Commentary - Israel has chosen to hoodwink the world, US over this war (by Gitau Warigi)

Posted Saturday, January 10 2009 at 15:49

In Summary

* There are many tiny countries who don't try to steal other's land

It is all very well to say Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip. But a few things must be put into perspective.

One, Israel has had a blockade in place around Gaza since Hamas was elected two years ago, allowing only a trickle of essential supplies into the Strip. The net result is that Gaza has been turned into something resembling a giant prison camp.

Two, all over the world, a blockade is understood to mean an act of war. One is therefore free to draw the conclusion about who began the hostilities – the Israelis and their blockade, or the Hamas rockets that were fired as a result.

Three, nobody is making the crucial distinction that the rickety Hamas rockets are not being fired at Israel proper, but in the slices of land such as around Ashkelon and Sderot that had been annexed from the Palestinians.

Four, neither is anybody telling the world that Hamas was democratically elected, defeating the West’s preferred negotiating partner, the Fatah organisation led by Mahmoud Abbas.

His fief has since been left in the West Bank, but even here Hamas would most likely prevail in a straight election. In other words, Hamas is not the illegitimate entity the Israelis are claiming it is.

FIVE, MUCH HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT Hamas refusing to recognise Israel. According to Israel and her chief backer the United States, all Hamas needs to do is to extend recognition to her enemy and all will be fine.

This position fails to take account of some painful truths in the history of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The late Yasser Arafat was arm-twisted into giving this recognition and nothing good so far has come out of it for his people.

Israel only got encouraged to become more intransigent. It accelerated the annexation of Palestinian land and the building of Israeli settlements on it. The Palestinians have nothing to show for the 1994 Oslo accords and subsequent agreements they have been rail-roaded to sign.

Any Palestinian child knows that the Israeli strategy is to string out negotiations indefinitely as they continue to concretise their position in occupied Arab land. The strategic goal is to push the possibility of Palestinian statehood into the distant future.

Why, Hamas wonders, should they go the same route only to end up in a diplomatic cul-de-sac?

Israel has perfected the art of manipulating America’s political system and media brilliantly, for her own ends. Important American leaders including presidents-to-be are given aerial helicopter tours whenever they make the obligatory political pilgrimage to Israel.

When he did the tour before becoming president, a conditioned George W. Bush remarked how Israel was such a small country surrounded by countries “who have sworn to destroy it.”

This is humbug. There are many more tiny countries all over the world whose small size does not give them licence to steal others’ land. Singapore is very small, and more crowded than Israel. Hong Kong is no different. Closer home we have Swaziland and Lesotho, and Rwanda and Burundi. Why should anybody else think their country is special?

I fear that the Palestinians who are investing too much hope in US President-elect Barack Obama will get disappointed. The Jewish lobby in the US, represented by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is so powerful that no Administration has ever been able to contain it.

Obama will find the going rougher because he will have people in key positions in his Administration such as VP-designate Joe Biden and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton who hold extreme positions on the question of Israeli security.

I SUSPECT OBAMA’S TRUE INSTINCTS about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are quite different. Still, the fawning address he gave at AIPAC’s conference last year was a pointer he will be no different.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is supposed to be at centre of the Middle East peace-making process as the envoy of the so-called ‘Quartet:’ the UN, the EU, Russia and the US. Yet who hears of him anywhere? He has been thoroughly eclipsed by the Americans.

Israel is gearing for elections next month. There is every indication that it launched its barrage against Gaza with this in mind, to make its leaders appear “tough” to the voters. This habit of starting wars for cynical electoral purposes is inexcusable.

*****

Could it be that somebody simply can’t decide, after all these months, to fill the vacant cabinet portfolios, starting with Finance? I am sure it is not the prime minister who has been dragging his feet.