Israel's raid on aid-carrying ships
Israel's attack on an aid flotilla trying to break its siege of Gaza is a clear outrage. And it is so because it not only flouts international law but also shows the patent defiance of the Zionist state of the global community where its treatment of Palestinians is concerned. In these past three years, for all the opprobrium it has earned over its actions, Israel has continued its blockade of Gaza and so has made it extremely hard for its residents to lead normal lives. One reason for Israel's aggressive moves has been the predominance of Hamas in the region. The unfortunate reality has been that the Tel Aviv government has successfully been able to ward off all calls for a lifting of the siege. No effort expended toward pushing Israel into a less hardline stance has succeeded. The bigger reality is that Israel's friends in the West have, save some temporary pressure from Washington, not quite been able to push it toward a settlement.
This intransigence on the part of Israel has now led to the death of as many as 19 peace activists at the hands of Israeli forces. The rash action taken by Tel Aviv on the ships carrying aid for the besieged inhabitants of Gaza can only be looked at as one more provocation by Israel in an already volatile situation. Indeed, any chances that might have been there for peace or at least for peace talks to get underway were set at naught through the rise of the present Israeli administration under the hawkish Binyamin Netanyahu. The new prime minister has, to the consternation of the world, shown little inclination towards initiating talks with the Palestinians on ways of restarting the search for peace. He has shown himself inflexible over the question of Jewish settlements in Arab areas, an issue that put him, even if momentarily, at loggerheads with the Obama administration. The problem with Netanyahu and everyone else in leading positions in Israel today is their apparent belief that looking away from the Palestine problem will make it go away. That belief has only been exacerbating the conflict.
In the peculiar circumstances arising out of the murderous raid on the aid flotilla, it is for the global community to take all measures to bring the Israeli leadership to account for the act. The UN Security Council has urged an impartial inquiry into the incident. Let that inquiry be a purposeful one. Unless it is, conditions in the Middle East can only worsen. The first step here cannot but be a lifting of the Gaza blockade without delay.
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