Farook Ahmed :
History repeats. And history has truly repeated itself this time. It tells us that when Rome was burning, Emperor Nero was cozily fiddling. Now we see that when Gaza is burning, our smug Arab leaders are brazenly carousing without feeling the least compunction.
This time history will record that Nero was a lesser sinner than our today’s Arab leaders because fiddling is comparatively less sinning than carousing. God has warned the children of Israel many times for their disobedience and transgressions. Their repeated defiance to God’s command brought upon them divine wrath and curse for which they are still deprived of a legitimate home for their people. The present land where the state of Israel is located has been forcibly snatched from the surrounding Arab countries.
The Arabs think that Israel has no lawful rights on their occupied land. So Israel remains unrecognized by most of the Muslim countries of the world till today. This causes heart-burns to Israel and exacerbates her animosity towards her neighbours. What could be the extent of intensity of the hostility of Israel towards the people of Palestine can be gauged from the savage attack of Israel upon the unarmed and innocent people of Gaza. Israel is now engaged in a full-scale war against the Palestinians.
Though Israel is claiming that it has launched military offensive against Hamas but we see that its artillery and air-strikes have so far killed about 1500 civilian people of Gaza. According to UN estimate the number of death toll would be far greater than reported. Israel is mercilessly pounding on the city of Gaza with long-range artillery, howitzers, tanks and air-strikes.
Hamas is no match for the formidable Israeli military. We are observing that the Israeli army is directing its offensive more towards the civilian people than the soldiers of Hamas. The savagery of Israel has surpassed the barbarity of the middle ages. The sky of Gaza is rent with the cry of women, children and elderly people and the air is thick with the smell of so many corpses.
Those who are luckily alive cannot bury the dead bodies due to ceaseless air-strike and artillery fire of the Israeli army. Israel seems to be bent upon annihilating the entire population of the Gaza city. The appeal of the UN Secretary General for immediate cease-fire has been turned down by the Israeli authority. Israel is totally unbridled. Who will bridle it– America or OIC? America is firmly tied to the legs of Israel. She has no other way except to dance to the tune of Israel. Most of the OIC countries are spineless. They do not have the guts even to make a meek protest against the bestial brutality of Israel. The other Arab countries which stand close to Israel are shamefully ready to dance attendance on America and Israel to preserve and protect their thrones against the will of their people.
The current Egyptian president Mr. Sisi who has arrogated the presidential post through the barrels of guns by dislodging a democratically elected government, should not feel that he is safe. Amongst the Arab countries that surround Israel, Egypt has the largest and the strongest army having modern tanks, warplanes and missiles. Israel will never rest content with such a militarily powerful neighbour. On the other hand, civil war has already made Syria economically and militarily crippled. Jordan is comparatively a poor country and it does not have the capacity to fight a single day against Israel. So these two countries pose no military threat to Israel. Our calculation is that Egypt will be the next target of Israel. There is no doubt that America’s unstinted moral, economic and military support has made Israel so reckless. America needs to realise that she is losing the love and respect of billions of Muslims because of her unethical and unjustified support to Israel.
We do not support Hamas. Let Hamas be wiped out if it is a terrorist organization. But we cannot approve of Israel’s action when it attacks and kills the innocent Palestinian people for the offence of Hamas. Israel has knocked out the only power plant at Gaza city plunging the entire inhabitants into darkness. It has dropped bombs on a hospital and launched missile attacks into a school killing many school boys and girls. The atrocities of Israel should immediately be stopped. Christians, Jews and Muslims are said to be the people of the books.
These three nations have been descended from the same line of ancestry. Muslims love and respect Jesus and Moses like their own prophet Muhammad. There are many fundamental things in common in the Quran, Bible and Torah. So we want to be the people of books not the people of arms that shed our blood. Peaceful co-existence of Christians, Jews and Muslims are quite possible if we follow and obey our respective scriptures.
(The writer is ex DIG of Police)
