in Tehran. Bashar al-Assad could do with such a support if he is to wriggle out of global isolation. In this new world order, only communist sympathisers would be clamouring for anyone to make it make sense.

From this preamble, we move to the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conundrum. The prevailing narrative is that the Palestinian group, Hamas, is the fruit causing the big baobab, called the Palestinian state, its current pain and suffering. For non-Yagba readers, our elders say that in a bid to reach for its succulent fruits, children lob stones at mother baobab.

The logic is that the Palestinian people deserve whatever they get because Hamas, one of the few political groupings fighting for its re-admittance into the comity of nations, asked for trouble when on October 7 almost two years ago, it launched a midnight operation against its powerful Israeli neighbour.

This faulty narrative presents Israel as a nation that has been at peace with its neighbours since it was declared a state by global superpowers in 1948. That questionable narrative brings back the old question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg.

The justification is that Hamas slaughtered 1,700 unarmed victims and took away an unspecified number of hostages. Whatever the figure or the cause, it provided Israel with the opportunity it needs to carry out its plan to make Palestinians get a taste of the ignominy of statelessness that the Jews suffered prior to the end of the two European civil wars.

Using its God-given right to self-defence, Israel has entered Palestinian land, erasing every structure, human, agricultural that stood in its path of purging Hamas from the face of the earth. While that operation has not abated, it is estimated by the United Nations that at least 40,000 Palestinians have died. Since there is no time to count or identify what party the dead belong to, the UN estimates that this figure includes 10,000 usually unarmed women and 6,000 usually innocent children. An estimated 40 million Palestinians have no home and except the world opens its arms to receive them, they are all walking dead, potential casualties of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

Against the rules of civilised combat to use a sad oxymoron; not even journalists are protected in their line of duty. The almighty IDF control the battlefield and the reporting of what goes on there. For once in war, adrenaline junkies are guaranteed to sneak into the conflict zones but not report the atrocities of war. Ditto for humanitarian organisations trying to keep alive those that the Israeli have condemned to die. Anyone quoting war statistics is tagged anti-Semitic, a label that’s worse than the death sentence.

The way the Israeli army has conducted its retributive justice is alien to the rules of conflict reporting, but who cares. In launching its attacks, Israel gives an ultimatum that makes it impossible for Palestinians to take anything of value, herds them to a designated ‘safe zone’ from where cluster bombs or drone attacks somehow makes fleeing civilians unwilling casualties.

This sounds like records of life during the abolitionist crusade. The rest of humanity walks on eggshells when it comes to the sensitivity of reporting or running a commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian war. Those who attract the label of antisemitic have every door of opportunity for advancement closed against them. It is like carrying the scriptural mark of the beast.

Yet, the yearning question is making it make sense that 40,000 humans have been executed for the 1,700 allegedly murdered by Hamas. Being a math illiterate makes finding the ratio an unsolved riddle especially in the light of a retribution that has no end date. It won’t end until the conscientious West says it’s enough! For now, they are yet to make up their minds and only antisemites and communist sympathisers would ask to make all these make sense.

 

Postscript

Twenty years ago, the Media Trust Group inducted me into its editorial pages. I am privileged to remain in reckoning till date and I am indebted to the readers that even when they disagree with my views continue to tolerate it. The times are changing for the media industry, and I am glad to have a platform to vent my spleen. I hope you continue to follow as I consider it a pleasure to keep writing for your weekly pleasure. See you next week.