Stark choices in attack on Gaza.

After the attacks of Hamas on Israel, the world has been divided into two parts: those who criticize Israel, and those who criticize both Israel and Hamas for their barbarism. No one criticizes Palestinians. Before delving into moral equivalence and other critical questions, a short background of the ongoing war is imperative.

Since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Jews had been brought to Palestine on unfounded claims of its being the 'promised land'. With the genocide at the hands of Hitler, the Jews were encouraged to move to Palestine, who in turn migrated to this Arab land in droves. Fast forward to 1948; much like other criminal acts, the UN accepted a Jewish state at the heart of Palestine that was never acceptable to the Arabs and Palestinians. The powerful do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must; this became true, and against the will of the local people, the colonizers did what they had done with the indigenous people in the USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Arab nationalism coupled with Islamic fundamentalism ruled the roost in those days. The Arabs fought many wars, especially 1948 and 1973, but to no avail. These wars strengthened Israel more than ever. The initial land gift from the international community, of less than half of Palestine to the Jews, increased with each passing year. Most significantly, after the Yom Kippur War, illegal annexation, encroachment, and occupation by Israel was in full swing. While of late the total area under Israel was around 80 percent, Benjamin Netanyahu showed a map of Israel without any sign of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It was a recipe for renewed struggle for self-determination.

From the Abraham Accord to the Saudi-Israel normalization, the Middle East was poised for a paradigm shift without the primary victims even being mentioned, let alone made part of the conversation. While this euphoria was doomed before it reached any fruition, it had to see the end in a catastrophic way. It is quite easy to put blame on Hamas for the obvious brutalities, but the fact is that this blowback had been accumulating for decades due to inhumane treatment of the indigenous people.

There are predictable consequences for the war that has been waged against an already dispossessed, weak, and poverty-stricken people. The most visible is the spillover. The USA, a godfather of Israel, doesn't rule the roost, and the unipolar moment has long gone past us. Three heads of states refused...