Just before the Christmas time, rocket shooting started from the Palestinian side to Israel, known as fired by Hamas and Israel has started a heavy bombardment against Gaza Strip of Palestine and caused more than 500 to die and around 900 civilians are wounded in the region. The situation is escalating and a serious attempt from the world power is waited to come calm down the situation and end the war with a ceasefire.
Hamas is hold responsible by the Israel authorities since they kept shooting rockets to the Israel side and it clear that Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by Israel Government. But more importantly, it is crucial to understand that Hamas is generally supported by the public in Palestine. Mark Tran from Guardian, uses some of the comments taken from the blogs around the world and Tom Sagev writing in Ha’retz, thinks Israel is repeating the mistakes of past and believes that they can get rid of Hamas militarily. In the same news, published in Guardian, Sagev adds, "But Hamas is not a terrorist organisation holding Gaza residents hostage: It is a religious nationalist movement, and a majority of Gaza residents believe in its path.”
It is not a surprise that Hamas is strongly supported with in Palestine and also in other countries of Middle East undercover, because "Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another” and it seems that Israel do not want to work on changing the minds of Palestinians and politically moving them to any other milder alternative which might even take some part in cooperation with Israel and neighbouring countries. The solution seems to be easy and sharp; kill them all! Unfortunately, just as it had happened before, this reckless decision of Israel is far from being rational and it seems that extreme groups of Middle East will gain more and more public support in the long run.
Humanitarian side of the story seems to be one of the most disastrous one ever took place in Middle East in such a short time, Red Cross and ambulances are not allowed to carry any help and open air markets, universities, mosques, hospitals are even under bombardment according to recent news. More than the pain and the sorrow in the region, it seems that the tension is bound to rise immensely, if there would no emergent measure taken by US, EU and UN. There is no doubt that the Bush is still in his office and even in his last few days refuses to take a serious action to end the war. Except France, EU is also tented to emphasize the need to take an action after the rocket shootings of Israel. UN Security Council is one more time, could not function and come up with a serious resolution which would guide the sides of the conflict.
Jackson Diehl from Washington Post also points out the same important side of the story by looking at Israeli PM Olmert last actions; “he will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini wars in les then three years in power” and he also adds “The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza and retain the capacity to strike Israel."
Politicians and the decision makers are, in general, expected to be rational and making sensible decisions, but it is obvious that rather than calming down the already boiling pot of Middle East, adding a bit “more gasoline on the fire” might also discomfort Israel as well as Palestine in the long run. Extreme religious groups in both sides can well be see the situation as a “new crusade” or a kind of “jihad”, but more than these word, rational politicians should start thinking peace in the region and showing the needed efforts urgently, since the each casualty creates more hate and sorrow which are the main fuels of the any extreme groups taking violent actions in the region.
Gokhan KURTARAN
Reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attacks-motives
0 yorum:
Yorum Gönder