The war in Gaza has by now gone over 12 months, exceeding what was originally expected.
From the ground of the expectation of success, Israel has waged the war against Palestinians in Gaza with an attitude of superiority, manifested in a harsh and haughtily manner and in presumptuous claims that its army would be the victor in the war.
Israel has experimented with all brutal methods known in the modern era, with the aim of infliction of intense pain to punish, coerce, and afford sadistic pleasure against unarmed Palestinian people.
Footings coming from the buildings leveled to the ground show that Israel takes pleasure in the infliction of pain, punishment, and humiliation on the people of Gaza.
Promises of eliminating all threats that come from Gaza, which were given by the Israeli regime at the point at which the war began a year ago, have not been fulfilled, even though Israel has chosen to achieve this by force and threat.
A costly miscalculation has been looming on the horizon from the first steps of the Israeli troops on Gaza. Young men and women in the Israeli army have been conscripted for military action.
But, from the time the war started, the people of Israel have never seen peace, nor have they had the freedom from disquieting insecure thoughts and emotions, either because they have lost one of their relatives in war or because of their consistent fear of any missile attacks coming from Gaza, Hezbollah, Yemen and or Iran. They simply live in a state and feeling of anxiety, fear, and self-doubt about their country and the governing regime since the start of the war.
Israel has long been filled with great joy and triumph of its army. The Israeli army possesses the latest and most sophisticated weaponry and military hardware, which is seen, by the Israelis, as a source of pride and honour to them. But, neither the highly complicated and developed weapons nor the sense of pride is the talk of the street in Israel now, as such a dream has been torn apart with the inability of their army to gain control over a small piece of besieged land, accompanied with increased numbers of Palestinian citizens killed in Gaza and with the merciless bullets fired against children in Gaza.
The democratic people of today’s world, whose countries are the allies of Israel, experience a state of self-conscious distress because of the war on Gaza. Without a doubt, their inherent democratic values emphasise the idea that all people should be treated equally, along with such unique traits of having compassionate, sympathetic, and generous behaviour and disposition.
Third-world peoples have always seen such values as the foundational principles of modern states. But, although Israel has long been seen as the only democratic state in the Middle East, the recent war on Gaza shows that it is the most brutal regime known in the 21st century, killing with deliberate means innocent people without consideration, compunction, and clemency and lacking disposition to be merciful and to moderate the severity of revenge to inflict injury in return for the legitimate claims of land by Palestinians.
However, as the war on Gaza continues with an extremely brutal and cruel mode of procedure and way of acting by Israel, people around the world have started to revisit the conceptualisation of such views especially since Israel has a total no-regard for humanity at all in this war.
Men and women, young and old, are indiscriminately killed. The whole of the world is unable to say a word against Israel, either because of fear or reluctance, which seems to befit the Arabic saying ‘As long as my camel is safe, I don’t care about the camels of others.’ The Arabic saying, unfortunately, reflects an attitude of contentment of the countries and peoples of the world with their own situation and indifference towards the affairs of Palestinians.
Dr Musallam Al Maani
The writer is Dean of Al Zahra College for Women
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
