Diplomacy, not war

This is the moral high ground that society and civilisation ought to be aspiring to

The unity of society is often punctuated by military aggression that could have been thwarted by diplomatic negotiations.

The age-old art of diplomacy has saved the universe many a time from spiraling downwards to chaos, death, and destruction. With a proper resolve and engagement philosophy of a just world, walking into a logical, democratic, and diplomacy-driven environment can muster much needed spark to settle differences and live and let live.

This is the moral high ground that society and civilisation ought to be aspiring to. Unfortunately, the military engagement over Gaza by Israel and its vastly superior military might has not only bloodied its streets, killing and mutilating thousands of innocent children, mothers, and general citizens, but the stench of the dead and dying have wreaked havoc into the minds of conscientious citizens the world over.

The world has seen demonstrations against the Israeli killings of the citizens of Gaza from Chicago to London in the West, to cities from the rest of the world. Even sensible citizens in Israel have come out in droves to put an end to this brutal and unjust war that they claim to be undertaking to eradicate any further threat from Hamas, the counterforce in Palestine. In this game of cat and mouse, innocent people are crushed like flies, and some are living with the scars of brutality so deep that the world has no answer.

The brutality is so steep that the sentiment of the world is surely tipping in the direction of Palestine these days. Israel is paving its way to self-destruction. Israel, due to its military prowess, is overlooking logic and rather irresponsibly using weapons and not taking a diplomatic route to iron out their differences with the people in Gaza. History reminds us that Hitler and other despots of the world had their downfall after committing crimes against humanity.

A recent poll in the UK claims that almost two-thirds of the British public (62%) believes that the Israeli government is committing war crimes. These polls decidedly create an image problem for Israel; many people, especially in the Muslim world, have strengthened their resolve to boycott Israeli products and services. During the cataclysmic economic failure of the Western capitalism in the 2007-08 period culminated in swelling frustrations, many left-leaning initiatives came about, including the Occupy movement.

The current movement of humanity desires to end the one-sided war and has geared certain momentum in questioning the moral ground of the military assault by Israel on the people of Gaza having greater rights to this land that Israel has laid claim to only recently, and is slowly and cleverly encroaching.

The fight between Israel and Palestine is so one-sided that even a CIA counter-intelligence veteran, spending a career monitoring Israeli and Palestinian military capabilities, said: “Compared to what the Israelis are using, the Palestinians are firing bottle rockets.” The playing field is so uneven that bitter sparks of dissent runs among humanitarian agencies, and the inactivity of these agencies have been questioned in the media and social media space. Human rights advocates are claiming that plain and clear genocide is taking place right under our noses while the world plays a nonchalant role.

In line with global consensus, we earnestly place a call for stopping the genocide by Israel. We want the USA to show their moral ground by supporting the righteous and not the aggressor (Israel in this context). More than 1,800 people are dead in Palestine, all in the pretext of self-defense, and the deaths continue to mount. Passionate voices are rising around the world due to the insanity and the media promotion by Israeli organs and supporters like the USA and others.

Had this brutality taken place in other parts of the world, where natural resources are aplenty, we would have seen USA, Nato, UN, and all international bodies screaming venom and sending their own combat forces all in the spirit of safeguarding democracy and establishing a rights-based society.

Where is this spirit to unsettle the aggressor? Where is the world body now to take Israel to task? Why are the world bodies in hibernation and their voices timid as a squirrel in the forest? Is it because Palestine is a part of the forgotten humanity with no mineral-rich enclaves?

Or is it that Muslims in Palestine need to be slowly annihilated for grabbing more territories by Israel? Whatever the reasons, it is a shame that murder and destruction is the preferred method in achieving their vision. It is greed tainted with the blood of children and destitute women, and it shall always be written in the annals of history that Israel raped and ravaged Palestine.

The state of Israel will ultimately self-destruct from despair and shame, lofted at them from across the world. Israel may lose friends due to their avarice and total disrespect to humanity. Even when the USA begins to see through their fallacious logic in supporting Israel in the current context, they may also withdraw their support. Israel should have a moment of re-awakening, cease and desist from this murder and destruction, and only then can peace be contemplated. The world will eventually put down a mad dog and we want the world to truly bring sense and sensibilities into the bosoms of the Israeli government and pave the way for a peaceful negotiation to co-exist with Palestine.

As citizens of a free world, we have to vehemently oppose the insensitive and rapacious murder by the government of Israel. We therefore place our votes of severe discontentment and want international bodies to treat this murder and killing as genocide and bring justice on the perpetrators. Upright citizens do not support Hamas either because citizens believe that guns are not the answer – peace is.

The essence of this article is to signal peace to Israel, therefore, let this message travel to the right quarters so that actions do take place, bringing sanity to the crazy order that Israel has subjected the world into. The world is tired of death and destruction. Israel, Hamas, and the world at large, we welcome you all to build bridges of hope, not enmity, so the children of the world live in peace. Finally, I join in prayers for the departed souls in Palestine and other regions of the world and seek justice for their nonsensical deaths.

Source: DHaka tribune