The sad incidents in Gaza is about to enter its second week and Israeli bombers have killed almost 100 Palestinians. Israeli army is also ready to enter the Palestinian territory but the decision is still pending as in this case, Hamas may not be as weak as in the case of airstrikes and they may show tough resistance as was faced by Israelis in Lebanon a couple of years before. At present, Palestinians are the most victimized and helpless people who have been left on the mercy of the accuracy of Israeli bombs and when the sole aim of attack is revenge and there is not present any clear target, the level of accuracy may be very low, resulting in the destruction and fatalities of large number of buildings and people who may have no part in this game. According to the media reports (here I mean the Western media), majority of the victims of these air strikes included of women and children. This fact is also verified by the names and numbers of deceased and injured being provided to the media by the hospital sources in Gaza.

It looks as if there is always a need of any excuse to heat up the tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis. I leave it to the political experts as who benefits the most from the peace and war in the region but it is quite evident that peace may provide with a very dangerous opportunity for getting into issues that cannot be discussed and brought into light in normal circumstances. When there would be peace and there would be no issue of attacks, prisoners, human calamities and discussions of the evil and the good, there would definitely be the time and opportunity to look into issues that may not be much liked by Israel. Israel has never stopped its expansionary policy of occupying more and more Palestinian land to make more residential colonies for its citizens. In peace time, this issue becomes very evident and easily comes into limelight. Reporters also get time to check if what is going on there on the Gaza strip, as how the land is being grabbed and how giant concrete walls are being mounted and then starts the discussion of the good and evil in this case. But if you want to divert the attention away from these issues, let there be war and all the shocking and breaking news and reports associated with the war. War is not a routine issue so whenever it happens, it provides with the media, political and military experts and leaders of the world a lot of things to talk and discuss over and over again so if you want that the attention should not be beamed on issues like that of Israeli expansion and walls, let there be war and let there be an issue more attractive, more colorful and more entertaining so that the attentions may be diverted away from these small, petty things.

Every year or if it gets late, after a gap of two years, there is always something between Palestine and Israel that results in the death of some dozens of people and the issue remains fresh. But it is very unfortunate that the victims of these conflicts always remain the same; the Palestinians and common Palestinian children, women and elderly in most cases and not the members of Hamas or Al-Fatah who are accused of inflicting harm on Israelis and who become the sole reason of all the attacks by Israel on the Palestinian soil. Whenever there is any such conflict, it is always good and long enough to take months or in some cases years to normalize the things. First of all the cease-fire is ensured, and then the rehabilitation is started, which is followed by the process of building confidence between the two neighbors and then starts the process of resuming peace talks. And there is another paradox with these peace talks. Since the conflict started after the First World War when a Jewish state was established in the heart of Arab states, these peace talks have continually been held and many times, there were agreements and understandings but the bloodshed and strain remains the same in the region. In most cases, the peace talks are held successfully for which a beautiful ceremony is held mostly in the lawn of White House but it takes almost a year or two before the smiling leaders of both the countries sign on some papers in front of media but of course, these signs have never stopped the spilling of Palestinian blood in the region. Now, when two years pass, peace is restored and life gets normal, Palestinians discover that Israelis have moved some more kilometers inside their territory and established concrete walls and well-secured community residences. Then they start shouting to divert the attention of media and international community on this and when they just start getting the international attention, another problem happens and attention is diverted away from these and in this way, the game continues, in which Palestinians keep losing in form of lives and land, adding to the boundaries of Israel.

Here, I would also like to sympathize with the loss of Israelis. In every such incident, they also suffer the loss of a couple or very rarely a dozen of lives, mostly including of the military, but the rule is very clear. For every Israeli, there would be the sacrifice of at least 10 Palestinians and in most cases, the tally reaches and crosses even 50, without any discrimination of the militants or civilians, armed or unarmed, the grownups or the children, and men or women.

Same proportion applies for the present conflict which started with the kidnapping and death of three Jewish teenagers. Hamas was accused of this heinous act which was not proved by any source and was accepted by the western media without any verification. In order to revenge these three Israelis, almost 100 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in the Israeli airstrikes and there is not present any confirmation of the death of at least one Hamas member who were accused of being the perpetrators of this crime. On Thursday, 31 Palestinians were killed and almost hundred injured in the Israeli airstrikes in which there were kids aged 1 to 3 and of course women in large numbers but Western media was busy in showing the rockets being fired by Hamas onto the Israeli soil. It was strange to find out that some 100 rockets were fired by Hamas in these four days and they destroyed a couple of houses and injured four citizens and a couple of soldiers and nobody was killed. These statistics were provided by the Israeli government and presented by the western media. It is such a strange comparison that four people have been injured by one side and more than hundred killed and many more injured from the other and both the sides claim to be victims. This is the impression one gets when watches BBC or CNN when the rocket attacks of Hamas are more highlighted than the airstrikes of Israel.

As far as international leaders are concerned, no one wants to be ‘rookie’ by criticizing Israel so at present, they are doing their duty by asking both the sides to work for peace. This includes of our neutral Ban Ki Moon as well, whose organization claims to work for the nations of the world without any discrimination.

It is a simple rule that until you have power, whatever you do and say is correct and your words are the rules and your conduct is the norm of the day. This applies for all and at present, applies very well for Israel.