Gaza Cease Fire, Propaganda and the Hypocrisy of Arab Leaders
In the dying days of 2008 and the early weeks of 2009, the world stood and watched an intense and round-the-clock attack by air, land and sea, by the Zionist state of Israel on the Gaza enclave, where we witnessed a horrible massacre of innocent, armless people of Palestine, an event or atrocity that can only be compared to the genocide in Rwanda or Bosnia Herzegovina, in which thousands of people were murdered in cold blood. The three weeks Israel bombardment of the most densely populated enclave on earth has been described as the most inhumane act human beings have ever witnessed in modern history.
Israel, we were told has no option but to murder armless civilians, including women, old men and children in order to ‘defend’ itself from the continuous rocket attacks launched by the "terrorist" Hamas group against its civilian population. Had it been Israel is a respecter of human right, democracy and the sovereignty of its neighbours, nobody would have opposed their response to Hamas rocket attacks upon ‘its’ territory. But we all know, Israel is far from that, therefore, whatever Oulmert, Barak or Livni would tell us is just a repetition of what was said during the Shatila refugee camp massacre, which even Western journalists who are mostly sympathetic to Israel have no option but to condemn.
However, is this the truth of the matter or is it only a sketch, a partial sentence chosen from a lengthy paragraph and removed from a broader context that would paint a completely different picture of the whole issue? Hamas, just to remind you, won an election in Palestine described as the most democratically election ever, however, the same people calling Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organisation refused to recognise the government. Media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, argue that the crisis in Gaza and Palestine is as a result of failure of the Arab leadership who 99% of them are not democratically elected, therefore cannot tolerate a legitimate government, elected by people in their midst.
Up to the time of writing this piece, nobody claim, either in the West or within the Arab nations of any type of irregularities in the 2006 election which saw the emergence of Hamas as victorious, the only reason given for the refusal to accept the result was that Hamas is an extremist organization which they felt cannot be accepted. Rather than searching ways to find a lasting solution, the West under the former US President George Walker Bush decided to isolate Hamas. They stopped financial assistance to Palestine as a punishment on the Palestinian people for electing a government of their choice. Israel on its part imposed a blockade on the strip thereby putting the 1.5m people in a worst humanitarian crisis in history. Was this not ironic? Considering the fact that the US has spent billions of dollars, to export their form of democracy to Iraq?
There is no telling in the kind of atrocities committed in the occupied territory since the carving of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians including school children have been murdered, tortured to death, starved to death, others were maimed and injured for life by brutal Israeli army. Others are still languishing in Israel prison. Many of the victims are average citizens on their way to work or to school, while others are involved in protests against occupation. Only a handful were armed–do you blame Hamas or any other armed Palestinian organisation for trying to protect their motherland and their families from daily assault by one of the powerful army in the world? Or put yourself in their shoes; What will you do today if an occupying force raid your house kill your mother and your father, rape your sister, destroy the house in which you live?
The question is why are all Arab leaders silent while the massacre was going on? And why are they always in disagreement over helping the people of Palestine? Why Arab leadership is always disorganised? Why?
Some Arab states and their leaders like Syria repeatedly criticise Israel's actions, but they have little or nothing to do, neither Israel nor United States will listen to them. However, for some Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan it is extremely difficult for them to accept or recognise Hamas, talk less of supporting them in the recent violence. This is largely because it is deeply troubling for them to do so. Hamas contested an election in 2006 which was regarded as the fairest and freest elections ever to take place in the Arab world. Therefore, it is better to allow Israel to deal with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza for them, for daring to choose democracy in place of dictatorship.
Arab leaders whether in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE or Egypt would never accept any democratic government in the Middle East, doing that will expose them and open an avenue for their citizen to rise and demand for democratic reforms. On their part, the West especially the US prefers to deal with the dictatorial regimes than to allow democracy to flourish because of their interests in the region. If not because of that, how would you explain the attitude of the West and US towards dictatorial regimes in Syria, Sudan, and Iraq under Saddam with others like Jordan, UAE, Egypt or Kuwait?
What the crisis in Gaza did was not only exposing the double standard of the West and US in dealing with the Middle East crisis but has also exposed the hypocrisy of the Arab leaders in dealing with the Palestinians on one hand and Israel on the other. The Israeli invasion of the strip also opens a new chapter in its relationship with its neighbours. As most analyst observed, the crisis gave Hamas a long time victory as did the Israel/Hezbullah war in 2006. The crisis discredits the Abu Mazen unpopular government, expose the double standard of the West, especially the US and provide Hamas with additional support not only from Palestinians but also other people around the world, including those who were seeing the movement as a terrorist group.
Kabiru Danladi,
Lawanti Village,KM 25,
Along Gombe-Bauchi Road,
Akko LGA, Gombe State,
Nigeria.
kblondon2003@yahoo.com
08054546764, 08035150369