Reports that Israel has sent a message to Damascus via Turkey saying that it is willing to return the Golan Heights captured in 1967 and, secondly, that Hamas effectively now accepts a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should be cause for considerable optimism. These are major shifts and, potentially, they open the door, if not to peace, then at least to dialogue. Moreover, it is a political fact of life that there will be no peace in the Middle East without involving Syria and Hamas, regardless of whether anyone likes them or not.
Yet it is impossible to feel positive about anything on the Palestinian front given what is happening in Gaza. The UN has just said that the Israeli blockade has forced them to suspend their humanitarian operations there. Without UNRWA, the UN’s aid arm, Gazans will starve. It is as dire as that. There is not a single Gazan who is not directly or indirectly affected by its humanitarian work. Not only does it feed almost a half of the strip’s population, it is responsible for education, health and sanitation, even sewerage.
Food prices have already soared; the cost of vegetables, for example, has tripled in recent weeks. Without UNRWA to help, the cost of all foodstuffs would soar way beyond the reach of most Gazans. Malnutrition is already commonplace in Gaza; talk of starvation is no exaggeration. Yet despite the extreme gravity of the situation, what do we see the West doing? On Wednesday, the UN Security Council was discussing the crisis, but when the Libyan representative likened Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp, Western diplomats walked out and the meeting had to be closed.
This rare physical protest by Western diplomats is deeply shocking — but so very revealing. They are more interested in protecting Israel’s reputation than in the desperate plight of a community facing starvation. Where is the justice in that? But then is anyone surprised? The truth of the matter is that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is supported by the West — and even by those who criticize it and weep bitter tears at the sufferings of the Gazans.
The Libyan ambassador’s response was an emotional one, perhaps overemotive, but it is not one that we entirely disagree with: Gaza has become a giant, horrific prison camp where an entire population is oppressed and punished for the actions of a few. In walking out, the Western diplomats were being immature and, worse, wholly irresponsible. This is no time for diplomatic prancing around. It is time for action to help those who cannot help themselves. How much more responsible it would have been had the American, British, French, Belgian and Costa Rican representatives simply said that they objected to the Libyan ambassador’s words and got on with the all-important meeting?
It is actions like this that convince the Palestinians’ friends around the world that the West will do nothing to end Israel’s oppression. That is why it is difficult to have much enthusiasm about its message to Damascus or Hamas’ apparent conversion to moderation.
