The world on the brink

In spite of our own unsettling local Boko Haram’s clear and present danger, uppermost in global minds is the continuing deadly violence that continued to level Gaza as Israel relentlessly pounded the city. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to incapacitate the military wing of Hamas that itself has been firing rockets into urban centres in […]

In spite of our own unsettling local Boko Haram’s clear and present danger, uppermost in global minds is the continuing deadly violence that continued to level Gaza as Israel relentlessly pounded the city. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to incapacitate the military wing of Hamas that itself has been firing rockets into urban centres in Israel. Civilian population, particularly women and children, in Gaza have taken most of the heavy brunt. While writing this piece, one could watch the number of dead climbing from 1000 Palestinians and the killed Israelis approaching 100, with Netanyahu further warning Israeli citizens to prepare for a long period of violence. Same time here at home in one day, terrorists targeted former Head of State and forefront presidential contender General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, both men surviving by hair’s breath.
Without putting aside our concerns for the home front, Nigeria, as part of the global terror situation, the carnage in Gaza is disturbing. Calls have gone out from world leaders urging Israel to subdue its rage and the International Council of Jurists has noted this too. It says “due to the disproportionate and often indiscriminate attacks by the Israel Defence Forces, more than 1000 people have been killed in Gaza…the overwhelming majority of these were civilians, including more than 300 children. Thousands were wounded in the context of these attacks. Sustained aerial bombardment and ground incursions have also resulted in the destruction of basic infrastructure and civil facilities. Many of the attacks have been directed against civilian objects.”
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has called for an immediate end to the Israeli military operations in Gaza, demanding that the Human Rights Council urge both Israel and Palestinian armed groups to desist from any attacks that harm civilians.
On his part, Pope Francis on Sunday broke off from his scripted weekly Angelus address and said, “Brothers and sisters, never war, never war! I am thinking above all of children, who are deprived of the hope of a worthwhile life, of a future, I think especially of the children whose hopes for a dignified future are taken from them, dead children, injured and mutilated children, orphans and children who have bits of weapons as toys, children who don’t know how to smile.
“Please stop. I ask you with all my heart,” the Pope pleaded apparently to deaf ears, just as pleas from world leaders to Boko Haram to stop its escalating terror campaigns appear to fall on equally deaf ears. The bloodletting around the world is just too much.
For the Middle East, even US President Barack Obama fervently on Sunday urged Israel’s Prime Minister to order for an “immediate, unconditional” ceasefire; and “made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities”.
A brief recap of history, for it is hard to belief that it has scarcely been a mere four weeks that this crisis began and degenerated to the current level of carnage. Last month, on June 12 (what a date for Nigeria), three Israeli teens, on their way home from school in the West Bank, went missing. The Israelis raised a warning of the last case despair scenario, and began a manhunt. About two weeks later, on June 30, to be precise, the bodies of the three youths were discovered and as expected, the Israelis placed the blame on Hamas, the group that rules Gaza. Hamas, long since labelled a terrorist organisation by Israel, denied involvement but praised the abductions. Israeli forces then carried out arrests and demolished homes in the West Bank. While this was going on, a young Palestinian was murdered in what was clearly a revenge attack by Jews and militants began firing rockets into Israeli settlements and cities. The conflict has escalated to the bloodiest that the region has seen in years, ever since.
As matters stand, many Arabs, particularly Hamas, will not renounce their vow to deny Israel’s right to exist, and Israel will hold on to occupied territories as spoils of war, strategic to the defence of their existence. This is central to the Israeli/Arab conflict.
But whether Boko Haram in Nigeria or Israel/Hamas in the Middle East, it is no longer a question of who is right and who is wrong. It is a question of how much human misery the world can take. Bad as it is, it could get worse. If in reaction to the bloody ground operation being carried out by Israel, ostensibly to take out the Hamas rockets, Hamas joins in from the West Bank and the Hezbollah from Lebanon, the scenario will further threaten world peace. Same also were either General Buhari or Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi to have perished in Kaduna, “we would not be here”, to quote President Goodluck Jonathan. The world sits on the edge of a precipice, and it is scary.
This is not to forget the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777 carrying 298 people, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in the Ukraine, 20 miles from the Russian border. All evidence points to what the world powers believe: that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Today, an angry world watches as hundreds of dead bodies are being counted in the Netherlands for DNA identification, for further conveyance to their countries of origin. With Russia supporting separatists in Ukraine and may have supplied the missile with the capability to shoot down a jumbo plane reportedly flying at the cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, the consequences to world peace are clearly grave. It is worrisome enough, if such a weapon is available through a black market to terrorists, given the danger that this portends for international air travel. Worse, the whole scenario is akin to a leaking gas tinderbox and the worsening relations between the super powers, requires just a spark, to bring the world to World War III. And the Ebola virus showed up in Nigeria! May God increase our faith.