While the Israeli Defence Forces have begun the long-awaited ground assault on Gaza city, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave the group’s first reaction to the Israeli attacks, thus encapsulating how the conflict could grow, as more and more forces were pulled in. Israel which may well find that the proliferation of opponents will make it increasingly difficult to defeat the combination. Israel may have defeated alliances before, but the most resounding of those victories, the Six-Day War, took place five and a half decades ago.
Another problem that Israel is facing is that Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians took place on October 7, and have not been repeated. They fade into insignificance when compared with the incessant bombardment by Israeli warplanes, which are also hitting civilians. The argument that civilians support Hamas does not wash, for it means that Israeli settlers then become legitimate targets, because they can be presumed to support continued occupation. Israel tried to obfuscate its attack on the Al-Ahabily Hospital, because it realised that the images of death and destruction would show it in a poor light, However, the apparent success with which it got people to accept its lie that the Palestinians themselves had it t with a misdirected rocket apparently gave it the confidence to bomb the Jabaliya refugee camp, where the images of death and destruction created a revulsion of feeling within the publics of those very countries which have been so slavish in their support for Israel.
It is true that the state of Israel rests on the land of the Palestinians who have been driven out of their land, their very homes. However, what is essential now is for the slaughter of innocent women and children to be brought to an end, which means that there must be a ceasefire. A more lasting solution must naturally be found, but a stop to the slaughter of innocents must not wait for that. The Western powers backing Israel should be made to realize that their turning a blind eye to Israeli behaviour is merely encouraging it. It is a painful irony of the present situation that the people which underwent the massive and unimaginable slaughter of the Holocaust, should now engage in a similar act of genocide. What is the difference between what is being done in Gaza and what the Nazis did in the Warsaw Ghetto?
