There’s a holocaust in progress and yet the world remains mute spectator — powerless in the face of the Nazi-like tactics the Israelis are using against the defenseless people of Gaza. This atrocity should stain the moral conscience of all.

Israelis, on the pretext of retaliation against rockets made from fertilizers have been feverishly dispatching their US-supplied F-16s loaded with deadly bombs against the Palestinians. And the massacres continue with the blessings or indifference of the United States and other Western countries.

As the death toll of civilians rises, so does the shallowness of Israeli claims that this is a defensive maneuver. Since the massive aerial attack was unleashed on Saturday, over 450 Palestinian civilians, including 59 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, according to Gaza medics.

Israel has been employing such murderous tactics at the cost of Palestinian lives for far too long. There will be no peace as long as they continue this tactic. It is a given today that the majority of those in the region view Israel as a terrorist state, and the only such pariah in the region.

In spite of efforts by some media pundits to alarm the Arab street about the threat of Iran lately, it has been obvious for quite some time that the real menace to the region is Israel’s continued policy of expansion and oppression and confinement of a people who simply refuse to be exterminated. What the Nazis did to the Jews in Germany, the Israelis have done one better. On the pretext of fighting terrorism, they continue to carry out assaults against a people who have no arms to fight back. And yet the will of Palestinians remains strong. And the world stands by and watches.

It’s no secret that for the past two years, the people of Gaza have been denied all essential supplies and services to force them into submission. They had been under a suffocating siege. Deprivation of food, water, electricity and badly needed medical supplies are accompanied by frequent attacks on their soil by the Israeli forces under one pretext or another. And the people of Gaza were expected to remain silent. But what Israel has succeeded in doing is expose its terrorist ambitions and harden the resolve of its victims.

For the past 60 years, the Israelis have defied every UN Security Council resolution in their quest to obliterate the voice of resistance. Efforts by various governments to seek a just peace to both parties have failed and will continue to fail as long as Israel engages in such holocausts, undoubtedly encouraged to a great extent by the veto power of the United States at the United Nations. They are also engaging their spin machine within the Western media to justify such atrocities. Comparisons made by the assault on civilians with F-16s and Apache helicopters with fertilizer-fueled rockets border on the ridiculous. Suddenly, fighting for your land and rights is no longer a just cause to some Western columnists, who view any form of Palestinian resistance as a form of terrorism. Talk about hypocrisy!

However, if Israel is under any illusion that their latest round of carnage will lead to peace, then they are grotesquely mistaken. For the people of the region and elsewhere have expressed solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians and will continue to support their struggle for freedom. The people have stood in unity with Lebanon during Israel’s 32-day assault on that country. They will continue to do the same for the people of Gaza. The Rev. Martin Luther King once boldly stated: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” The holocaust no longer means the tragic fate of Jews exterminated during World War II. The Palestinian people are the new victims of the crimes against humanity — committed by a people who once were the victims. And nobody can claim this holocaust is veiled in secrecy, taking place in a remote corner of the earth away from the glare of the world media.