NEW YORK - A cartoon in a US news magazine many moons ago showed a Palestinian woman huddled together with her child in a makeshift shack as American-made Israeli Phantom jets rained fire on the refugee camp. As she looks up at the skies, the woman says to the child: "I think the UN must have just passed a resolution condemning Israel." She was probably dead on target -- and she may have been right about it last week too.
As the scene shifts to the world body, the Security Council which dragged its collective feet for nearly two weeks did eventually adopt a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire from both warring parties.
Not surprisingly, the US refused to vote, opting for an abstention even though the resolution was carried forward overwhelmingly, with 14 ayes in a 15-member Security Council. Still, the British-sponsored resolution was a watered down version of the original hard-hitting resolution sponsored by Libya on behalf of the League of Arab States.
 |
| Palestinians carry a badly wounded girl following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip on January 9. AFP |
Less than 24 hours later, however, the Israelis responded to the resolution by resuming its bombing on Gaza. Not to be outdone, Hamas continued with its rocket fire, also in violation of the Security Council resolution. The UN had failed to break the military stalemate.
As the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza continued, US President-elect Barack Obama refused to make any major political pronouncements on the killings. As one Middle East analyst pointed out, Obama took cover by repeating the same old mantra: there can be only one US president and that President was George W. Bush -- at least until January 20. And so, Obama watched the horrific killings from the sidelines.
However, following criticism from his supporters, Obama briefly broke his silence when he told reporters: "The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern to me, and after January 20, I am going to have plenty to say about the issue."
He pledged to hit the ground running to achieve a broad Middle East peace deal. Whether he will be able to pull this off or be restrained by the powerful Israeli lobby is left to be seen.
Meanwhile, citing credible Palestinian sources, the usually-cautious United Nations said the Israeli military operation had killed 758 people in Gaza, of whom 257 were children and 56 women, with 3,100 wounded, including 1,080 children and 452 women. In contrast, the total number of Israeli deaths, both military and civilian, was about 10, including by friendly fire (meaning Israeli troops mistakenly shooting at each other).
The figures were staggering by any standards. But what if they were reversed? As one critic pointed out: how would the Bush administration -- or for that matter Obama -- have reacted if 758 Israelis had been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers over a two week period? There would have been cries of genocide and a second holocaust -- and the Gaza Strip may have been nuked.
As the General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann pointed out last week, the US continued to maintain that this was "not the time for diplomatic action" -- thereby giving the Israelis the chance to complete their military action in an attempt to wipe out Hamas. As a result, there was very little diplomatic activity at the UN, with the US rejecting all attempts by the Security Council to intervene -- until the adoption of a resolution late Thursday.
The situation in Gaza is so abominable that both the UN and international human rights organisation have refused to remain silent. Israel has been accused of violating humanitarian law and Geneva conventions. Even the Vatican seemed outraged by the unmitigated violence by the Israelis.
Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, stuck his neck out by comparing Gaza to a "concentration camp" reminiscent of the horrors of a Nazi era provoking anger from the Israelis. "Look at the conditions in Gaza," the Cardinal said last week, "more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp."
At a UN press conference last week, Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said the closure of Gaza by the Israelis represented collective punishment which was illegal under international humanitarian law.
She also accused Egypt of complicity because it had enforced the closure of the Gaza borders on its side. Whitson also condemned Israeli attacks on police stations in Gaza. She said police were not combatants and could not represent legitimate targets unless actively engaged in hostilities.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the Israeli Defence Forces for firing on a UN convoy killing two UN relief workers. Since the conflict began, four UN relief workers have been killed forcing the suspension of food distribution.
Last week, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat of Ohio) wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointing out that Israel's use of American weapons in Gaza may constitute a violation of the requirements of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976. The AECA outlines the conditions under which countries may use U.S. weapons systems, primarily for "internal security" or "legitimate self defence."
The letter says that Israeli forces have used US-supplied F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters "to precede and to support ongoing ground actions such as the one in which 40 Palestinians were killed while taking shelter in a UN facility." "Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable," he added.
But, in reality, since Israel has a self-proclaimed divine right for everything it does, it will never be held accountable. | 
E-mail