Israel’s war on Palestinian Gaza is accelerating towards a desperate endgame.
Rafah city, the last refuge of fleeing civilians, is being pounded by jet bombers in a final drive to exterminate Hamas forces. The USA has pulled back from unquestioning support for the invasion, and demands a surge in aid for the wretched victims. The United National Security Council has called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages.
But negotiations for an end to the fighting are bogged down in mutual recrimination and unrealistic demands from the terrorists, whose criminally stupid attack on the Jewish state dragged fellow Palestinians into this cauldron of death. It seems clear to me, if to nobody else, that Israel is determined to exploit this military opportunity to cleanse Gaza of opposition, install a puppet administration and return settlers to the strip.
Hundreds are already queuing to go back to the townships forcibly vacated in 2005. Hardliners talk of expelling the 2.3 million Palestinians. Together with final annexation of the Occupied West Bank, where there are 700,000 settlers, this would create a larger state of Israel with defined borders.
The Palestine two-state solution, so beloved of diplomats and western politicians, would be officially abandoned. It’s dead in the water now. In the meantime, there will be many, many more deaths, on top of the 32,000 – of whom 13,000 are children – already killed by Israeli forces.
I find it distressing and inexplicable that the Jewish people, who suffered the Holocaust and so much more down the centuries, can accept what is being done in their name by a ruthless, hate-ridden government, in no small measure to rescue its arrogant Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This is Good Friday, but the latter-day crucifying is in Gaza, not Jerusalem, and it is the Palestinian people are on the cross.
