A warning of sinister plans

Feb.10, 2008

A warning of sinister plans


IT IS funny as well as ironic that Israel has opted to complain to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and to the UN Security Council about rocket attacks coming from the Gaza Strip into Israeli border areas. It is clear on the record of the UN that Israel never respected UN decisions, even the mandatory resolutions issued by the Security Council, and always complained that the world body was biased against it. It never co-operated with the UN on any issue related to the Palestinian problem and it got away with its defiant and arrogant behaviour because of the all-embracing protective umbrella offered by its "strategic partner," the US. Now, Israel is complaining to the same world about Palestinian armed resistance against its occupation of Palestinian territory and describing the rocket attacks as "a well-directed and continuous incitement by Hamas leaders, which is part of a campaign whose main goal is focused killing of Israeli residents."
One wonders how Israel would describe its systematic campaign to obliterate the Palestinian cause since the Jewish state was created on Palestinian land in 1948, starting with a frenzied seizure of territory far beyond that was given to it by the UN partition resolution and massacres to force Palestinian villagers to flee their ancestral land in order to make room for Jews arriving from various parts of the world. It followed up with the seizure of the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and Syria's Golan Heights in the 1967 war. Since then, it followed a policy of terrorising the Palestinians living under its occupation and used every dirty trick to evict as many Palestinians as possible from the occupied territories. However, it failed to realise its objectives, and today it only because of the impossibility of expelling the 2.34 million Palestinians from the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, that is not pursuing the policy of forced eviction. In essence, Israel's name should be on the top of the list of "state sponsors of terrorism" and it has no right to raise any complaint with the UN about the results of its own brutal policies against the Palestinians in the last 60 years. It is reaping what it sowed.
At the same time, there could indeed be a sinister aspect to the complaint it filed with the UN on Friday. Coming against the backdrop of plans to stage a major military offensive against the Gaza Strip, the letter of protest could indeed be an advance measure against any UN move to censure it as and when it expands the scope of its present military strikes against the people of Gaza. Not that any UN censure would matter much to Israel. However, it would appear that the size and impact of its planned offensive against Gaza will be of such an unprecedented nature that it would provoke a major international outcry and Israel is taking an anticipatory measure. That is the only conclusion one could draw from the Israeli protest sent to the UN. It is indeed a forewarning of the shape of things to come. As such, the international community has the moral responsibility prevent Israel from carrying out its military plans against the people of Gaza.