Israel and The International Order
No country in the world can dare to behave like Israel, not even North Korea. When we lampoon Iran for violations of International Law, we talk about Israel's ability to go and strike within the sovereign Iranian territory at the same time. When we condemn human rights abuses by Burma, we gloss over the fact that Israelis can literally bulldoze homes and people, and also anyone, like Rachel Corrie, who comes in between. We invade countries to stop them from using weapons of mass destruction, but turn a blind eye when Israel uses deadly chemicals on, of all places, UN offices. We are just embarrassed when Israel copies our passports, steals our identities and go across the national borders to carry out political assassinations. We put sanctions against Iran for developing nuclear centrifuges, but keep mum about the Israeli weapons.
If the usual standards were applied, Israel would be world's biggest and most consistent state sponsor of terrorism, the largest arms smuggler, the worst violator of human rights and a genocidal state based on the principle of religious intolerance. But, then, usual standards do not apply to Israel.
One wonders what the reason could be. It is difficult to accept the god-given rights to his chosen people to bring misery to everyone else; that puts the God himself in disrepute. Jews suffered horrible treatment in the hands of successive European monarchs and finally Hitler; while that may earn them some sympathy, that does not give them the rights to violate everyone else's security, dignity and ways of life. They are indeed America's chosen people and agents in a very strategic region, but in this age of popular awakening and democratic governance, that position is increasingly linked to the preservation of principles, and not aligned with unilateral displays of power. In fact, one could argue that Isreal's behaviour as a state is the biggest problem of the existing world order, and unless they are made to behave by the international community, we shall soon see a crumbling of the world as we know it and emergence of something very different.
I am making such apocalyptic statements because I am horrified, like most people around the world, with the general callousness and insensitivity that Israel displays in most matters. They preach universal principles to everyone else, and then behave in the most abhorrent manner when it comes to rights and dignity of other nationalities. They do not mind forging passports, invading territories, using banned weapons, bombing schools, bulldozing homes, raping women and children, fencing of an entire population. They have dislocated and dehumanized an entire population for more than six decades, and spun stories about their own prosecutions through movies, books and guided tours.
Previously, when I got deeply affected by the terrorist attack on Mumbai's Nariman House, I remember some of my Muslim friends taunting me for my apparent anger: They being decent, non-violent people, I was surprised by their lack of appreciation of the human tragedy. I am beginning to understand why they were so unconcerned only after following the news of the murder of the Hamas leader in Dubai, and the unconcernedness of Israel with the collective uproar around the world. They have undermined all principles of civilized behaviour for such a long time now that it does not matter anymore; which, in a way, explains my friends' complete lack of appreciation of the tragedy of a little, innocent, Jewish boy who had to lose both his parents for no reason.
It is time to call for a worldwide campaign to educate everyone about the horrors of the Israeli occupation and the administration's apparent lack of decency and appreciation of any rules of behaviour. An international museum for the Genocide in Gaza is quite in order, though one knows that no Western government would ever want to host the same. However, it is time they wake up and see that unless Isreali government is reigned in, the world will spin out of the control of the Western financiers who called the shots for so many years. They should feel that people in Oppressed countries are waking up to the universal horrors of Israeli actions, and this undermines all the hypocracy about human rights and democracy that Americans heap on the world.
If the usual standards were applied, Israel would be world's biggest and most consistent state sponsor of terrorism, the largest arms smuggler, the worst violator of human rights and a genocidal state based on the principle of religious intolerance. But, then, usual standards do not apply to Israel.
One wonders what the reason could be. It is difficult to accept the god-given rights to his chosen people to bring misery to everyone else; that puts the God himself in disrepute. Jews suffered horrible treatment in the hands of successive European monarchs and finally Hitler; while that may earn them some sympathy, that does not give them the rights to violate everyone else's security, dignity and ways of life. They are indeed America's chosen people and agents in a very strategic region, but in this age of popular awakening and democratic governance, that position is increasingly linked to the preservation of principles, and not aligned with unilateral displays of power. In fact, one could argue that Isreal's behaviour as a state is the biggest problem of the existing world order, and unless they are made to behave by the international community, we shall soon see a crumbling of the world as we know it and emergence of something very different.
I am making such apocalyptic statements because I am horrified, like most people around the world, with the general callousness and insensitivity that Israel displays in most matters. They preach universal principles to everyone else, and then behave in the most abhorrent manner when it comes to rights and dignity of other nationalities. They do not mind forging passports, invading territories, using banned weapons, bombing schools, bulldozing homes, raping women and children, fencing of an entire population. They have dislocated and dehumanized an entire population for more than six decades, and spun stories about their own prosecutions through movies, books and guided tours.
Previously, when I got deeply affected by the terrorist attack on Mumbai's Nariman House, I remember some of my Muslim friends taunting me for my apparent anger: They being decent, non-violent people, I was surprised by their lack of appreciation of the human tragedy. I am beginning to understand why they were so unconcerned only after following the news of the murder of the Hamas leader in Dubai, and the unconcernedness of Israel with the collective uproar around the world. They have undermined all principles of civilized behaviour for such a long time now that it does not matter anymore; which, in a way, explains my friends' complete lack of appreciation of the tragedy of a little, innocent, Jewish boy who had to lose both his parents for no reason.
It is time to call for a worldwide campaign to educate everyone about the horrors of the Israeli occupation and the administration's apparent lack of decency and appreciation of any rules of behaviour. An international museum for the Genocide in Gaza is quite in order, though one knows that no Western government would ever want to host the same. However, it is time they wake up and see that unless Isreali government is reigned in, the world will spin out of the control of the Western financiers who called the shots for so many years. They should feel that people in Oppressed countries are waking up to the universal horrors of Israeli actions, and this undermines all the hypocracy about human rights and democracy that Americans heap on the world.
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