Unequal war

Photo: AFP

Last month's 22-day bombardment and artillery onslaught on unarmed Gazans by the Israeli army is the most vicious attack on the Palestinians in such a small area. The attack destroyed their houses, offices, schools, mosques and so on and in the process killed more than 1350 people including over 350 children. But why? Apparently all this mayhem was in retaliation for the so-called rocket attacks against Israel which by the way a western journalist called ' tin pot rockets' practically causing no damage so as to warrant such a devastating response. Now one may ask why did the Hamas fire these useless rockets toward Israel?
The answer lies in the fact that for the last 18 months Israel had imposed total blockade around Gaza reducing the lives of its residents to utter misery. In such circumstances, it is only natural that the people would resort to some sort of protest with the means that they have , even if they are counter-productive, particularly when the world powers were doing nothing to get the blockade lifted! It is highly unlikely that Israel would have attacked Gaza in this manner had Hamas also been armed with similar weaponry!
A few days before Barack Obama took over as the US president, he was asked what he thought about the Israeli attack on Gaza and he replied that he would do the same if somebody threw stones at his house where his family was staying. Unfortunately, he did not think it proper to ask as to why would anybody attack somebody else's house without valid reasons when the reaction was likely to be severe and very damaging. It is precisely because the big powers are unwilling or unable to put pressure on Israel to implement the UN resolutions asking it to vacate the occupied Palestinian lands that this problem has become so intractable now.
The sooner big powers, particularly the US, put sincere efforts into solving this problem the better it will be for all concerned. The US should not allow Israel to put unacceptable conditions to the Palestinians. It should just implement the relevant UN resolutions. Israel remains the strongest power in the region and no country in that region is capable of destroying it. It should rest assured that America will not allow anything to be done which will be detrimental to its security. At least, the Palestinians should have a state of their own instead of being in a protectorate of Israel.