The War on Gaza: Humanity is Being Destroyed by the Madness of War and Inept Leadership
[Photo: Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal area in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. By (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, Naaman Omar]
By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
I think it is true to say that the Palestinians have not been dealt with fairly or as human beings of equal standing. Further, as a population, they have suffered greatly under the policies and military might of Israel.
There is no argument that I know of that on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a series of brutal attacks against civilian populations in Israel, and in a twist of cruelty, many of those attacked were actually peace activists who assisted Palestinians and justice where they could.
I believe that it is true that Hamas is not serving Gazans and Palestinians. That they are using the civilian population as human shields, and that they are hoarding supplies desperately needed by that population.
However, bombing the civilian population, cutting off all supplies to the civilian population, and largely throttling humanitarian aid to the civilian population has created a situation that is becoming apocalyptic for those within Gaza. In my heart and mind, I cannot blithely accept Israel shifting the blame to Hamas for the barrage of Gaza or the “bring them to their knees” policies. To argue that it is Hamas who they are attempting to starve and that it is Hamas using the population as a shield does not legitimate destroying the shield to get at the actual combatants.
While this strategy of removing the shield seems to be enacting collective punishment against Gazans, the rising attacks on Jews across the world are also collective punishment for the acts of the Israeli government – a government that until a couple of weeks ago was being resisted by millions of Israelis. Which points to another truth. Those resisting Israelis were fighting for their democracy being usurped by Netanyahu and his extremist coalition (much as is being attempted in the United States). So, it is stretching the truth to say that the United States is rushing to save the democracy of Israel.
As I have watched this release of hate against Jews across the world, I see lies and propaganda overtaking sanity. Important lines and distinctions are erased under flames of hatred, and Muslims (at least in the U.S.) are also seeing an increase in threat and hate against them. There are forces being served in all of this that are not interested in the lives of Gazans, Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, Muslims, humanity, or the Earth.
Dr. Mahboob speaks frequently of rationality and intelligence that resides in the masses. It may be there, but it seems that it is irrationality and hatred that are mobilizing too many.
To fight back, we must search for and speak the truth – or at least the facts as best we can. We must THINK to fight back against those who are pressuring us to blur the lines between Gazans – Palestinians – Muslims, and Hamas. Or between the Israeli government – Israelis (of all faiths) – and Jews (locally and globally). It is not just Gazans’ humanity that is being pulverized to dust in Gaza. It is our own. And I think that too is true.
It is beyond troubling that in the United States, the most vaunted institutions of learning are falling into these same faulty patterns of thought, and Jewish students are finding no safe space, and virtually no protection (or sane thinking) from the leadership of those institutions. There is a deep-seated anti-Jewish sentiment in the U.S. and it shows its ugly face in times like this. [one of those “blurry” lines is the use of “anti-Semitism” as the categorical label for anti-Judiasm when most “Arabs” (including Palestinians) are also Semitic peoples].
Please take a beat and think through what you hear and see and what it is making you assume and believe. Encourage others to do the same, and then respond from a place of love and respect if you can. I think that another truth is that hate and hurt and violence beget the same. As Fischer is credited as saying “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.“
Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
And we wonder why everyone’s so dysfunctional and self-destructive. ….We never really had a chance to build a healthy world. Our ancestors went from running away from monsters with sharp fangs to burning witches and heretics to fighting world wars to giving birth to us, and that wave of fear and chaos carried forward right into our own psyches and into the psyches of everyone else on this planet without skipping a beat. If you look at where we came from and how we got here, it’s amazing we’re even as functional as we are…..
So we’re all innocent, in the end. Again, we must of course push to bring consciousness to the parts of humanity that have taken a wrong turn — to the war criminals and plutocrats and managers of empire, and all other abusers and the abusive systems which elevate them. But underneath that fierce burst of light there can also be a deep compassion and understanding born of a lucid seeing of how we got here in the first place.
Caitlin Johnstone (“We never really had a chance to build a healthy world.” Information Clearing House: 09/11/22), author of Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. https://caitlinjohnstone.com
The War on Gaza and ‘Collective Punishment’: the bombardment is a crime against humanity
The raging of war on Gaza and 2.2 million people are at risk of being massacred by the advancing vengeful Israeli forces while the world is simply watching the “dramatization of war” as spectators. The UN General Assembly Resolution (10/27/23) called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between the warring parties and continuing humanitarian assistance of basic necessities to the beleaguered masses in Gaza. The US and Israel seem to disregard the moral force of the UNGA member’s resolve for normalcy and peace. When people and nations live in darkness, they lose the sense of moral and intellectual direction and priorities. Who else would know and understand better than the Jewish people subjugated and discriminated by Europeans for centuries and ultimately the victims of Holocaust? Ironically, Israeli political hubs view the Palestinians as less than human beings and the politicians called them “human animals.” To enforce this image, American policy makers and some West Europeans are complicit in the dehumanization of the people of Palestine. Are we heading towards similar catastrophic disasters as happened during the Two World Wars?
Professor Francis Boyle (an acclaimed international jurist, University of Illinois) notes that ‘Israel’s war on Gaza is a crime against humanity.’ Is the ICC at the Hague competent enough to launch an investigation on this issue? When the US and NATO killed millions of people in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the ICC could not dare to investigate the alleged crimes. When would we learn about our wrong beliefs, wrong thinking, and wrong actions? This state of affairs reflects a complete societal breakdown and a march towards self-annihilation. Despite hollow claims, no moral and ethical behavior is seen in the sudden and inexplicable plunge to human wickedness. Obviously, Israeli and US decision makers cannot predict what the end game is going to be by killing the people and destroying Gaza. They are engaged in an unending war to dominate and control the whole of the Arab peninsula. Evil happens when conscientious men do nothing. God created the Heavens, and Earth as a trust to live and flourish for human generations since time immemorial. It was not meant to be bombed and destroyed by sheer ignorance and wickedness. Are we neglectful of our origin and encompassed reality?
Glory lives in the conception of human consciousness of goodness and honesty, not the warriors of genocide, robotic machines, weapons of war, and hollow aims of egoistic power and politics. Militarization of the Arabian Peninsula appears high on the agenda items for policies and practices. The European and American policymakers view the oil-exporting Arab leaders as “camel jockeys” and draw hollow laughter. Please see “How the Oil-Exporting Arab Leaders Betrayed the People and Lost the Future.” (Media Monitors: 5/16/2012.) by this author. (also available
here),
According to John Perkins (Confession of an Economic Hitman, 2006), America views the Arab States as theirs ”to milk the cows until sunset.” Most of the Arab leadership families are former colonial agents hired by the British, French, and US Empires to control and manage the oil export business. They pay the Masters for protection of their palaces, but not of the people. Even a common person cannot think outside the capsule of the secret police apparatus. The Arab world has no leaders with the knowledge, vision, and intellectual integrity to offer security and a sense of strategic direction to their beleaguered masses. They are all the by-product of European-American imperialism and owe their allegiance to the Masters.
We are One Humanity and we have voices of Reason – we cannot be divided into segments of geography and history as numbers. We the People, We the Humanity are connected to all other things within the God-given Earth and the Universe to serve mankind. This gives knowledge, soundness, and power to reason and forbidden truth in the current global affairs.(Global Wars and Insanity Fast becoming Entertainment: Is it the end of Human ingenuity?, 04/7/2018).
The Earth is A Living Entity and It is Ours and We Must Protect It
We live on Earth that sustains all forms of living things, yet human ignorance and arrogance are at work to destroy the essential foundation of our own lives. Weapons of war are weapons of mass destruction and are being used without any sense of responsibility and accountability. We, the people are rational beings with a choice of righteousness and wickedness to act in human affairs. The ongoing war between Israel and Palestine shows the charcoal scenes of inhumanity and devastation across Gaza. Do we, mankind, have any sense of responsibility and accountability to protect the Earth?
The creation of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and all working systems are a trust to humanity. Have We, the People, We, the Humanity honored and protected that natural trust and its obligations? In a recent article (“Conflict Beyond Reason: a dialogue to end the war is desperately needed”: 7/26/2023) this author encompassed the truth not for geological or meteorological explanation but for the understanding of fellow human beings that the earth spins at 1670 km per hour and orbit the Sun at 107,000 km per hour. Imagine, if this spinning fails, what consequences could occur to the living beings on Earth? Think again, about the average distance of Earth from the moon is 93 million miles -the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units – (New Scientist). If this God-given system of distance between the Earth-Sun and the Earth-Moon were ever to change, there would be no sign of life, human civilizations, or habitats left on Earth. The emerging wars and destruction of Earth and human habitats are blatant violations of that TRUST between Man and the Creator and call for the awakening of human conscience and soul: “Truly Man is to his Lord, ungrateful and that (fact) he bears witness (by his deeds.): 6-7: 100: The Qur’an).
There are many Jewish organizations like “Jews for Peace”, across the US, Europe, and elsewhere committed to standing for peace and global brotherhood. They are calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. All informed global communities have a passion for peace, not wars. The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life, change and progress, and the existence of all other living beings. The Heavens and Earth exist and are ordained in balance by the commands of God, not by any human construct or order. When nations and leaders subscribing to political absolutism start acting like God and challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God; historically speaking they become an object of unthinkable natural calamities- earthquakes, wildfires, floods, deaths, and destruction. The Divine Revelations (The Qur’an:40:64), remind us, who we are and what relationship we enjoin to Earth and its sustenance that supports our life and existence:
It is God Who made for you the Earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy; And has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful, And has provided for your Sustenance, of things pure and good; Such is God your Lord. So Glory to God, The Lord of the Worlds.
The Arab Leaders and their Palaces are Protected by Western Imperialism
Under a planned scheme of things, the United States and NATO have destabilized the whole of the Middle East region. They appointed former tribal agents as dictators, kings, princes, and royals, and the masses are viewed just as sheep and goats to be butchered across the oil-exporting Arab world. The oil flow will soon deplete but wars will continue to support the Western war economies. War is a crime in a civilization context. Embracing and sharing their plans, America and Israel would try to conquer more Arab lands to resettle the Palestinians and put a finished answer on Palestine as a State. Do the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and others have any plans for how to defend their national interests inclusive of Palestine? They should be questioned and held accountable for failing to help the besieged people of Palestine. Could they envisage how the future Arab world look like? The Arab world has one focal issue – Palestine and the Two States solution. The contemporary Arab world has no honest leaders to protect the Masjid Al-Aqsa and its sanctity from Israeli’s Ultra Nationalist provocations and to reason with Palestine and Israel and what future options could be imagined for peace and security: Please see by this author: “Al-Aqsa Mosque Waiting for the Arab Leaders.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57491.htm
Arguably, wars, deaths, and destruction should be at the top of the agenda items in relations between the West and the Arab world. Was the discovery of “oil” a conspiracy (“Fitna”) to forfeit the Arab culture and Islamic civilization? The whole of the Arab world is a quagmire of conflicts, sectarian warfare, and foreign intervention. Wars kill people, and destroy the planet and those who possess power show no wisdom to dream of triumph and glory over the human mind and soul. The ongoing war between Russia, Ukraine, and NATO, and the war-torn Middle East between Israel and Palestine overshadow the common citizens of the world who feel incapacitated and dehumanized to share a terrible sense of helplessness and wonder how to save humanity from the scourge of imperial led war racketeering and the consequences of man’s intransigence, triviality and viciousness against his own existence and future on Earth.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and is the author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Germany, 12/2019.