Gaza: Ceasefire Now

 

Given Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinian Territories since the 1967 war, and its grossly unfair and unjust treatment of the 5 million Palestinian people desirous of national freedom, human dignity and basic rights; the deception, duplicity and betrayal that marked its state conduct even after the signing the Oslo Peace Agreements with the Palestinian national movement in the early 1990s, especially its high crime of obstructing the emergence of a viable and independent Palestinian State in the illegally-occupied and confiscated territories; the October 7 declaration of 'Operation Al Aqsa Storm' by the Hamas military wing marks a transformational moment in the wider region.

 

Seeking to avenge its sense of national humiliation over the killing of over 300 soldiers and around 800 civilians as well as hostages taken away into Gaza, Israel lost a sense of proportion in its war against Hamas, unleashing rampant bombing of Palestinian cities and villages- including schools, hospitals and UN refugee camps; displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians from their habitats; killing thousands of innocent children, women and the aged. The already long-besieged enclave of Gaza- the largest ‘open-prison’ in the world with Israel controlling entry and exit points of the Strip-  is now facing a humanitarian disaster with the blockade of even essential food, clean water, medicine and fuel. 

The attitude of the United States, as well as the European states betray their indulgence of Israeli military excesses against the civilian population in the occupied territories. As against the fundamental rules of international law and the demands of international humanitarian law, Israel somehow seems to have an exception crafted into the rules of conduct when it comes to equal application. Such glaring injustice invites resistance, one way or the other.  Against the backdrop of the ongoing bombing of the Palestinian territories, and collective punishment of the people by Israel, leaders of Arab States assembled in Egypt to share a message of peace and prudence to the international community; outlining the immediate steps required to address the conflict, as well as the contours of a shared future for Jews, Christians and Muslims in the region. Reproduced Below is the full text of Jordan’s King Abdullah II remarks at Cairo Summit for Peace on 21 October 2023.      

The Middle East on Short Fuse

Based on recurring Divine inspirations and special Messages in recent times, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hadhrat Khalifatullah  Munir Ahmad Azim (atba) of Mauritius is inviting the world's attention to the looming dangers lurking beneath our troubled global order. These Divinely-inspired warnings can be read in his recent Friday Sermons, shared also through this Blog. When they look at, read up and reflect on these profound words intimating about the extraordinary dangers facing our small world; knowledgeable Muslims will remember the prophecies contained in the Holy Qur’an, as well as in the Prophetic traditions on the portents/events of the End Times. Ahmadis among them will also remember the dire warnings lefty behind by the Promised Massih (as) in the last century and also the unfulfilled aspects of those grim prophecies concerning the Later Days. 

The World at the Brink

There is little doubt that humanity is at the brink of Disaster(s) in our times. World nations are facing multiple dangers of an existential proportion: of environmental degradation, species extinction and the grim prospect of nuclear annihilation. The unsustainable consumption patterns in the industrialized world have also produced the irreversibly great danger of global warming and climate change, as science now confirms. The devastating consequences of this drastic change in weather patterns would be felt everywhere. Indeed, climate change threatens as it comes home not just in the main lands of the industrial world, but even the inhabitants of remote island nations who had done nothing comparable to  to bring about the whole problem. 

Likewise, powerful nations have arrogated to themselves ‘total security’ of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and they threaten other nations that defy their dictates. So much so that countries like North Korea seek nuclear capability as a security imperative; triggering global fears of a nuclear war in the not so distant future! Short of being fully wiped out from the very face of the earth through the aforesaid blinding passions of riches and excesses, the unbridled armament race among the nations has the potential of promising a veritable Hell on Earth for those of us- the hapless common humans- who are condemned to live amidst all these dangers.

The multilateral system, forged after the Second World War, is bedevilled by multiple crises and it seems incapable of providing effective solutions to the manifold challenges of global governance- poverty and rising inequality;environmental degradation; the arms race and the quest for nuclear weapons; internal conflicts and terrorism; racism and xenophobia, national chauvinism and Islamophobia, etc. International institutions and organizations are designed in such a way that these works to protect the entrenched interests of the Big Nations, rather than seeking to sub serve the larger cause of global justice and equity. These organizations largely ignore the real concerns of the poorer nations when they raise their experiences of political injustice and  colonial exploitation. 

The Case against War on Syria

The US President, Barak H. Obama, is currently seeking domestic Congressional endorsement and international political support to legitimate his decision to invade Syria. The US war against Syria has the strategic support of Israel, which shares the goal of containing Iran and the Hizb-Allah of Lebanon, which are viewed as the last threat to Israel’s national security interests in the wider Middle East. As Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria come under external attacks one after the other, the unfolding humanitarian disaster it represents for the common Muslim peoples is a matter of grave concern. The recent reports about the usage of chemical weapons in the on-going Syrian civil war provide the perfect pretext for the planned invasion. The unilateral intervention, without sufficient approval from the broader international community and the UN Security Council in particular, will be a naked violation of the rules and principles of international law. In the name of protecting the people, the US military intervention will only repeat the tragic history of destruction of the very edifice of yet another Muslim society.  

Ambassador Kanwal Sibal, India’s former Foreign Secretary and a distinguished scholar of international affairs, in his article “Two-faced in West Asia”, published in The Hindu (New Delhi), September 4, 2013, comments upon the US case for intervening in Syria as “legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow”. For the benefit of our readers, we reproduce the article below:

President Barack Obama’s case for intervening in Syria is legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow