Newspapers have been carrying pictures of Palestinians carrying bodies of babies killed in ruthless bombardments on besieged Gaza or women and children fleeing for their lives to where they do not know. These sights evoke an overpowering feeling of sadness mixed with despondence. But this is only the tips of the iceberg. What is happening to the people when Israeli fighter planes randomly pound buildings that come crumbling down on the residents beggars description. Few can see how lives perish under the debris exactly in a manner when earthquakes of higher magnitude strike.
Well, Hamas is responsible for starting this fresh round of vengeance. More than 1,000 Jewish people were shot dead by this militant group. That the retaliation would be many times stronger can easily be realised, given the record of the incumbent premier of Israel. Netanyahu is known for his hawkish policy and ruthlessness when it comes to dealing with people on whose annexed land Israel now stands.
Remarkably, the war in Ukraine has been sidelined by this fresh armed conflict in the Middle East that has never been at peace thanks to the devious policies followed by the so-called highly developed nations in the West. The Biden administration has been quick to respond to the Hamas attack in Israel, expressing its solidarity with the Netanyahu government. Other Western powers have not been so vociferous in their support for Israel but they also toe the line of the US.
Military campaign is meant to unleash its fire power against rival forces, not against the civilians. But this is a misnomer. To humble Japan, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. In the World War I and II, more civilians were killed and fell dead than the members of the regular armed forces. In Bangladesh and Bosnia Herzegovina, what the regular military carried out is the worst genocide or pogrom humanity has ever experienced. The fact is that many of today’s defenders of democracy, human rights and moral guardians of the world turned a blind eye, particularly to the genocide in Bangladesh.
True, there were people of conscience who in their individual and collective capacities stood by the nation fighting for their liberation. That was the only silver lining in the pitch darkness that enveloped the political horizon in the West and also in the East. Even powers opposed to each other had no qualms in forging a truce on the issue of war in Bangladesh.
Yes, the natives to the land in Asia, Africa and America have suffered the worst fate at the hand of the colonial powers in Europe. The Europe is also the breeding grounds of world wars. First the Europeans and their settlers in America also began to export wars. When the cold war has long ceased to be, it has once again been revived surprisingly by the man in the White House, a democrat. On this count his immediate predecessor Donald Trump was right to concentrate on domestic affairs by withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Trump is right when he claims had he been at the helm of affairs, the Ukraine war would never have taken place. He also boasts he could stop the war within 24 hours. Perhaps not an unfounded claim! The seed of the discord is the expansion of the NATO when there was a need for abolishing such a military pact to deescalate military tension and rivalry.
All this brings us to the sufferings not only to the natives to the soil but also beyond. The entire world, even countries like Bangladesh that was eying rosy days ahead, are paying through their noses following the Ukraine war that happened because the Biden administration went back to reclaim its global lordship. Even the Europeans in whose favour the US claims it is acting are paying a heavy price. The robust economies in Europe, particularly that of Germany, is encountering the sharpest slump in modern time.
Devious US political ambition destroyed Iraq and led to Afghanistan’s slip into today’s Middle Age-like darkness. Human misery does not count to such politics. Rhetoric is one thing and love for the wretched, hapless and undone are a completely different thing. The political vengeance in areas around Palestine is a creation of Western politics. Conscientious people’s heart bleed for the tragedy and trauma the Palestinians are going through. In a world where people not related with blood takes so much pains to save an ailing life, in Gaza taking life is a regular phenomenon even in normal times. That is a sinister feeling always giving a wrong message about humanity and civilisation. This can never be the hallmark of humanity or civilisation. But this is enforced on a people for no fault of their own. People in the wide world also develops a sense of mistrust to the point of cynicism and nihilism in civilisation in its present form. This is the greatest loss mankind is bearing with thanks to the Western powers’ sin 75 years ago.
