Understanding the Israeli provocation

What we have been witnessing is an attempt at the annihilation of a people, the people of Gaza. Almost 200 people, including women and children, were killed in Gaza by an Israeli attack.

It is no different from indiscriminate acts of terror.

Recognizing no rules of engagement, the Israeli state turns into the terrorist entities they criticize. What is shocking is not only the massacre itself but the war-machine-like attitude adopted by Israeli authorities. They appeared proud of what they did to the people of Gaza, toward whom they show no emotion, no sympathy, no understanding.

One would expect from Israeli government representatives a word of sympathy for those innocent victims. No, they are adamant, insensitive and emotionless -- just like a war machine. For Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, killing 200 people in Gaza was a "good operation," and the brave soldiers of Israel should only be congratulated for such a successful assault. That is it.

Representatives of Israel talk again of terrorism, jihadist terror groups, etc., but what about their own actions? Listening to them, the Israelis seem to have all reason to kill any number of Palestinians at any time under any circumstances since Palestinians are regarded not as fellow human beings but as individual weapons directed at Israel. This state of mind, blinded by a paranoid sense of "insecurity," is incapable of doing anything.

Such acts of violence will only bring about more violence, not only against Israel, but all around the world. The vicious circle of violence is perpetuated by such violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

The Israeli attack seems a well-calculated act to put off the search for peace in the region. It is an act to provoke Palestinian retaliation leading to a cycle of violence, a scene that will justify the Israeli massacre and force the new administration in the White House to side with Israel. This is the key to understanding the timing and the scale of the Israeli assault.

The Israeli attack on Gaza was thus not carried out in a limbo. It is an attempt to hijack the Obama presidency and dictate the terms of American policy towards the Palestinian problem. In a way it tells President-elect Barack Obama to mind his own business in the Middle East and tries to compel his administration to side with Israel in the "fight against terrorism." For the continuation of this "grand alliance against terrorism," Israel needs to present the Americans with proof of terrorism, which will be plentiful after such a provocation.

Rising tension in the Middle East after the Gaza massacre will have repercussions on regional politics. Radicalism in Middle Eastern politics will be strengthened as a result of this ruthless violence. By such acts, Israel puts all moderate forces at risk including Fatah, for which this event may be the beginning of the end.

Use of violence is not monopolized by the state of Israel. Others in the region are likely to resort to violence as well. In the emerging anger towards Israel, it will be difficult to persuade the Arab masses on any cooperative arrangement with Western powers, which appear to support Israel unconditionally. It will now also be more difficult to counter the Iranian search for developing nuclear weapons.

Israeli atrocities will certainly add to growing anti-Western and anti-Israeli sentiments in Turkey, too. This time conservative Islamic elements, which have developed more favorable views of the West in recent years, may be inclined to join the anti-Western camp if the US and the European Union fail to take a new initiative to force the sides, including Israel, to a peace settlement.

29 December 2008, Monday