And their unending blood feud
Israel and Palestine have not been prime time Middle East news for some time now. The post Iraq war violence, the Arab Spring, falling regimes, rising sectarianism, the long transition from AQ to IS, and the rise of al Baghdadi’s caliphate, have all pushed the Palestinian conflict far to the sidelines. Some would argue that the Naqba (catastrophe), commemorating the first time Jewish settlers ousted the land’s original Palestinian inhabitants, is no longer the greatest calamity of the Arab Middle East. Much has happened, and most of it in the past few years, after the Americans brought their war against terrorism to Iraq – on trumped up charges, of course.
That is not to imply that things have got any better for the Palestinians, just that the world no longer pays any attention to their plight. Last week’s merciless killing of a Palestinian teenager – burnt alive, according to autopsy reports – is just another case in point. 16 year old Mohammed Abu Khder was kidnapped, allegedly by Jewish extremists, in revenge for the no less brazen kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers the week before. And so the cycle goes on.
Even Jewish sympathisers in the foreign press are having a hard time justifying the Palestinian boy’s killing, not to mention the Israeli state’s usual criminal silence over such matters. There can be no excuse for such violence, and western capitals, known for their closeness to Tel Aviv, must press these points very hard from now on whenever they sit down to finalise future arms deals, defence contracts and state department grants. The Palestinian leadership, too, must put its house in order once and for all. Fatah has not been much to write home about for some years now. And Hamas, moving from blunder to blunder, has little credibility left with the people. Rather than continue provoking the enemy from a position of weakness, they are advised to focus on the reunification. They are already guilty of insulting and embarrassing a half century of blood and sacrifice. It’s about time they, too, exhibited a degree of responsibility, and some care for the people they represent.