"If one reality has emerged from the latest round of Israeli attacks and invasion of Gaza, it is that the Palestinians have no one to turn to. Fellow Arab governments are in no position to intervene or offer tangible succour. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are busy supping with Washington, Israel’s principal supporter." The world abandons the Gazans
K.S. Dakshina Murthy http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/14/stories/2009011455920900.htm As Israel pounds Gaza with a heavy hand, there is no international intervention of any sort — other than fiery speeches, empty rhetoric and helpless shrugs. — Photo: AFP Left in the lurch: None has been able to stop the Israeli pounding of Gaza If one reality has emerged from the latest round of Israeli attacks and invasion of Gaza, it is that the Palestinians have no one to turn to. Fellow Arab governments are in no position to intervene or offer tangible succour. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are busy supping with Washington, Israel’s principal supporter. Some are busy fending off U.S.-inspired global intimidation: Iran is trying to prove that its atomic energy programme is for peaceful purposes, and Syria is de nying it is aiding anti-U.S. Iraqi fighters. As for Lebanon, the Hizbollah is marginalised in a country governed by a pro-U.S. dispensation. Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi, who at one time stood, argued and fought for Arab solidarity, has been effectively co-opted by the U.S. At a recent meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal blamed the Palestinians themselves for the attack. Referring to the division between Hamas and Fatah, he said if the Palestinians could not help each other, others would not be able to do anything for them. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa summed up the region’s frustration over the lack of unity: “We are all in one boat, riddled with holes, and only our cohesion can save us.” The Egyptian government has in fact blamed Gaza’s ruling group Hamas for provoking Israel. In fact, the Mubarak government has used this argument as an excuse to block demands within Egypt to open up the border with Gaza to allow those seeking refuge and medical treatment to pass. Jordan, the other neighbour of Gaza, expressed a token protest by means of an informal recall of its Ambassador to Israel, Ali Al-Ayed. Thousands of ordinary people have spilled out on to the streets in the Arab world, and in other countries, protesting against the Israeli attack on Palestinians. But, as was the case during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, besides generating bad publicity for the Bush administration then, and now for Israel, not much has been achieved. Israel’s attack on Gaza has been attributed to Hamas’ rocket attacks. What provoked Hamas to fire its rockets into Israel? That came in reaction to Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza that has made life intolerable for its 1.5 million people. Leave alone food for consumption, even the barest essentials do not exist. Hundreds of people have died in hospitals without access to basic medicines. The U.N. and other international agencies have appealed time and again to Israel to lift the siege and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, to no avail. A six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel expired in December and the Palestinian group showed its frustration by firing rockets into Israeli territory. Most of them fell harmlessly in the desert. And pray, what are these rockets? Compared to the Israeli weaponry these are only a little more potent than firecrackers. Undoubtedly, there have been improvements in the kind of rockets used by Hamas. While the earlier home-made Qassams would go 15 km, the latest attacks have involved mainly Katyusha rockets which travel up to 20 km, with a marginal increase in the level of accuracy. Though on paper the Katyushas can reach the Israeli towns of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba, the damage they can cause is mainly restricted to the occasional building, and rarely people. During the current stand-off, Hamas is reported to have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israeli-occupied territory in the last few days. The toll: four dead and a handful of injured. Reuters, quoting official figures, reported that since 2000, that is, in the last nine years, all of 10 people in the Israeli territory of Sderot, bordering Gaza, have died in Palestinian rocket attacks. In comparison, in its air strikes on Gaza the Israeli Air Force used bunker-buster missiles procured from the U.S. a few days before the bombing (according to Jerusalem Post). These missiles, called the GBU-39, are but small-diameter bombs for low-cost, high-precision and low-collateral-damage strikes. The speciality of the GBU-39, with satellite navigation, is that it is smaller in size compared to its predecessors: therefore more of them can be carried in a single aircraft. Its range is over 100 km and it can pierce reinforced concrete. The GBU-39 is mounted on F-16 aircraft and Apache helicopters, besides other bombs. And the toll: at least 500 Palestinians killed before the ground invasion of Gaza began. The ground invasion has killed even more people. In other words, Hamas’ mosquito bite has been met by Israel with a sledgehammer. Though U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and France among a few countries, described the Israeli attack as excessive, none has been able to stop the one-sided pounding of Gaza. The selectively powerful U.N. Security Council has been reduced to the status of an onlooker in this case, thanks to the U.S. veto against passing any resolution to rein in Israel. Not wanting to be seen as being apathetic, Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Jordan have attempted some sort of a patch-up. Unsurprisingly, that has not worked. Israel, which cleared Gaza of Jewish settlements in 2005, is back again in the tiny territory with the ostensible aim of eliminating Hamas. In the process, close to a thousand Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed. Israel’s stated task is virtually unattainable, as Hamas fighters have gone underground and merged with the general population. The Hamas administration and the police force do not exist anymore. Gazans who endured critical shortage of goods and essential supplies now have to contend with the Israeli Army in their homes. Given its ruthlessness, the crisis has escalated. There is no international intervention of any sort — other than fiery speeches, empty rhetoric and helpless shrugs. The Palestinians themselves are meanwhile locked in an internecine conflict. Gazans are unable to look to their brethren in West Bank for any support, thanks to the bitter and bloody fallout between Hamas and Fatah. The other half of the Palestinian territories, West Bank, is untouched since the Fatah leadership under Mahmoud Abbas is playing ball with Israel and the U.S. As a result, for the first time since the anti-Israel resistance began six decades ago, Palestinians are divided in their experience. Now that Israel has said its attack and invasion of Gaza has almost served its purpose, the violence will hopefully ease. A few countries will continue to make polite noises for the record. The Arab street will, for a few more weeks, spill out in anger. Its leaders will spew orchestrated rhetoric. Meanwhile, stateless and unaffiliated Palestinians will tearfully bury their dead. And await the next round of Israeli strikes. As for the rest of the world, it may as well go fishing. (K.S. Dakshina Murthy was formerly an editor with Al Jazeera, based in Doha.) 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