SSP Diaries | A war without end

SINCE THE massacre of over 1,200 Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and the retaliation that the Palestinians have been subjected to continuously since then, in the name of eliminating Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there has been no sight of a cessation of violence.

The UN has reported that there are approximately 23,100 deaths in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and January 7, 2024. Estimates reveal that an average of 250 Palestinians are killed by the Israeli military each day, with many more people at risk of dying from hunger, disease and cold.

THE DESTRUCTION OF A PEOPLE

For those who follow this conflict, it quickly becomes evident that the wrath unleashed upon Gaza is one calculated to totally obliterate and erase from the face of the earth, the Palestinians. This is not a war against Hamas, but one calculated to ensure the destruction of a people by Israel.

Let me be clear. The attack by Hamas was totally wrong and cannot be justified in any way, no matter the injustices suffered at the hands of Israel. The revenge being administered by Israel is an even greater wrong, and goes well beyond the boundaries of a right to self-defence.

Israel’s thirst for blood has made their current leaders become irrational, warmongers lacking compassion, genocidal, power crazy, devoid of respecting humanity, racist, and a law unto themselves. In essence, they have shown that they are not averse to dishing out the very atrocities their people suffered at the hands of the tyrant Adolf Hitler, in what the world has come to know as the Holocaust. As happened then, much of the world looked on and did very little; and in a strange way, history is now repeating itself.

NO WINNERS

In this conflict there can be no winners. The way in which the Israelis have waged their campaign does not indicate the ‘precision’ or professionalism the Israeli Defence Force is known for. The targeting of hospitals, schools, refugee camps, commercial and residential buildings, as described by the media, and the magnitude of the destruction seen, clearly suggests that the overall objective is to destroy the Gaza Strip completely and utterly, and all who are in it.

The seizing of Palestinian lands and other properties goes unchecked and is taken to be a given right by most Israelis. They will continue in this mode as long as they have the support of the US and its major allies, and as long as the US government continues to be held in the ‘back pockets’ of the powerful Jewish lobby in that country. Ideology, politics, economics, and military power are all involved in this one in a very deadly mix. There is no end in sight.

OPPRESSIVE ACTIONS

Tomorrow the Israelis may say that they have dismantled, destroyed, or annihilated Hamas, but how likely is this to be a reality? In my opinion, it will not be a true statement. The oppressive actions meted out to the Palestinians, and especially since the events of October 2023, are likely to be lessons passed down from generation to generation. These are lessons of hatred, rights denied, oppression and suppression, racism, inhumanity. Successive generations of Palestinians will seek revenge and restoration by fair or foul means, the Israelis will react, and so the never-ending spiral of negative events will continue.

These activities will not be in Israel only, but are more likely to play out in countries such as the USA, UK, Canada and across the European Union, to name a few, as Palestinians and Jews expand the conflict. The seed has been sown by the irrational actions of a few. It will grow to become a major problem across the globe.

Another psychological monster has been created; there is no end in sight to the violence that will result.

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