The utter impunity with which Israel has unleashed its war machine on the defenceless Gaza population underscores once again the exclusive position Tel Aviv enjoys on the horizons of world powers who have vowed to bring peace and democracy to the planet.
As far as the terror wreaked by this rogue state is concerned, the self-appointed guardians of international justice have blinkered eyes, or else willfully choose to ignore the enormity of the transgressions committed again and again by successive Israeli regimes. The just world order that some in the international community would like to usher in evidently excludes Israel from its purview as it is left free to perpetrate atrocity upon atrocity on the Palestinian people. What escapes the custodians of global peace and justice is that the existence of Israel itself is in total contravention to all norms of morality. But even after the Palestinians have relinquished their legitimate and exclusive right to the lands from which they have been dispossessed, they are being targeted as if their persecutors would be satisfied with nothing less than their extermination.
The positions the world powers, mainly the US, have taken in the face of wanton slaughter of children in the Gaza Strip evoke unadulterated revulsion at the humanity, or rather the lack of it, of those who would lead the world. After their spoken and unspoken complicity in the Gaza terror, would-be-liberators of mankind are not left even with the fig-leaf of morality that would give them the authority and the stature to lecture to the world.
For almost two weeks, Israel practically bristled with confidence and pride: The Iron Dome air defense system was dependably zapping incoming Hamas and Jihad rockets from the skies, the military was successfully repelling infiltration attempts on the ground and from the sea, and the conflict with Gaza was causing almost no casualties in Israel.
That changed in what seems like a flash, after at least 25 soldiers were killed and scores injured a predictable yet still stunning outcome of the fateful decision, announced late Thursday, to send troops and tanks by land into Gaza.
In a country where military service is mandatory for most citizens, and military losses are considered every bit as tragic as civilian ones, the reaction to the setbacks was electric. Newspapers and broadcasts have been dominated by images and tales of the fallen and interviews with parents concerned for offspring so clearly now imperiled.
Angst over the highest military toll since the 2006 Lebanon war now mixes with a cocktail of emotions: on one hand, a strong current of determination to press on with efforts to end the rocket fire from Gaza; on the other, the sinking feeling that a quagmire is at hand.
The Palestinian are long accustomed to losing loved ones to Israeli aggression, but the Israelis, like the US, are highly sensitive to sons and brothers coming home in body bags.
Just as it happened in Lebanon, the Jewish state cannot be sure of meeting its military objectives, but the bloodshed it has wreaked on civilians in Gaza will speak in the loss of credibility of the Israeli leaders at home. The Palestinians have nothing left to lose except their lives, and they are quiet inured to it in the past six decades of criminal violence they have faced. But Israel could face a military disaster like Lebanon that could further shatter its already battered myth of its invincibility. In part, the Jewish state is encouraged by the unconscionable inertia of the Muslim regimes that are beholden to the US for their power. But contrary to what monotheistic texts – one of which is scared to the Jews say, Israeli leaders are quiet oblivious to the promise of natural retribution on crossing the limits of humanity time and again. But this is what they should be most afraid of.
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