UNITED NATIONS - Mahatma Gandhi said it
with remarkable moral clarity - "An eye for an eye
only ends up making the whole world blind." That
is indeed what happened in Gaza over eight days in
November, with an estimated 160 Palestinians and
six Israelis dead in the latest exchange of
rockets and drones brought to an uneasy end by an
Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
The recently
re-elected US President Barack Obama's support for
Israel was assured for the cynical exercise
engineered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in order to ensure his victory at the
elections in January next year.
It is
widely speculated that this was Obama's quid
pro quo for Netanyahu pulling back from his
reckless intervention in the US
presidential campaign on
the side of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. For
good measure, Obama has unilaterally announced
that the Helsinki Conference scheduled for
December this year to discuss the proposed Middle
East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone
(MEWMDFZ) will not take place.
This in
spite of the fact that the responsibility of
convening the conference was entrusted by the
parties to the Treaty for the Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to the US, UK, Russia and
the UN secretary-general in pursuance of which the
facilitator from Finland had worked tirelessly.
In 1936, Aldous Huxley published a novel,
Eyeless in Gaza, with the title drawn from
the Biblical story of Samson blinded by the
Philistines and put to work in Gaza, and relating
the story of a man whose passage in life leads to
pacifism.
A peaceful settlement of the
blockade of Gaza by Israel and an end to the
scandalous conditions of its 1.7 million citizens
is still very far away. However, the vote of the
UN General Assembly on the upgrading of Palestine
as an Observer State of the UN on November 29 is
some solace to a brutally repressed people
notwithstanding the acute rivalry between Hamas
who control the Gaza and the Fatah, who heads the
Palestine National Authority.
An
overwhelming 138 voted for; nine (including the
US, Israel, Canada and the Czech Republic) voted
against; and 41 abstentions (including the UK,
whose infamous 1917 Balfour Declaration promised
the establishment of a national home for the
Jewish people in Palestine).
Israel has
retaliated by announcing more settlements in
occupied territory in another blatant violation of
international law.
Gaza is a sliver of
land between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea
illegally occupied by Israel after the 1967 Six
Day War. Following the Oslo Accords, the area was
ceded to the Palestine National Authority in 1993,
but it was not until 2005 that Israel evacuated
its settlers and withdrew its troops.
With
the radical Hamas emerging on top from elections
in 2006, tensions increased, with rockets being
fired into Israel and sporadic Israeli bombing of
Gaza.
A fortified fence built on
Palestinian territory shuts Gaza citizens in, and
an economic blockade has made life in the Gaza
intolerable. A December 2008 attack called
Operation Cast Lead by Israel was condemned
internationally. Israel has capitalized on the
labelling of Hamas as a terrorist group and the
support it gets from Iran.
According to
Palestinian officials, over 280 people were killed
and 600 were injured in the first two days of
airstrikes. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire
on January 17, 2009. Hamas responded the following
day by announcing a one-week ceasefire to give
Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza
Strip.
After a long but uneasy truce, the
assassination of Hamas commander Ahmed al-Jabari
by an Israeli air strike triggered the fighting in
November 2012. Ironically, al-Jabari was involved
in negotiations with the Israelis, including over
the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
The US
ballistic missile defense system called the Iron
Dome effectively limited the damage to Israeli
cities from Hamas rockets. Civilians in Gaza,
including women and children, suffered casualties
while Obama asserted Israel's right to defend
itself.
It is clear that Obama will
continue the traditional US policy of protecting
Israel with the veto it has in the UN Security
Council and will continue to supply Israel with
arms and ammunition to continue its denial of the
rights of the Palestinians.
The
negotiation of a peace settlement in the Middle
East is on a back burner as Obama tries to sort
out his domestic economic crisis. Meanwhile, the
Arab Spring continues to create changes in Arab
countries, and a new configuration with Saudi
Arabia and Qatar emerging as influential power
brokers has added further complications.
Waiting for the outcome of the Israeli
elections appears to be the only option before any
fresh diplomatic moves can be initiated. A
two-state solution of Israel and Palestine in
peaceful co-existence in still a long-term goal.
Jayantha Dhanapala is a former
UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament
Affairs.
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