On an ongoing holocaust
Tariq Al-Maeena | [log in to unmask]

There?s a holocaust in progress and yet the world remains mute
spectator ? powerless in the face of the Nazi-like tactics the Israelis
are using against the defenseless people of Gaza. This atrocity should
stain the moral conscience of all.

Israelis, on the pretext of retaliation against rockets made from
fertilizers have been feverishly dispatching their US-supplied F-16s
loaded with deadly bombs against the Palestinians. And the massacres
continue with the blessings or indifference of the United States and
other Western countries.

As the death toll of civilians rises, so does the shallowness of
Israeli claims that this is a defensive maneuver. Since the massive
aerial attack was unleashed on Saturday, over 450 Palestinian
civilians, including 59 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded,
according to Gaza medics.

Israel has been employing such murderous tactics at the cost of
Palestinian lives for far too long. There will be no peace as long as
they continue this tactic. It is a given today that the majority of
those in the region view Israel as a terrorist state, and the only such
pariah in the region.

In spite of efforts by some media pundits to alarm the Arab street
about the threat of Iran lately, it has been obvious for quite some
time that the real menace to the region is Israel?s continued policy of
expansion and oppression and confinement of a people who simply refuse
to be exterminated. What the Nazis did to the Jews in Germany, the
Israelis have done one better. On the pretext of fighting terrorism,
they continue to carry out assaults against a people who have no arms
to fight back. And yet the will of Palestinians remains strong. And the
world stands by and watches.

It?s no secret that for the past two years, the people of Gaza have
been denied all essential supplies and services to force them into
submission. They had been under a suffocating siege. Deprivation of
food, water, electricity and badly needed medical supplies are
accompanied by frequent attacks on their soil by the Israeli forces
under one pretext or another. And the people of Gaza were expected to
remain silent. But what Israel has succeeded in doing is expose its
terrorist ambitions and harden the resolve of its victims.

For the past 60 years, the Israelis have defied every UN Security
Council resolution in their quest to obliterate the voice of
resistance. Efforts by various governments to seek a just peace to both
parties have failed and will continue to fail as long as Israel engages
in such holocausts, undoubtedly encouraged to a great extent by the
veto power of the United States at the United Nations. They are also
engaging their spin machine within the Western media to justify such
atrocities. Comparisons made by the assault on civilians with F-16s and
Apache helicopters with fertilizer-fueled rockets border on the
ridiculous. Suddenly, fighting for your land and rights is no longer a
just cause to some Western columnists, who view any form of Palestinian
resistance as a form of terrorism. Talk about hypocrisy!

However, if Israel is under any illusion that their latest round of
carnage will lead to peace, then they are grotesquely mistaken. For the
people of the region and elsewhere have expressed solidarity with the
plight of the Palestinians and will continue to support their struggle
for freedom. The people have stood in unity with Lebanon during Israel?
s 32-day assault on that country. They will continue to do the same for
the people of Gaza. The Rev. Martin Luther King once boldly stated:
?Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really
cooperating with it.? The holocaust no longer means the tragic fate of
Jews exterminated during World War II. The Palestinian people are the
new victims of the crimes against humanity ? committed by a people who
once were the victims. And nobody can claim this holocaust is veiled in
secrecy, taking place in a remote corner of the earth away from the
glare of the world media.

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