Thursday, January 22, 2009

Another country hanged from the rope of 'Liberation'

It’s been a while since the Israel attack on Gaza strip, yet once again, flooded the international page of our dailies. Most of us, who can give only 10 minutes of our time to the world, will be familiar only with terms like Hamas- the victim, Israel- The big bad wolf and US- its ally. Maybe that is the reason people have been writing absurd mails about ‘saving’ Gaza. I am not of the opinion here that Israel was right and Gaza wrong. The question unfortunately does not arise of right or wrong. It’s all about power. It always has been.
For those of you who do not know, elections are supposed to be held very soon in Gaza. I would also like to mention here that not all are in favor of Hamas there. This war has however turned those not in favor of Hamas on their side. So, this can very well be a strategy to swing votes in their favor and come into power once more. A few deaths here and here is not a price big enough to deter them from getting the highest post in the country. Actually, it’s few people less to govern for them. Also even in Israel elections will be held very soon and the same thing can be said for them as well. After all, history is a witness to the fact that nothing works better in favor of political parties than war. The wonders that Kargil did for BJP is known by everyone.

In this case it was Hamas that broke the truce by attacking Israel first. The fact that the truce was suppose to get over in a few days after the attack, now withstanding. Israel was willing to extend the peace period with Hamas.
It may sound like I am in favor of Israel but that is truly not the case. U.S and Israel have more commonalities than the Jewish population in both the countries. They both believe that they are the sole guardians of terms like ‘liberation’ and ‘freedom’. I really had a good laugh, when I read that Mr. Ehud Olmert, PM of Israel, said that the attacks on Gaza was a way to ‘liberate all the Palestinians’, in a report by the agencies. Rings a bell? Let me help you, this was exactly what Bush said when he was going on a war with Iraq. U.S and Israel think that if once declared a terrorist organization by them, no group is liable to rule a country, the fact that the people of that country are the one’s who brought these ‘terrorist’ organization into power, is immaterial. After all how can these people who do not even understand the meaning of simple words like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ be capable to decide for themselves and their country? It is their moral duty to make them and the rest of the world interpret these terminologies form their point of view.
Another similarity between Gaza and Iraq is, both are rich in natural resources. We are all aware of the madness that is created by the words ‘petrol’ and ‘natural gas’. These terms have been officially recognized by the world to offset the word ‘Humanity’. There is an untapped natural gas resource in the Gaza Marine gas field, an area about 36 kilometers off of the Gaza coast, estimated to be 4$ billion USD. In 1999, UK based British Gas (BG) discovered natural gas there. BG proposed to pump the gas into Israel, however Gaza and Israel couldn’t agree on the price.
Yet even before the talks broke off, the situation shifted dramatically in June 2007 when Hamas violently ousted Fatah from power in the Gaza Strip, claiming ownership of the gas fields off the coast and the proceeds from the sale of the gas. This posed a serious problem for both Israel, which obviously was not going to pay a portion of the money to Hamas, and to BG, which was banned by its government from negotiating with Hamas, declared as a terrorist outfit by the UN.
“Looking at the current situation, the main objective of the IDF is to break down Hamas to the point where it is no longer capable of attacking Israel, or to negotiate a binding cease-fire agreement with an assurance from Hamas that it will stop its daily rocket attacks and cease smuggling weapons into Gaza through tunnels connected to Egypt.
Removing Hamas from power in Gaza and reinstating Fatah will be almost impossible. However, according to newspaper reports, cabinet ministers have been told that some Hamas leaders in Gaza are desperate for a cease-fire and would be willing to settle on almost any terms stipulated by Israel”, reported Jerusalem Post.
Israel till now has been getting natural gas from the neighboring country Egypt. The realization that Egypt’s resources will get over sometime in future has dawned upon our friends now. So, why not bleed Gaza whose airspace, territorial waters and land borders are under Israeli military anyway.
Right from food to electricity, everything is brought into Gaza from Israel. The biggest exporter for Gaza is Israel. Israel is the only connection of Gaza with the outside world (the opening from the Egypt side closed after Egypt lost Gaza in 1967 to Israel). Basically Gaza is actually only a strip, which can be called an extended territory of a full-fledged countryIsrael, known by another name.
So, practically speaking, what sense did it make for Hamas to attack Israel when they know they are in such a delicate situation? The whole natural gas bit was on hold anyway. By attacking Israel, Hamas has only given Israel a way to make sure that it can now take over those resources by including them in the cease-fire agreement. Hamas had the chance to actually extract money from this whole deal. Alas! Their hunger for power is going to make sure that the country never comes out from the depths of poverty whose bottom it is hitting already. Maybe it will give birth to another extremist group which will bomb either U.S or Israel and then Israel can formally take over Gaza. Then we shall have ‘freedom’ in the Gaza strip. And then we will also have another war and another country to talk and abuse and blame.