But Let's Beware of Making Israel Into World Villain #1 & International Pariah To Boot

Though the following once roughly drafted, now somewhat spruced up 'letter to the editor' was within days overtaken by a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, these 'troubled thoughts of the night' give proper balance to and provide some degree of context (in my view) to this lay-person's reading of the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

As per usual, unequivocally the full weight of accepted international moral opinion and consensus comes down upon and falls heavily against the Israelis - as represented by their Government's actions of late.

But who's at real or at least most fault here? Arguably not the Israelis, merely exercising the long-established and universally all too well-understood right - of sovereign nations and/or peoples - to self-defence; by whatever means are at their disposal. Suffering daily, continual and intense bombardment from an enemy, apparently bent upon their - utter - destruction, or at the very least their abject terrorizing, they simply respond with surgically precise air strikes - sadly, and yes all too predictably, killing many innocent civilians including small kids in the process; (among families, according to Israel's Government, however, deliberately 'planted' next to missile silos and the like, to subsequently elicit popular sympathy for the Gazans' side of the conflict.) Whereas since the Israelis manage, through clever(er) technology and/or simply better preparedness, to evade such civilian death - losing very few citizens to Hamas rocket fire - they are automatically deemed the moral transgressor in the conflict. Since the Gazan Palestinians are thus clearly understood to be the natural underdog, 'we' instantly come to their defence and support, much as few people would tend to rally in support of Goliath when David is being overshadowed and threatened darkly with death. That's human nature, clearly understood and very understandable.

Granted - and it's a big concession - Israel certainly did kick-start this conflict anew, in one major, important sense, by choosing to - at this time - 'take out' in exactly such a clinically well-planned, organized and executed assassination, a leading member of Hamas. For who knows what underlying reason? Perhaps as a major distraction, with knowledge of attention all too undesired to soon come upon them again - whether well-deserved or otherwise - for the death in 2004 of Yasser Arafat, a beloved leader of the Palestinians. Someone who, love him or hate him, exuded a natural charisma and leadership on the world stage unequalled by any other popular Middle East leader since Abdul Nasser; excepting Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein, though these two were hated, loathed and detested in significantly greater proportion. Or maybe, as has been said, simply as an age-old device in drumming up support ahead of a rapidly approaching election.

So here we have it: the widely acknowledged militarily stronger nation in the conflict, Israel, supposedly - admittedly its vehement critics would argue only ostensibly - goes out of its way to avoid causing civilian casualties, yet actually 'achieves' exactly the opposite outcome among Gazan civilians (through arguably no fault of its own). Whereas that selfsame country, Israel, daily and hourly suffering intense aerial bombardment throughout its territory, perpetrated by a party, yes arguably the guilty aggressor in the conflict, determined thus to 'take out' as many innocents as possible, fails miserably in its aim but certainly not for want of trying or intention. And so we come to judge one party - i.e. the Israelites - as ipso facto the aggressor in the conflict, due to the evident results of its actions.Whereas the other party in the conflict, the Hamas militants in Gaza, despite motive-wise, apparently having no greater desire than to kill as many innocent Israelis as possible -none of their missiles evidently being aimed at obvious military targets - are rather impotent as it turns out, and so are to be automatically adjudged the innocent party. I'm sorry, something's not quite right here. If I indeed am wrong, then pray tell me in what appreciable way?

Indeed, Israel's Government amazingly made no upping of its long-threatened escalation of said conflict (by sending ground troops into Gaza) even while yet another bus full of completely innocent and totally defenceless Israeli civilians were bombed to smithereens - without either a murmur or a whisper from the international community, much less its supposed 'guardians' the United Nations. Which reminds me of a number of old newspaper clippings I've been stumbling upon recently, which alarmed and concerned me at the time in view of the international media approach to Israel. What were these? Simply two occasions over the past decade-and-a-couple years when Israel, in order to secure the release from captivity of one (or at most a few) of its soldiers in Palestinian (I believe Gazan) captivity, willingly and rather controversially -  among its citizenry - to put it mildly, agreed to simultaneously release around 500 Palestinians prisoners. So who - really - cares more about its own civilian (or for that matter military) population?

Alas, Yasser Arafat's Legacy May Soon And Sadly Speak...

Methinks the current exhumation of Yasser Arafat, longstanding leader of the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization - and moreover undisputed 'spiritual leader' to the great majority of Palestinians -long rumoured to vindicate claims that he was poisoned to death those 8-some years ago now, may well prove those [claims] well-founded. And methinks this has indeed been the underlying and even 'justifiable' explanation for the long-simmering and again recently boiled over anger, yea fury, of so many Palestinians in Gaza. For surely this [only just undertaken] exhumation of his remains, in the expectation that such may well reveal signs of the untoward manner and cause of his premature departure from this life, has been only too well-reported in Gaza of late, and long before the longstanding tensions there once again came so dramatically to the surface in recent weeks. However controversial the life of this longserving champion of his people - an unwavering advocate of a Palestinian homeland for the long-dispossessed Palestinian people (although arguably also of the expulsion of Israelis from Palestine 'into the [Mediterranean] sea' and thus their utter extermination) - the actual cause of his death, long the subject of suspicion, if only now long after the fact close to being (theoretically) 'conclusively' established, should give ample pause to all parties involved and yes, maybe even soul-searching, among Israelis and Americans especially, in days and weeks and months to come. One can only ever live in hope. Irrespective of any 'verdict' or declaration upon the matter, however, one suspects that Arafat undoubtedly will be seen anew as a martyr. No, and to his enduring and considerable credit, he certainly didn't self-immolate or die in a suicide bombing, taking both his own life as well as that of countless innocents, but martyr for the cause he may well come to be regarded as. All the more so in that, whatever and moreover whoever the cause of his early demise, he thus appears to have been 'taken out of the way' in an extraordinary and surreptitious manner all too eerily reminiscent of Russia's current leader.

Admittedly I've personally suspected that Mr Arafat was not only deliberately 'disposed of', but done so for one reason more than any other: the well-founded and arguably justifiable conviction on the part of Israeli intelligence and security especially - and perhaps even their superiors going all the way up into the inner echelons of Israeli Government - that were he to have not been thus summarily despatched the world may well have seen its end in an atomic holocaust centered around Jerusalem in 2006: a scenario well within conceivable feasibility according to the revelations in Michael Drosnin's groundbreaking and critically important The Bible Code (unfortunately misrepresented by some superficial observers). Conspiracy theories some may assume, but I imagine such is a lot closer to the real crux of the matter than many imagine. And paradoxically, in so doing I also suspect that such covert assassins have - however inadvertently and inconceivably (in their own eyes) - actually thus moved Planet Earth a heckuva lot closer to such a long-feared scenario than they realize: a couple minutes if not seconds away from the long-fabled Doomsday Clock's hands striking midnight. Indeed by thus galvanizing the outraged sympathies and passions of the Palestinian people for their beloved long-time standard-bearer, thus transformed into an unrivalled and inimitable martyr for their cause par excellence, and by virtue of the appalling manner of his death perhaps even 'being able' consequently to enlist the similarly outraged sympathies of a world populace, or at least the leadership thereof, equally appalled by the thus silencing and disposal of a man generally considered not only a paragon of supreme moderation and even pragmatism in Palestinian-Israeli affairs, I - extremely regretfully - believe "the children of Ismael will [thus] prepare to arouse all the nations of the world to come against Jerusalem"*, and thus fulfil longstanding biblical prophecies that are rapidly looking increasingly liable of fulfilment...(From 'Chapter Notes', pages 170-172, The Bible Code.) But I certainly hope such is not the case, and like Michael Drosnin and Eliyahu Rips, the now famous Israeli mathematician intimately associated with the decoding of said 'Bible Code', and indeed a whole host of other commentators upon and (at times suitably hesitant and tentative) interpreters of various of the other major end-time, apocalyptic prophecies of a time many believe to be all too resonant with our own, believe - as has indeed ever been the case throughout the 'biblical  (i.e. Older and Newer Testament) dispensation' - that humanity, by its own choices - has an essential freedom to choose just how those, supposedly  predetermined' events, actually pan out. I.e. God's foreknowledge does not indicate His foreordaining. 

And yet, realist that I cannot help but ultimately be, I suspect that Mr Arafat, "being dead, yet speaketh", and not in the faith-building way that his martyred biblical forbear - the first human being created, and all too soon murdered by his own brother - has surely done over earth's many millennia. No, I suspect rather that the manner - and presumed cause - of his demise will bear 'fruit' indeed, if long after the fact, but in a way far from conducive to that long-eluding peace in the Middle East that the region's numerous and diverse inhabitants and indeed humanity itself, have long wistfully yearned for and equally consistently been cheated of. As Grima Wormtongue of Lord of the Rings might have put it, an ill omen bearing evil tidings indeed.

Still It's Somewhat Sad To See...

...pictures of jubilant masses rejoicing in misplaced triumphalism in the streets of Gaza, celebrating and  skiting as if they've just achieved, not a painstakingly arrived at ceasefire, in the very nick of time, but rather a glorious victory upon the field of battle. And, to add sad and inglorious insult to injury, pronouncing this 'triumph' as if it were one more notch in a tally of victories against the much loathed and feared 'Zionists' of Israel. For such is certainly the tenor and substance of the understandably emotive but surely inflammatory language reported by foreign correspondents in Gaza. That is, if we are to trust the evidence of our eyes, admittedly often a dangerous thing; but the telecast celebratory marches and associated 'spontaneous' street demonstrations of solidarity with the militant, yea terrorist Hamas movement presently governing Gaza, would tend to lend 'cred' to such an interpretation. Leaving one to wonder whether this present 'blip in [Israeli-Gazan] proceedings' is really serious and liable to extend beyond the token customary period.

And certainly Israel's Government, on the other hand, by threatening speedy and severe retaliatory measures in the immediate aftermath of the recent conflict, may well bring short-term comfort to its citizenry, but how such helps accomplish a climate of goodwill and hope in the extremely fraught situation is incomprehensible to the nth degree. For surely in such a highly charged atmosphere every pebble thrown into the maelstrom of muddy waters known as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not altogether dissimilar from yanking the lid off of Pandora's Box. Sure, the potentially dire consequences are anything but unexpected, yet they are certainly considerable, and where they might ultimately lead 'God only knows'...

*Necessary Disclaimer: In saying all the foregoing I'm well aware how utterly and thoroughly insensitive such comments no doubt initially and superficially might have appeared, and so I hasten to add that they were in no sense to be taken as casting any sort of unfair and untoward reflections upon those who've lately been suffering extreme grief and anguish from the killing, maiming and otherwise mutilating of their kids, parents and other relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours, let alone the destruction of their homes and environs. Mind you, surely that 'goes', i.e. applies equally to all those likewise innocent Israelis suffering similar - if on a much lesser scale - trauma, and let's not forget the ongoing and irrevocable psycho-emotional trauma induced by all of the same, as well as that inevitably caused by the ongoing regular bombardment of one's overall vicinity, though apparently without (military) 'success', which so often either goes unnoticed or not fully appreciated by the casualty 'number crunchers' in their penchant for 'cold hard facts and stats'.

Let All Good Men (& Women) Rejoice, With Heart and Soul and Voice - AND YET...

Whenever 'peace' is achieved, all folk of goodwill cannot but be glad, even thankful...and yet for every silver lining there is inevitably a darker cloud beneath. However, 'today' - the day of the ceasefire brokered between Israel and the Gazans - is not the day to dwell upon that. To paraphrase what the ranger Aragorn - the Dunedain of the North born to Gondorian kingship in the 3rd-4th age of Middle Earth - declared: "there may [indeed] come a day [and no doubt all too soon] when the strength of [Israeli and Gazan] men fail, but this is not that day." A day when the (most disputed part of the) Middle East once more goes up in flaming smoke or down in a flaming heap, but, thank God, "this day is not that day". No, "let us rejoice and be glad": for divine mercies, however 'small' and all-too-temporary. "Blessed [indeed] are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."