HOW MANY WILL HAVE TO DIE BEFORE THE WORLD GETS IT?

Tony Okoroji


Except you are made of steel, not born of a woman or consumed by bigotry, your stomach must churn at the images of the massacre and pain the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip have been subjected to in recent weeks.



I am fully aware that those of us from this part of the world who are Christians have had our minds shaped for a long time to see a historic and spiritual connection between us, Israel and the Jews. In the same manner, our minds have been shaped to see the Palestinians who are mainly Arabs and probably Moslems as perennial bad guys and habitual trouble makers who want to destroy the world. In the kind of ‘us against them’ mentality I discussed last week in my article, How can any war be Holy?, we take a stand sometimes without thinking through the issues.



The Palestinians are probably the only people in the world without a nation of their own. In the small strips of land within the West Bank and Gaza where they have been pushed to, they are blockaded by the Israelis like animals in a cage. They cannot come and go or do as they wish. Simply put, they do not have any of the freedoms that all of us take for granted.



There is no question that the Holocaust, the abhorrent extermination of Jews in Adolf Hitler’s gas chambers is an indelible stain on human history. Following the Holocaust, it is understandable that the Jews have enjoyed the sympathy of the world. It has however become an immense tragedy as the Jews who themselves where victims of horrendous injustice are now encouraged to visit injustice on the Palestinians. The central question in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be: Should the Palestinians be robbed to pay the Israelis for the grave injury done to the Jews?



The massive Jewish political machine in the United States has not helped matters. The fear of the Jewish political machine is the beginning of wisdom for every American politician. So the United States, the untiring advocate of human rights and fairness to all around the world looks the other way while Israel does the kind of things that America will not tolerate from anyone else. Unfortunately, this seeming double standard and perceived injustice is behind much of the radicalization of the Moslem and Arab youth around the world. Down the road, it has led to the breeding and spread of such poisonous groups as al Qaida, al Shabab, Boko Haram, Isis and others. Many in far flung places who have nothing to do with what is happening in the Middle East have paid with their lives for the unsustainable situation.



When Obama came into office, he attempted to navigate the landmine with a different tone. That was bad news to the hawks in the corridors of power in Washington. When you listen to John Kerry, Obama’s man around the world, speak in public these days, you wonder what happened to the famed American moral authority. There is no question that Obama is feeling the heat. The tone has changed. It appears that it is now full support for Israel regardless of the issues.. Over the weekend, not knowing that he was on a live microphone, John Kerry showed that after all he is a human being and that he understands that something terrible is being visited on the Palestinian people by Israel.



To most discerning observers of the global tragedy that has its roots in the Middle East, the Israeli arrogance and swagger and the seeming belief that the Jewish state can do whatever it likes and get away with it is predicated on the unflinching support Israel enjoys from Washington. The military machine being used to torment the Palestinian people is provided by Washington which provides a substantial part of the dollars and diplomatic muscle that support that machine.



In the recent conflict, Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, a master PR man who was spokesperson for Israel in many conflicts gone by, has tried to frame the land, sea and air bombardment of the tiny Gaza strip and the relentless military assault on the women and children that live there in the manner of self-defence. To justify the senseless killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the injury inflicted on thousands of others, Mr Netanyahu points to the tens of almost harmless and old fashioned rockets fired into Israel by the Palestinian group, Hamas. These rockets don’t kill anyone because with the aide of the Americans, Israel has developed a missile defence shield that picks up and detonates these rockets in the sky. This is like shooting catapults at guys with an array of bazookas.



Netanyahu’s bogey man used to be the late PLO leader, Yasser Arafat. Arafat is long gone and the war without end continues. While Netanyahu’s military has been most efficient in killing Palestinians, his PR offensive has failed woefully. While the Israelis are doing the killing, the Palestinians are winning the war. With the several live television cameras of the various news channels transmitting unedited images to every corner of the globe, what the Israeli Prime Minister and his retinue of PR men say no longer carry much weight. People can see for themselves what is going on and make up their minds. My take is that the world does not like what it is seeing.



Anyone would have thought that after many wars, Israel, the Jewish political machine in America and the world would have learnt that no military machine can crush a people seeking freedom and self-determination. Israel cannot kill every Palestinian not to talk of every Arab. The answer to this conflict, like any other similar conflict, lies in honest give and take at a negotiating table. And it should be clear to everyone that Israel, the Palestinians, America and indeed the entire world will not know peace until this conflict is resolved and each of the parties feels that justice has been done.



This article was first published in  Locomotion, Tony Okoroji’s weekly column in Nigeria’s Saturday Independent.