The recent Israeli assault is one of the worst since 2014. So far it killed 197 Palestinians including 50 children and left almost 1000 wounded. Electronic media giants CNN, BBC, and MSNBC turned a blind eye to the barbarism to induce an Israeli narrative.
For me it is not a conflict, it is occupation, oppression, assault, and apartheid of Palestine since 1917. It all started back in 1897 when Theodor Herzl, laid the foundation of Jewish Zionism—the organization which went against the basic ruling of Judaism to not have a separate state for Jews until Messiah arrives to the rescue.
Read more: Israeli aggression and bloodbath in Palestine-the new intifada
Theodor Herzl, the founding father of the organization, came out with the slogan, “A land for the people without land, in a land without people” referring to Palestine.
The 1917 Balfour Declaration created early tension in the region. At the time, the region had a small minority Jewish population, although this was growing via significant Jewish immigration.
Following the implementation of the Mandate for Palestine, which included a binding obligation on the British government for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” the tension grew into sectarian conflict between Jews and Arabs.
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Attempts to solve the early conflict culminated in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the 1947–1949 Palestine war, marking the start of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. The current Israeli-Palestinian status quo began after the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Many peace-process attempts were made to defuse the tension but remained unsuccessful—like OSLO accord 1993-1995 for a two-state solution, an attempt in 2007 to persuade both stakeholders to have defined boundaries, and the latest one is a deal of the century by USA then-President Donald Trump.
So far, this conflict resulted in 35,000, (derived figure from adding the number of fatalities that occurred in different engagements ) fatalities from both sides in different confrontations since 1947.
Read more: Things to learn from the Israeli violence
Tit-for-tat rockets & airstrikes
In 2005, Israel withdrew its army and settlers from Gaza but retained the control of borders, thus remaining an occupying power. The following months saw rocket fires from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes.
In June 2006, Israeli forces entered southern Gaza & kidnaped two suspected Hamas members from their homes. Hamas retaliated the next day with a cross-border raid.
Israel then launched “Operation Summer Rains.” The operation’s goals were to release the kidnapped soldier & eliminate terror.
During hostilities, the IDF seized 64 Hamas-linked Palestinian officials, flattened Gaza’s power plant, razed several bridges, and by October, had killed 256 Palestinians, including 60 children.
Read more: Children of war: Where is Israel’s morality?
In the winter of 2008/2009, we saw Operation Cast Lead. A six-month ceasefire had expired, rockets were launched, and Israel slammed full force into the Strip. In eight days of air attacks, 400 Palestinians and four Israelis were killed. Then came the ground invasion.
Rockets continued to fly at a lesser pace, and by January 18, 2009, 1,300 Palestinians were dead and 5,100 injured; 13 Israelis had been killed, 80 injured and 22,000 of Gaza’s buildings had been destroyed and 80% of its crops.
Read more: Israeli warplanes continue to pound hapless Gaza, Hamas retaliates with rockets
In November 2012, after four more years of tit-for-tat rockets & airstrikes, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense. The goals were “strengthening deterrence, damaging the rocket arsenal, damaging & hurting Hamas & minimizing injury to civilians on the home front.” Over the next week, 167 Palestinians were killed (at least 87 non-combatants).
More than 380 residential properties were destroyed; the Strip’s agricultural sector sustained $20 million in losses.
In July 2014, when Israel launched Operation Protective Edge–2,200+ Palestinians were killed; Israeli human rights organization Btselem found 63% were noncombatants and 25% were children. 18,000 residential units were destroyed; 100,000 Gazans were left homeless. Gaza’s only power plant was destroyed, also destroying water treatment, sewage treatment, hospital functions, etc.
Read more: China calls for seizure of Israel’s Jerusalem attacks
The recent Israeli assault is one of the worsts since 2014—so far it killed 197 Palestinians including 50 children and left almost 1000 wounded—the media houses, residential buildings, and electric supply, etc. have been destroyed.
Escalation in conflict
A variety of reactions came from different nations of the world, especially electronic media giants. The assault began from the prayers of “The Night of destiny “ in Al-Aqsa mosque—the night which is divine to Muslims and occurs in the last ten days of the holy month Ramazan.
Israeli forces used stun grenades, tear gas, and water cannon to disperse the Muslim worshippers. Palestinians retaliated against Israeli forces and took injuries. Sheikh Jarrah’s eviction of Palestinians from their homes by Israeli Settlers flared up the skirmishes and they are still continuing.
Read more: WATCH: Israeli settlers celebrate blaze in Masjid Al-Aqsa
Israel air stroked Gaza on Monday -May- 10th -2021 and killed 20 Palestinian including 9 children. Hamas retaliated with rockets to defend their territory, but it backfired.
Global response
Almost the entire western world came out, condemning Hamas for retaliation and standing firm to the Israeli cause.
The US president Joe Biden tweeted “ Israel has the right of self-defense”, and the state Secretary of the USA, Antony Blinken, spoke to the IDF chief and assured his firm support and condemned Hamas.
EU Commission President Von der Leyen tweeted in favor of Israel and condemned Hamas’s retaliation. The former vice president Mike Pence, tweeted, “I stand With Israel” and many more prominent leaders from the USA.
Read more: Turkey slams US for calling Israeli attacks self-defense
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted the flags of the following countries: United States, Albania, Australia, Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Macedonia, Paraguay, Slovenia, Ukraine, Uruguay–with the caption “Thank you so much for absolutely Standing with Israel”.
As aforementioned, many more countries propagated the Israeli Narrative and their Media channel helped them very much in disseminating the false Israeli Narrative—CNN, BBC, and CNBC were at the forefront to condemn Hamas’s retaliation and undermining the huge Palestinian civilian atrocities.
Read more: Israel excludes India from friends list: Pakistanis mock Indian bhakts
But there are few sane voices, who disagreed with common and false narrative and stood firm with oppressed Palestinians—singers, movie stars, artists, and reporters also denounced the Israeli narrative.
Demonstrations occurring all around the globe from different caste, creed, color, ethnic and religion supporting Palestinian cause and ask for immediate cease of Israeli violence.
Muslim countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Qatar are at the forefront and asking the UN and European Union to intervene and defuse tensions—an OIC emergency virtual meeting called to assure firm support to Palestine. Few media houses like TRT, Aljazeera, RT, and Reuters are doing their unbiased reporting, which is admirable.
Read more: Erdogan hosts Islamic summit to back Palestinians, condemn Israel
Pakistan’s dilemma
Pakistani diaspora is very different from other nations as they are emotional, extremists, and a tit-for-tat kind of people. They are on the streets asking the Pakistan military to take military action against Israel. They called for Jihad during the past week and supplications of Israeli destruction are in full swing.
To address this reaction, I have two thoughts in my mind. If Pakistan even prepares to fire any weapon or “Atom bomb” towards Israel, the US, with its sophisticated weapon system, will stand before Israel making any move of Pakistan useless.
Read more: Pakistan’s National Assemby adopts resolution against Israeli attacks
Our missiles and weapons are for defense and they can only be used when there is no other option left concerning the defense of the country and cannot be used the way our nation has fantasized.
Second, the USA, with its allies, will seize the Pakistan nuclear stockpile and they will have a legit reason to enter Pakistan and “save the world”. No one will come to the rescue, not even KSA or Turkey. They will “urge” the UN to interfere, as being witnessed before on many occasions.
Read more: Thousands march across Pakistan denouncing Israel’s aggression
USA and allies have a strong presence in neighboring Afghanistan which they can use to neutralize Pakistan’s aggression against Israel in the blink of an eye.
Do not turn a blind eye to India also. They are ready to provide Israel with bases to launch strikes against Pakistan if they see any existential threat to Israel. Pakistan will turn into another Syria, Kashmir, or Palestine and we will consequently see more suffering of the Muslims.
The author is a Network administrator at PTCL with Masters in Telecom and networking. He is fond of writing on domestic, national, and international affairs. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.