It is natural for us to expect that a once oppressed and persecuted people will be sympathetic and kind toward others, especially those under their control. Natural for us but not for Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the Russian Zionist and a founder of Irgun, the Jewish terrorist organization that fought Arabs and British authorities in Mandate Palestine. “Contemporary morality has no place for such childish humanism,” said Jabotinsky leaving Palestinians in no doubt about what to expect once Jews succeeded in establishing a homeland in what was Arab Palestine.

Israel came into existence eight years after Jabotinsky’s death but those who worked for and those who took control of the Jewish state have shown unfailing fidelity to the Russian Zionist’s dictum. There was no “childish humanism” in the actions of Irgun and other Jewish terrorist outfits who fought against Arabs and the British in Palestine. There was none in Israeli actions after it came into existence in 1948 (whether the ruling party was hawkish Likud, Kadima, an offshoot of Likud or moderate Labor). Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatila, Jenin ... it is a long list. We have seen it in various places and under various names like “Grapes of Wrath.”

What is happening in Gaza for the last two days should be seen in this context. The horrific TV images of dead and wounded Gazans can capture only a fraction of the human tragedy unfolding in a territory described as the largest open prison in the world. Warplanes pressing one of Israel’s deadliest assaults ever on Palestinians continue to drop bombs and missiles leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. This is barbaric and disproportionate use of force even by Israeli standards. There are reports of the hospital morgues being already full. The dead are being piled on top of each other outside morgues. Panic-stricken children and women are running helter-skelter to get away from lethal bombs and missiles.

In a way this is only the continuation of a policy Israel has always followed with regard to Palestinians. In occupied territories genocide has been taking place in slow motion, though sometimes things happen too fast. The one difference is that after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip following a short, brutal struggle with Fatah in the summer of 2007, Israel has been concentrating all its destructive fury on this land covering just 365 square kilometers.

Palestinians’ mistake (in West Bank as well as Gaza) was that they took US President George W. Bush’s sermons on democracy too seriously and voted to power a party they thought was competent and honest — Hamas, which according to Israel and its US friends, was a terrorist organization — in an internationally monitored legislative election in 2006. Israel reacted by imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Hamas takeover. The calculation in Tel Aviv and Washington was that the humanitarian catastrophe brought about by this blockade would turn 1.5 million Gazans against the Hamas. But this is not what happened just as 12 years of penalizing sanctions did not bring Iraqis into the streets in a massive anti-Saddam revolt. So what we are witnessing may be a replay of Iraq — regime change by force. There is “shock and awe” in abundant measure. And the reaction from Washington has been on predictable lines — blaming Hamas for everything. Mercifully, the US wants Palestinian civilian casualties “minimized”. But one expected a more robust and nuanced response from the UN. True, the Security Council calls for an immediate halt to the violence, but it does not mention Israel by name. As for the Arab League, it has decided to hold an “emergency” meeting day after tomorrow, four days after the Israeli onslaught. There is seething anger on the Arab street. Arab public opinion is inflamed as never before. There are stone-throwing protests across the West Bank and demonstrations in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and even as far as non-Arab Turkey.

Meanwhile, Israel would do well to remember that this overwhelming show of force will not stop the Palestinian resistance and liberation movements, led by Hamas or some others. Past operations have never achieved that goal. Even if Israel reoccupies Gaza, it will not be able to break Hamas. It has tried before, it is attempting to do so now but as in all previous attempts it will fail again. Hamas will not be cowed. If anything, there will be retaliation.

No one should be surprised, least of all Israel, if a third intifada erupts. The first two swept through the Palestinian territories after incidents not nearly as serious as what began on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the goal of this attack is to bring about a “fundamental improvement in the security situation.”

As long as the occupation continues there will be unrest. Israel can kill all the leaders of Hamas; it can’t kill the will of a people to be free and decide their own destiny. So someone else will take the place of Hamas. What Israel means by an improved security situation is one in which Palestinians allow their free movement denied by enclosed population centers, closed borders, regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, electric fences, and separation walls.

So this is the real problem, not the Hamas attacks on Israel as Israel and its allies insist. If one would like to speak of sequence and responsibility, then we must start with the economic blockade of Gaza that Israel was supposed to lift anytime during the past six months when there was some sort of a cease-fire in place. The blockade was never lifted, despite the relative peace, which led to what every world organization and agency concerned called a humanitarian crisis, now of course made much worse. When will this catastrophe end, we do not know. What we know is that even if there is a temporary truce, the Palestinian territories will continue to explode from time to time until the infrastructure of occupation is demolished.