Henry Loh, in a recent Aliran newsletter, succinctly described the current situation in the Gaza crisis.
“It is such a shame that the world simply sits back while witnessing the destruction of Gaza and the killing and maiming of ordinary people,” he wrote.
This rings helplessly true. My heart breaks everyday witnessing the tragedies unfolding before the global public eye.
Henry quoted the late Pope Francis’ call for a “globalisation of hope”.
It’s a great idea, but where is the basis for hope in the genocidal action of Israel, armed to its teeth with nuclear power?
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US President Donald Trump had the gall to say with a straight face that the people in Gaza are starving and dying. Yet all the while it is US bombs, munitions and financial support that are causing it.
Western nations – the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and the EU – together with other white supremacists, are complicit in Israel’s impunity with military support. The leaders of these countries have even clamped down on people’s protests with brutality.
When the leaders of a country are equally complicit in Israel’s impunity, those who elected these leaders are also implicitly complicit.
Israel claims the crisis began with the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
This is a false pretext. It began in 1948 with the catastrophe of the Nakba engineered by the British. The Palestinians have suffered under the severe oppression ever since.
When an animal is badly wounded and cornered, it will use all the strength left in its body to fight back. That is what happened on October 7.
Henry says that the international community acting through the UN is trying to resolve the crisis with a two-state solution. This would see Palestine and Israel living side by side.
But the so-called international community is controlled by the US and the West, and the UN has no teeth. In my mind, that will never be a solution. The Israelis have done irreparable damage that will not be forgotten for generations to come. You cannot wish the bitterness away.
Most Israelis are Zionists, who sprang from the roots of evangelical Christians. (The Jews are a different kettle of fish.)
Israel as it stands now – driven by Zionism to occupy more and more of the Palestinian territories in an ongoing genocide – has forfeited its right to exist. It has to be cast out of the UN and isolated by the rest of the world.
Israel has to be taught a hard lesson. But who among the global spectators dares to do that? It might well be wishful thinking. The Houthis are the only ones up to this formidable task with no help from the Arab nations of West Asia.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he roams around unhindered.
History tells us of a another catastrophe that befell the Jewish people long before the Holocaust. In April AD 70, Jerusalem was besieged by the Roman Empire. The Romans depleted the city of food and water, starving the Jewish population. They killed, enslaved or exiled most of the Jewish people to other parts of the region. Rome also destroyed the Second Temple and much of Jerusalem.
Half a century later, the Jewish people were still forbidden to enter the city. Rome renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitalonia” after Jupiter. The Jewish people were still banned at the time when the Muslims conquered Jerusalem in AD 636.
Tragically, the Israelis are now doing to the Palestinians what the Romans did to the biblical Jewish people all those centuries ago.
The Palestinians today have nothing left and nowhere to go. I despair for them.
I honestly see no glimpse of hope on the horizon. The alternative is a nuclear meltdown. Israel will not go without taking the rest of the world with it.
I grieve that I can do nothing to stop this horrendous atrocity.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
I feel the same helplessness and guilt. Evil dominates our world and we can’t seem to fight it.
What is the root cause of the current crisis?
“When an animal is badly wounded and cornered, it will use all the strength left in its body to fight back. That is what happened on October 7.”
REALLY? EXCUSE ME? You did not see the wanton bestiality inflicted — with videos distributed with glee on social media?
Refusal to release the hostages after that performance was to provoke retaliation. The Hamas heroes gladly sacrifice the rest while they slip down the rabbit hole.
The crisis is real, extended knowingly by Hamas.
We can go back to 1948. Back to 2,000 BC too.