By Ravi Shanker Kapoor
The Hamas is not willing to accept the existence of Israel; it has said many times that it wants to annihilate the state of Israel; it is notorious for preparing suicide bombers to kill Israelis; it has pounded Israeli territories with thousands of bombs.
The Manmohan Singh Government has, for the nth time, disgraced itself by almost siding with the murderous jehadi group, Hamas, in the recent conflagration in the Middle East. Regrettably, the Government is not alone in India which slammed Israel; an important section of opinion-makers has also been spreading canards against the Jewish state which is fighting a valiant war against jehadis of various hues.
On January 4, an official release said, “The Government of India condemns the on-going incursion into Gaza by Israeli ground and other forces. It urges an immediate end to military action by all concerned. The suffering of civilians in the region must end. India supports all efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire.” Notice the perversity in the United Progressive Alliance regime’s stand: Hamas launched 6,464 rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in the last three years, killing many Israeli citizens. Neither the Prime Minister nor External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee uttered a word at the series of outrages; but now wants that Israel should not defend its own citizens from the attacks by Hamas thugs. Perhaps, they want Jerusalem to imitate New Delhi and turn a blind eye to the slaughter of innocent people! From an impotent regime, one can only expect sermons on the virtues of impotence.
Our opinion-makers are little better than our Government. Consider the edit in Hindustan Times (December 29, 2008) which said that “even by Israel’s standards of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, the attack, using 60 warplanes on the impoverished Gaza Strip, that has killed 300 people is excessive. The offensive comes after sustained attacks by the Islamist movement, Hamas, which controls Gaza and which has vowed to crush Israel. Such has been the ferocity of Israel’s response that the extreme anger in the Arab world has extended even to the two countries that have peace treaties with the Jewish state, Eygpt and Jordan… The no-holds-barred attack has killed several children and reduced many Gaza buildings, including schools and a university, to rubble. Israel does not seem to have explored any diplomatic options at all.”
The high and mighty editorialists of HT find “ferocity” in the defensive action that Israel has been forced to take, but it has no harsh words for the terrorist organisation, Hamas, which is doctrinally committed to the destruction of Israel. The 1988 Hamas Covenant stated that the organisation’s goal is to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can co-exist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned.”
The Hamas is not willing to accept the existence of Israel; it has said many times that it wants to annihilate the state of Israel; it is notorious for preparing suicide bombers to kill Israelis; it has pounded Israeli territories with thousands of bombs. And what is Israel supposed to do according to the apologists of Hamas? It is supposed to explore “diplomatic options”!
As the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Charles Krauthammer, wrote, “Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating. Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis… deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.”
In an article, Alan M Dershowitz, Professor of Law at Harvard, described the diametrically opposite attitudes of the two belligerents: “The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians. In one recent incident, Israeli intelligence learned that a particular house was being used to manufacture and store rockets. It was a clear military target since their rockets were being fired at Israeli civilians. But the house was also being lived in by a family. So the Israeli military phoned the house, informed the owner that it was a military target, and gave him thirty minutes to leave with his family before the house was attacked. The owner called Hamas, which immediately sent dozens of mothers carrying babies to stand on the roof of the house. Hamas knew that Israel would never fire at a home with civilians in it. They also knew that if, by some fluke, the Israeli authorities did not learn that there were civilians in the house, and fired on it, Hamas would win a public relations victory by displaying the dead civilians to the media. In this case, Israel did learn of the civilians and withheld its fire. The rockets that were spared destruction by the human shields were then used against Israeli civilians.”
What is happening in Gaza today is a war between civilisation and barbarity. The response of our political masters and intellectuals, however, make us hang our heads in shame, for these grandees have refused to salute the uprightness and humanity of Israelis.
(The author works with The Political and Business Daily.)
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