Israel launches an `open-ended' military incursion into Gaza, one of the bloodiest offensives since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, to proclaim victory before its `pullout' from the area.
A RANDOM rocket attack on an Israeli settlement in the last week of September, which killed five people, was the excuse Israel was looking for to launch yet another massive military strike against the innocent citizens of Gaza, in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. In the two weeks since September 28, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed, 24 of them children. Those killed included innocent civilians and several militants belonging to Palestinian resistance groups such as the Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The Israeli offensive, which government officials have described as "open-ended", has been one of the bloodiest since the beginning of the second Intifada (uprising) in 2000.
The Jabaliya refugee camp housing more than 50,000 Palestinians has been blockaded by the Israeli Army, leading to more hardship. Israeli "drones" fly menacingly over thickly populated Palestinian areas and more than 200 tanks backed by air power have crossed into Gaza. According to recent reports, the Israelis have started using "armed drones" to open fire on civilians. However, the Israeli military's preferred way of killing is still "targeted assassinations", using Apache helicopters and F-16s.
The Palestinian leadership publicly proposed a new military truce with Israel earlier in the year on the condition that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stop military incursions into the Occupied Territories and "targeted assassinations". Several humanitarian agencies, including the British agency "Oxfam International", condemned the assault on Gaza terming it as "disproportionate". Oxfam said that Israel was "obliged to ensure that any measures taken to protect the lives of Israeli civilians must be consistent with its obligations to respect human rights and International Humanitarian Law".
However, the Israeli forces have continued their military operations in Gaza. The Palestinian transport infrastructure, disrupted by illegal Jewish settlements, is being further damaged under the pretext that roads have been mined. The scarce agricultural land owned by Palestinians in the overcrowded Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated places on the planet, is being selectively targeted by Israeli bulldozers. The Israeli government is on a military overdrive in order to proclaim victory before it "withdraws" its troops and settlers from Gaza by the end of 2005. The incursion into Gaza was primarily intended to convey a message to the Israeli public - that the Sharon government did not plan to vacate Gaza under circumstances similar to the precipitate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. That withdrawal was celebrated by the Arab world as a defeat for the Israeli Army.
Palestinians seem determined to continue with their resistance even in the face of overwhelming odds. They continue to fire their home-made "Kassam" rockets into illegal Jewish settlements. Palestinian militants are showing the international community and sending a message to the Sharon government that the so-called security wall that Israel is constructing in West Bank is no guarantor of security for the country. Militant Palestinian groups have indicated that they will soon start rocket attacks on Israeli targets from the West Bank. Despite its alleged military prowess and access to sophisticated anti-missile technology, Israel has not intercepted a single "Kassam" rocket. Although the rockets, having a range of around 7 km, are not very accurate, they have in recent months been able to hit some targets.
While the Israeli troops were virtually shooting at every moving object in Gaza, a top aide to the Israeli Prime Minster revealed the real reason for the proposed Gaza pullout. Sharon's senior adviser Dov Weisglass told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in the second week of October that the real goal was "the freezing of the peace process". He added that by this move "you prevent the establishment of the Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda". Weisglass said that the Israeli moves had the blessings of the political establishment of the United States. He said that if the peace process was carried to its logical conclusion, it would mean the creation of a Palestinian state, the dismantling of the illegal Jewish settlements and the partitioning of Jerusalem. He boasted that because of the Gaza disengagement plan, "out of 240,000 settlers, 190,000 will not be moved from their place".
In fact, Weisglass was underplaying the number of illegal Jewish settlers. The real figure is around 400,000. Sharon's ploy is to pull out settlers from Gaza and then continue expanding settlements in the West Bank. The West Bank will remain pock-marked with Jewish settlements with Palestinians becoming de facto second class citizens living in tiny "bantustans" similar to the ones that existed when South Africa was under apartheid rule.
The international community still pays ritual obeisance to the U.S.-sponsored "road map" and the peace process when the Palestinian issue comes up for discussion. Both President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, are unabashed supporters of Israel's expansionist policies. The U.S. vetoed the United Nations Security Council resolution in the first week of October which condemned the Israeli military action in Gaza. While 11 nations in the 15-member Security Council voted for the resolution, Britain, Germany and Romania abstained.
IN a statement, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed "condemned the recent escalation of violence in northern Gaza and the disproportionate and large-scale use of violence by the Israeli forces". He said that India "was deeply concerned at the tragic and unwarranted loss of innocent lives, including women and young children". Diplomats from the West Asian region, while appreciative of the Minister's concerns, said that the impact on the Arab world would have been better if a similar statement had come from the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister. They note that Israel continues to enjoy close relations with India. The present government, like its predecessor, seems convinced that the major threats to the Indian state's security come from jehadi (read Islamic) outfits.
New Delhi has not officially responded to a call by leading Arab League and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) members for "partial sanctions" against Israel. Senior Indian officials have indicated that the government does not plan to cancel the "lucrative" defence deals with Israel. "Let international sanctions be first imposed and then we shall see," said a senior official of the Defence Ministry. Palestinian officials point out that their Arab brothers too have not been very forthcoming in their time of crisis. "Not a single Arab statesman has bothered to visit our leader, Yasser Arafat, in Ramallah," an official said. None of the Arab countries having relations with Israel have snapped diplomatic ties.
The ties between Egypt and Israel have opened up for scrutiny in the wake of the terrorist attack in the Egyptian resort town of Taba in Sinai, frequented mainly by Israeli tourists. The Israeli government was quick to blame Palestinian militant groups for the attack, which killed more than 30 people, among them several Israelis. However, the finger of suspicion points to Al Qaeda. The Palestinian militant groups have reiterated that their fight against Israel will be confined to Israel and the Occupied Territories.
WITH the path of meaningful negotiations closed, the Palestinians have little option but to continue with the Intifada. In fact, most Palestinians believe that the Intifada started when all avenues to a peaceful settlement were shut. They are also the first to admit that the uprising has had an adverse impact on their daily lives. Since the Intifada started, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed, one-fifth of them under the age of 18. The overwhelming majority of the Palestinians who worked in Israeli factories are without jobs. When the Intifada started, Palestinians living below the poverty line constituted only 22 per cent of the population. Today more than 50 per cent of the population is under this category; in Gaza it is 70 per cent.
Israel has also been a loser in many ways. More than 1,000 Israelis have lost their lives since 2000. The credibility it gained after the signing of the Oslo accord has been significantly eroded. The Palestinian struggle is being increasingly viewed as anti-colonial in nature. There is growing unemployment and poverty in Israel too. Many Israelis are voting with their feet and leaving the country in droves. According to experts in the region this will only lead to Israel becoming a minority Jewish state living amid a Palestinian majority.
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