By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef*
On the occasion of the Jewish festival of light; Hanukah in a Jewish community gathering American President Joe Biden showed the world his real face saying, “I am a Zionist and to be a Zionist you don’t need to be a Jew”. His assertion confirms the theory that “Zionists rule the world by proxy” In other words, they rule the world directly or indirectly. Israel is the cornerstone of this new American-led global system. Zionism is an idea that is based on race and ethnicity and necessarily contradicts the religious essence. It is demonstrated by various hues and colors, so there are Jewish Zionism, Christian Zionism, and Muslim Zionists as well. The latter category was hidden somehow but it is manifested in some Arab rulers nowadays. Who were and still are very keen to normalize their relations with the Israeli-Zionist state. Yet this is another story we should leave it for any other day.
Now seeing the Palestinian resistance, their resilience and intensity of patience, and their integrity and loyalty to their just cause, and seeing Israeli failure to achieve its stated goals of eradicating Hamas and getting back its hostages from captivity, the American administration wants Israel to finish its targets as soon as possible. They are searching for a stooge in the PA who will be a substitute to ineffective Mahmood Abbas and does his job with utmost loyalty ,and perhaps they have found one in Hussain Shaikh who is fully against Hamas and is buying American stand wilfully.
When I see on the TV screen the wounded and murdered innocent children of Gaza; boys and girls, I recall the verse from the Quran:واذالموؤدة سئلت( And when the girl buried alive shall be questioned, for what sin she was slain: Altakvir-8,9). When I read this verse it comes to my mind that 57 Muslim countries have big armies, and huge resources along with the unique landscapes they have been bestowed with, nonetheless with all that they could not muster the courage to dare to stop this genocide and save innocent lives. How can they escape the four-year-old, and six-year-old babies, boys and girls who would stand before Almighty God complaining that they did not do anything to save their lives? I wonder how they can escape that charge sheet on the day of judgment!
More than a hundred world leaders, top intellectuals, Nobel laureates, and Booker prize winners including Arundhati Roy have demanded world community impose an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. But Israel and its chief supporter and war accomplice America remained adamant about this humane call and are insisting on going on their barbaric bombardment.
It is important to state unequivocally and bluntly that history began in 1917, not October 7, as many Western leaders, anchors, and intellectuals use October 7 as a point of reference in their discussions. When the British colonial force unilaterally announced the infamous Balfour Declaration while there were 98 percent of Palestinians and Jews were only 2% of the total population.
Not only that but the UN divided the country into two states; Israel and Palestine. Then Israel snatched from Palestine the rest of the land and it has been constantly stealing their territory reducing it to only 2% out of the historic Palestine. The brave Palestinian people have survived all these injustices and Nakba(catastrophe)after Nakba. They survived Sabra and Shateela and survived war after war on Gaza and I strongly hope that they will survive this ongoing killing spree and devastating Israeli barbarism.
Palestine in general and Jerusalem in particular are a sacred and blessed land as the Quran calls them. Thousands of Allah’s messengers and prophets are buried therein. It is a land housing the Aqsa the third sacred mosque in Islam. Palestine is a land wherein jihad will go on till the Day of Judgment as told in many prophetic sayings. Gaza’s current jihad and the holy resistance to the tyrant, occupying state of Israel is a testimony to that. This explains the courage, the resistance, the persistence with which the brave people of Gaza are facing all the worst atrocities committed by Israel and its war accomplice America in the ruthless, unjustifiable, horrific, barbaric, and terrorizing war on Gaza. All Muslims are also responsible for abandoning the daughters, sons, and children to be slaughtered brazenly with the utmost cruelties one can imagine. As Al-Jazira reported dozens of wretched homeless Gazans who returned from the south Gaza and had installed their tents on the debris of their demolished homes were recently buried alive in the ground by the Israeli bulldozers. These war crimes are perpetually reported yet not moving anyone, nor the mute spectator the Arab and Muslim rulers, nor the human rights champion; the West and the so-called leader of the “civilized world” America who was perpetually hindering a resolution calling for immediate ceasefire to be passed in UNSC to stop the war on Gaza, the voting on which was delayed thrice by it and only could be passed when the draft resolution was watered down to be an ineffective one which falls short of ceasefire. It didn’t even condemn the fact that Israel has killed 95 Palestinian journalists so far, so the world shouldn’t hear about it. In the aftermath of this war, what would be the political scenario of Gaza? It seems that there is a full consensus among the forces of evil; America, Israel, and their secret Arab Zionist allies who are being stripped off and exposed before the world by this war, that Hamas should not be allowed to return to power again.
American defense secretary Lyed Austin visited Israel for the third time to discuss what would be the future arrangement of Gaza. Previously the US position was that the PA must take over Gaza, however the extremist Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was not in a mood to conform to this scheme. He believes that Israel should capture Gaza for a long time to wipe out Hamas from the land to ensure Israeli security. It seems that the US also reconfiguring its position and now distancing itself from the prospect of PA being in the managing position.
The narrative is being promoted by Western as well as mainstream Indian media that in the wake of the Israeli war on Gaza, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian rallies and demonstrations that took to streets in major cities and capitals of the world and in some Muslim countries, are triggered by anti -Semitic mood and anti-Jewish hatred. This is a big lie. There has not been a religious animosity between Muslims and Jews. Muslims and Jews always have been living side by side amicably and peacefully, not only in Palestine but all over the Muslim world. There are more religious similarities between Islam and Judaism than between Islam and Christianity. It was Western Christendom wherein Jews had been constantly met with hate and utmost cruelties, culminating in the Nazi German Holocaust.
It is established history that during the Spanish Inquisition, thousands of Jews and thousands of Muslims were condemned to death, religious persecution forced deportment, ruthless killing, looting, and burning alive. The end result was their forced expulsion from their homeland to the Ottoman Empire. It was always a Muslim land that welcomed them and gave them shelter, safety, freedom, dignity, and all kinds of opportunities. In history books, there are some cases reported that even certain Jewish religious leaders had been receiving on the part of Muslim caliphs and sultans, the great favor and honor, respect, and great portfolios in the social and governmental positions to be envied upon by many Muslims themselves. Jewish scholars and researchers always received a great welcome, rewards, and respect in Muslim high echelons and corridors of power. All the great historians confirm this fact in their acclaimed works.
It is Zionism which created an unbridgeable rift between both communities. Because Zionists are all hell-bent on wiping out Palestinians from their homeland; Palestine. On this sinister plan, they have been working actively since 1948 with the criminal connivance of America and the West. That is why emotions are very charged in Muslim masses nowadays and not otherwise.
Some analysts assume that perhaps Western powers might resort to an international security arrangement for Gaza like that they did decades ago for Kosovo in the Balkan region when the Kosovo city-state was beleaguered and besieged by aggressive Serb forces in 1999. The NATO forces had to intervene and make it a protected area from 1999 onwards.
Making Gaza a protected area zone guarded by international force, might end any prospect of a free and sovereign Palestine state.
In other words, Palestine in general and Gazans in particular are facing an existential threat that should be addressed properly on the Ummetic level.
Houthis of Yemen are now taking on the American and Israeli maritime interests in the Red Sea stopping cargo ships passing through Babel Mandib bound for Israel and hitting their economic backbone.
America is ensuring at all costs that there should not be any existential threat to Israel so to counter the Houthi challenge it has formed an international collision comprising 10 countries to counter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. America is ready to sacrifice all its civilizational values on the altar of Israel which has become a sacred cow for it and the West at large.
*Research Associate with Idara Tahzibul Akhlaq AMU Aligarh