A world full of brutal souls destroying humanity has its feet deep set in the current Israel-Gaza (Hamas) war. As an Indian, if I am asked to interpret a situation that has lifted up its mammoth foot to rampant killing that is happening in Gaza, I will blame it on Israel. I will label Israelis as heinous crime committing cannibals.
But does the world know the reality? Protecting the fellow countrymen in the scenario is a crime? Why does Israel celebrate being an extremely patriotic nation?
Amongst the countries of East Mediterranean coast, Israel is a stand-alone Jewish nation.
What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting?
Israel is the world's only Jewish state, located just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, and want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over who gets what land and how it's controlled.
Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Today's lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.
The 1967 war is particularly important for today's conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations.
What is Zionism?
Zionism is Israel's national ideology. Zionists believe that Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel, in the same way that the French people deserve France or the Chinese people should have China. It's what brought Jews back to Israel in the first place, and also at the heart of what concerns Arabs and Palestinians about the Israeli state.
Arabs and Palestinians generally oppose Zionism, as the explicitly Jewish character of the Israeli state means that Jews have privileges that others don't. For instance, any Jew anywhere in the world can become an Israeli citizen, a right not extended to any other class of person. Arabs, then, often see Zionism as a species of colonialism and racism aimed at appropriating Palestinian land and systematically disenfranchising the Palestinians that remain. Arab states actually pushed through a UN General Assembly resolution labelling Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination" in 1975, though it was repealed 16 years later.
Gaza is a densely populated strip of land that is mostly surrounded by Israel and populated almost exclusively by Palestinians. Israel used to have a military presence, but withdrew unilaterally in 2005. It's currently under Israeli blockade.
The sporadic rocket fire that's hit Israel from there since its pullback has strengthened Israeli hawks' political position, as they have long argued that any Palestinian state would end up serving as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967, when Israel occupied it (along with the West Bank) in the Six Day War. Until 2005, Israeli military authorities controlled Gaza in the same way they control the West Bank, and Jews were permitted to settle there. In 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled out Israeli troops and settlers unilaterally.
Gaza is governed by the Islamist group Hamas, which formed in 1987 as a militant "resistance" group against Israel and won political power in a 2006 U.S.-based election. Hamas' takeover of Gaza prompted an Israeli blockade into Gaza, on the grounds that Hamas could use those goods to make weapons to be used against Israel. Israel has eased the blockade over time, but the cut-off of basic supplies like fuel still does significant humanitarian harm by cutting off access to electricity, food, and medicine.
Hamas and other Gaza-based militants have fired thousands of rockets from the territory at Israeli targets. Israel has launched a number of military operations in Gaza, most recently a 2008 air strike campaign that culminated in a ground invasion and a series of air strikes again in 2012.
Why did Israel and Hamas go to war in July 2014?
The ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups including Hamas, which has killed 1,777 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, was sparked by the June 10 murder of three young Israeli students. It spiraled into an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frenkel disappeared while in the West Bank, where they were studying at a yeshiva (University). Israel conducted a massive manhunt in the Palestinian territory, alleging they were abducted by members of Hamas. (Israeli officials appear to have disagreed from the start as to whether the killers were acting on behalf of Hamas or were lone cell acting on their own.) The boys were found dead on June 30th, apparently executed. Subsequent reporting suggests that Israel already knew they were dead when the search began, and used the manhunt as a cover for arresting a large number of Hamas operatives as a response to the killings.
Israel also responded to the deaths with a limited bombing campaign in Gaza against Hamas targets there, beginning the night of the boys were found. Palestinian militant groups (though, notably, not Hamas) in Gaza fired rockets into Israel.
Then, on July 2, a 16-year-old Palestinian named Muhammed Abu Khadeir was found dead near his Jerusalem home, apparently burned to death. Police arrested six Israelis for Khadeir's murder, telling reporters that the killing has been "nationalistic." In simpler terms, that it was a revenge killing by Jewish extremists for the murders of the three Israeli boys.
How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine?
Non-Muslim countries recognize Israel's legitimacy and maintain diplomatic relations with it, but most are harshly critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and ongoing occupation of the West Bank. Global public opinion at present is assuredly more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
83 percent of the world's countries, and almost every country that isn't Arab or Muslim majority, recognizes Israel.
That being said, Israel is extremely unpopular worldwide. In a BBC poll of 22 countries, Israel was the fourth-most disliked nation (behind only Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea).
It's clear that West Bank settlements are a key cause of Israel's poor global standing. Most of the world believes that Israel's continued control of the West Bank is an unlawful military occupation, and that settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. Though this view is supported by most legal scholars, Israel and pro-Israel conservatives dispute it. They argue that the West Bank isn't occupied and, even if it were, the Fourth Geneva convention only prohibits "forcible" population transfers, not voluntary settlement.
Being politically correct does not help bringing Palestinian or the Arab nations back on humanitarian ways. In such countries lie the world’s most loathed practice, “Jihad” and its various forms of people being forced into converting their religions. For a world where befriending the neighbouring nations has been the most required trait of diplomacy, the Arab nations must pay heed to peace-making pacts and join hands with rest of the world to live a harmonious future. Today Israel has breached UN’s call for cease fire on Gaza several times; this in defence to protect its people, in future the rest of the world might stand against and Gaza might have to lose its existence.
It indeed is a lesson for the rest of the world, more so for India to understand the urge of being more than just a patriot and wake up before another 26/11/2008 makes its way conveniently while the rest of the world witnesses.
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