JUST ANOTHER GENOCIDE

 

JUST ANOTHER GENOCIDE

 

When it comes to outrage our emotions are all over the place.  If it hits close to home we pay attention.  If it is one of “ours” as defined by race, color and religion we tend to be more aggrieved then when it pertains to “others”.  We excel at defining our likes and dislikes.  We know how to condone and condemn.  Our viewpoints can be rather hypocritical—choosy if you like.  A young Israeli couple gets killed in New York by a pro-Palestinian individual and all of a sudden the outrage on the western front is all over the map.  The deplorable incident was inspired by utter frustration; the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military killing thousands of innocent civilians, inflicting horrendous damage and purposely starving those left alive.  What we’re witnessing on the ground is basically a midget trying to stand up to a giant who is stomping and killing everything in sight.  David trying to fight Goliath with an empty slingshot.

Hamas is not a real army and in its primitive arsenal there is nothing substantial with which to fight back.  A resistance group lacking sophistication or receiving adequate support from outside sources and definitely lacking the ability to mount a realistic offense.  The so-called Palestinian State is carved up in two insignificant pieces, hundreds of kilometers apart.  Imagine Nova Scotia and British Columbia forced to form a new nation!  By decree!  Nobody protesting and coming to your aid!  Yah, try making that one work!  Especially if you are constantly confronted by invasion and attack, forced to kowtow and beg for help.  And nobody seems to give a damn!

Palestinians have few friends and even a lot of Arab nations would love to see the back of them.  They are tired of decades of war and conflict.  And all of them lack the strength and the resources to mount an effective war against Israel to end the conflict and restore Palestine as an original state.  Defense budgets are costly and don’t we know it.  Israel holds the high ground; it has a nuclear capability and is heavily backed, politically, militarily and financially by the U.S. and guilt-ridden European nations still living with the memories of the holocaust and barely lifting a finger at the time to come to the aid of the millions of Jews who were systematically killed by the Nazis.

Unfortunately the Israelis seem to have taken a page from the Nazi playbook and are using the same excuses and rationale to exterminate Palestinians.  Palestine never produced the heavyweights that Israeli culture, arts, religion, trade and finance have produced.  Weaker in some aspects doesn’t mean that you are less of a human being.  And that lies at the core of genocide.  A judgement of inferiority, of excuses to persist in outrageous behaviors to get rid of an unwanted species, nation, culture and religion.

As the Jewish nation that emerged after 1945 grew stronger in power and numbers, the Palestinians were increasingly pushed back.  There never was an attempt at full integration and protect their human rights and nobody in the international community came to their defense.  It was if their rights were cancelled, collectively, by nearly the entire global tribe.  There was barely any pushback at all.  Token calls and admonishments, a stern rebuke, but no consequences.

From the dawn of mankind we have consistently ignored civilizational clashes.  Look how Native Americans were being pushed around, systematically killed and nearly annihilated by white settlers.  The white supremacy syndrome is alive and well and we have an awful track record of genocide and ethnic cleansing.  We like to push people around, especially those of color and lacking the protective mantle of Christianity.  White people like their power, status and control.  Perhaps the color of the White House was a subconscious and yet purposeful choice.

The regrettable incident in New York showcases a typical white, Christian outrage, in the face of a killing with definite political and cultural overtones, especially in a time where hate crimes are on the rise and extremism flourishes on all sides.  And we do use different yardsticks.  Ukraine deserves the support allies have given.  But in the case of the Gaza conflict and a suffering that equals that of Ukraine, we’re oddly silent and the yardstick we’re using is barely noticeable.  It doesn’t even qualify as a yardstick.

On one hand we witness the massive destructive power from one side inflicting horrific damage and untold deaths and it is condoned, supported and approved by a predominantly coalition of white powers.  On the other, those on the receiving end of all this death and suffering are paid little more than lip service and we only empathize with their suffering and offer only humanitarian aid.

Nobody has the balls it seems to put a stop to this conflict and the indiscriminate killings.  With sanctions, with U.N. resolutions and sending in U.N. troops to separate the warring factions, to put an end to the genocide, the starvation tactics and forced relocations.  This is racial hatred in its purest form.

I am neither an Israeli nor a Palestinian.  As a human being I am outraged by the inhumanity displayed.  Crimes against humanity are committed on a daily basis and nobody is willing to put a stop to it.

Goodbye Rohingyas, goodbye Tutsis, goodbye Uyghurs, goodbye Armenians, goodbye Kurds, goodbye Native Americans, goodbye Palestinians.  Just another genocide.

Hundreds of genocides have taken place, past and present, and all of them have one thing in common: In each the world stood idly by and watched and nobody lifted a finger.  Just another genocide.

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