In the twentieth century, Great Britain had taken control of an area we today call Palestine. But this was only after the then-leader ruler of that part in the Middle East, known as the Ottoman Empire, had been defeated in the First World War. There was an immediate reason to engage in conflict for both Arab individuals and Jewish people belonged to the region.
Except now (as in , then), they were under British control. The moment the international community gave Britain the task to establish a national home for the Jewish people albeit in the now-conquered Palestine, tensions grew.
And now, that part of land, which is still to assume absolute sovereignty of one among the two- Israelis or Arabs- is called Gaza, hence the ensuing chaos in the heart of the Middle East is no ordinary or random crisis; it is, not less than, a 100-year-old dispute.
And when issues and tensions escalate for around a century, there’s bound to be endless chaos and disenchantment on either side- right?
This is precisely the Gaza-Israel conflict, which, if it could be summed up in a question would read something like the following, “Whose home is this, yours? No, it’s mine- Israel. No, it’s mine- Gaza!”
The above, with all due respect, wasn’t to trivialise the long standing issue which as continued well into this part of the 21st century with both Israel and Gaza, claiming, not for the first time, their territorial supremacy and sovereignty over the region that is pro-Palestine but anti-Israel.
But then, it’s not that the ongoing dispute was always a bloodied affair; earlier this year, around June, both parties agreed to arrive at a ceasefire. That’s when bloodied battles and loss of lives, ever a constant anyways-sadly speaking- in the Middle East came to a halt, albeit for a brief period of time.
But what the innocents on either side of the the Israel versus Gaza want is, without a scope of a doubt, peace and tranquility, none of which are the key strengths of the warring parts of the Middle East.
Even in those regions where there’s not a lot of infighting or wars, think the desert country of Yemen, there are other wars, such as the ongoing crisis with malnutrition.
Not a day goes by in the life of the Middle East where one opens one’s eyes and closes them with permissibility of utmost happiness, feeling what the great author Milan Kundera described, “The Unbearable Lightness Of Being!”
Here’s more from the Indian Express about what’s eating up both Israel and Gaza at this point:
It was the second consecutive nighttime border protest and took place hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets in response to the unrest. Hamas officials have promised to hold nightly protests all week.
“The Zionist occupation bears all the repercussions and consequences of the tightening of the siege on Gaza and the escalation of the humanitarian crisis among its residents,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. “No calm or stability will be achieved as long as our people lack a free and dignified life.”
The Israeli military said protesters set tires on fire and lobbed explosives toward Israeli troops, and that its forces took unspecified measures to disperse the crowd.
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The blockades and fighting are never going to help. International diplomacy too, seems to have failed. Israel has its agenda, its detractors say but so does the Arab nations, it is known. Will anyone allow Israel to sleep with both eyes closed, the Jewish homeland not having to be semi-awaken akin to a lion that sleeps with one eye open? Will Arab neighbours of one of the most troubled yet enigmatic countries in the whole world be left in peace and minus their body parts dismembered by precisely fired Israeli rockets from Tel Aviv?
Who’s to know? Uncertainty is the only certainty in this part of the world which is culturally evolved and intellectually gifted and yet, never at peace with itself.