A just war against Hamas in Gaza

Kanchan Gupta

The rally organised by the CPI(M) in Delhi last week to protest against Israel’s bombing of Hamas establishments in Gaza was both comical and revealing. There was a crowd of mullahs in skull caps, their hennaed beard neatly combed, waving placards with an assortment of printed slogans, the least offensive of which said “Israel is the real terrorist”. And there was CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, clearly a class apart from the mob she had gathered to denounce ‘Zionist aggression’. If the rally was aimed at instigating people to rise in protest against the justly deserved punishment being meted out to Gaza’s Islamofascists for whom peace is a five-letter dirty word forbidden by the perverse ideology of Harkat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Resistance Movement), otherwise known as Hamas, then it singularly failed in achieving its goal. For a change, barring professional protesters and European busybodies — most of whom, like the CPI(M)’s mullahs at home, nurse a hatred of Jews — the world would like to see the organisation and its top leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyah and Mahmoud Zahar, neutred if not liquidated.

But if the rally was meant to instigate the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress into castigating Israel, Ms Karat’s effort was not entirely wasted. Displaying the deep-seated bias of its political masters, the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a statement, expressing its ‘disappointment’ over “the use of disproportionate force ... resulting in a large number of civilian casualties on the one hand and the escalating violence on the other”. The statement gratuitously adds, “This continued use of indiscriminate force is unwarranted and condemnable. The Government of India urges utmost restraint so as to give peace a chance as the peace process may well get derailed irreversibly by Israel’s attack in the Gaza strip and continued violence.”

It is pathetic that a crippled, effete and politically-compromised Government that cannot protect its citizens from the repeated depredations of Islamofascists, an irresolute regime that whimpers as Pakistan kicks India in the face, should worry about “the use of disproportionate force” by Israel to protect its people from Hamas’s deadly attacks. These are not well-meaning words advocating restraint, but words that have been craftily selected to send a message of encouragement to those who kill and destroy in the name of Islam — a message of solidarity with fanatics in Gaza and elsewhere, for instance those whom the CPI(M) rallied in an extraordinary show of unity between Marxists and Islamists. Progressives, it would appear, are now at peace cohabiting with fundamentalists who wish to supplant the banner of liberty with the standard of jihad. A Government that commiserates with Harkat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyyah cannot be seriously seeking the prosecution of either Jaish-e-Mohammed or Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. By criticising Israel’s decision to exercise its right to act in self-defence against a hostile neighbour, a right enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, the Government of India, such as it is, has forfeited its right to defend the sovereign entity called India. In a sense, the sudden spurt of anti-Israel statements, strident and hostile in tone and content, explains the shameful non-action of the Government, more specifically the Prime Minister and his men, in the face of grave, unpardonable provocation by the ideological brothers of Hamas in Pakistan and their patrons who dominate the Pakistani establishment. The robust response that was expected of mighty India after the fidayeen attack on Mumbai and the resultant slaughter of innocent civilians is now being carried out by tiny Israel against its tormentors.

Death and destruction caused by war never present a pretty sight. In fact, there’s nothing called a perfect war in which the good men go in and shoot dead the bad men and both victor and vanquished celebrate by breaking bread together. In an asymmetrical war, which is forced on nations that subscribe to democracy, pluralism and open society, by Islamofascists who dream of converting the entire world into a caliphate where only the ‘believers’ shall dwell, the images we get to see are often more shocking. We are repelled by the sight of the bodies of 10 children being pulled out from the rubble of a house in Gaza after an Israeli air raid. That is the way it should be. But blinded by our bogus grief and manufactured fury over ‘civilian casualties’ in Gaza, we miss the other details of the bombing in which the 10 children died. We thus ignore the fact that the house belonged to a Hamas strongman, Nizar Rayan, who had dedicated his life to the destruction of Israel; that he lived there with his four wives and 12 children; and, that he dared the Israelis to try and target him. That’s what the Israelis did last Thursday, despatching him to the other world. Yes, there was collateral damage: His four wives and 10 of his 12 children were killed. This is the price that has to be paid by those who engage nations in an asymmetrical war, a battle among unequals which must be fought decisively and to its bitter end if the poison tree of radical Islamism is to be destroyed root and branch. If we must grieve over Nizar Rayan’s slain children, we should also grieve for the many other children whose lives have been laid to waste so wantonly by Islamofascists whose repulsive ideology justifies the slaughter of innocent people, among them Israeli men, women and children.

The truth is those at home and abroad who weep over Gaza’s ‘sorrow’ have no tears to spare for the victims of Hamas’s terrorism, the ferocity and intensity of which can be gauged from the fact that there has been a 500 per cent increase in the number of rockets it has been firing into southern Israel ever since the 2005 unilateral disengagement by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This is not dissimilar to the manner in which human rights activists in India come to the rescue of terrorists, as demonstrated by their campaign to protect the ‘rights’ of Mohammed Ajmal Amin Kasab, the ‘Butcher of Mumbai’. Must we listen to them and be distracted from achieving the larger goal of ridding the world of those who do not believe in peace and for whom faith is an expression of unbriddled savagery? Israel is doing what it believes is right; it is fulfilling its primary duty, which is to protect the lives of Israeli citizens. We can either learn a lesson from Israel’s commitment to the war against global terror and join the battle, or shut up and suffer in silence.