The vicious cycle of the Israel-Palestine conflict

Bangalore, India, January 14 — As an Indian Christian I admired the Israeli David who felled the giant Palestinian fighter Goliath with his catapult. So, when the Indian government favored the Palestinian state over Israel, I was still emotionally aligned with Israel until I read Arnold Toynbee's article on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which explained lucidly, the injustice done to Palestinians.

Still, incidents like the Munich Olympics, Laila Khalid's hijacking of 3 planes and burning them in the desert of Jordan, Black September and the Entree raid have moulded the opinions of Indians like me.

A vicious cycle is what one sees from the beginning of the Israel-Palestine conflict from Balfour to modern times.

To sum up the cycle, a deal is offered to Palestinians and Arabs by the international community, which is rejected as they find it unfair and unjust from their point of view as their aim is to eliminate Israeli occupation of their territory. So, they go to war or rather, indulge in guerrilla warfare with Israel and get walloped and loose territory. Then they ask for the very deal offered by the International community in the first place. It is Israel's turn to reject the deal as it has gained territory. Palestinians vow revenge and continue their fight to end Israeli occupation. Again a deal is offered, which is worse than the original and is rejected by Palestinians as unjust. So, the cycle continues and Palestinians continue to loose more territory.

Palestinians do not understand that they are suckers just like the global jihadis for rich Arabs who wear black goggles, have American wives and play golf in Texas. They fund the jihadis so that they read, slog, build homes, grow food and finally get ready to be the sacrificial lamb for the next round of terror activities.

Saudi Arabia, one of the the richest nation and the "protector" of two of Islam's holy sites is blaming Hamas for the conflict. They never acknowledge their own role in many scuttled and unreasonable deals. Iran continues to be their main enemy. Pakistan, the only Islamic state with nuclear weapons and the second largest Muslim nation whose former President Muhammad Zia-ul-haq reportedly killed Palestinians to aid King Hussein of Jordan, will not send its troops or its nuclear weapons in support of Palestinians but will allegedly help terrorist organizations operating from its soil to kill Indian civilians.

Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia are organizing demonstrations to support Palestinians. Iran, which is the main sponsor of Hamas, is afraid of U.S. power and can only provide verbal support as it fears a U.S. attack under the guise of dismantling Iran's nuclear ambition (though a false reason). It has used this crisis to whip up frenzy, which resulted in 70,000 Iranian students volunteering to fight for Hamas but will stay in Iran.

The only Arab nation, which can be of any help is Egypt but it has closed its Rafah border for refugees and even humanitarian help. So the Palestinians continue to bleed for the entire Muslim community.

Soon the U.N. Security Council will order another ceasefire, which will stop the conflict temporarily until the vicious cycle mentioned earlier repeats itself causing significant damage to the Palestinians. Now, Palestinians must understand the situation and decide its future.

The Israeli occupation can end only if there is a unified Israel-Palestine state with equal rights to Palestinians. The Palestinian people should unite and advocate democracy so that it understands the hypocrisy of its Muslim supporters. That way, the secular world can support the Palestinians who are otherwise equated with jihadis. This will force Israelis into a corner and the world will find it hard to support them.

In 1911, a Palestinian maths teacher named Mustafa Effendi Tamr predicted the future of Palestinian people, "You are selling the property of your fathers and grandfathers, for a pittance, to people who will have no pity on you, to those who will act to expel you and expunge your memory from your habitations and disperse you among the nations. This is a crime that will be recorded in your names in history, a black stain and disgrace that your descendants will bear, which will not be expunged even after years and eras have gone by."

It is time for the Palestinian leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah and Fatah to ponder on history and reality and decide to either get in or out of their vicious cycle of conflict with Israel. Their struggle with Israel predates the of birth of Christianity and Islam and also when Romans were worshiping extinct Gods like Zeus and Diana.