The cold-blooded murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC has once again brought to the fore instances of anti-jewish sentiments raising its ugly head and more so in the last two years. 

“These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” President Donald Trump wrote on his social media. The cowardly act has naturally brought forth worldwide condemnation. At the same time there is also the quiet feeling that this has linkage to the goings on in the Gaza with the first reports speaking of the killer shouting “Free, Free Palestine.” 

All of this only adding to an already sense of utter revulsion to the goings on in the Middle East where a small sliver of land is subject to daily bombardments in an elusive search for the remnants of that terror outfit Hamas. Now word is that Gaza will have to endure a complete occupation by Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remarked that implementation of President Donald Trump’s “revolutionary” plan to relocate the Gaza civilians is a condition for ending the conflict. 

That so-called revolutionary plan of forcibly pushing some 2.3 million Gazans into neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan appeared to be shelved a long time ago. Even before that fanciful notion that the Gaza could be flattened to make way for posh condos overlooking the Mediterranean or some kind of a French Riviera proved a non-starter as the principals in the area wished to have no truck with the idea. And there was a glimmer of hope that President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East would push the issue to the front burner.

Maybe Gaza was discussed during President Trump’s meetings with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. But the substantive parts got drowned in trade and investments push of the visiting leader, the Boeing 747-800 “gift” to President Trump by Qatar and if President Trump would actually travel to Turkiye to meet Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. When President Putin was a no-show at either Istanbul or Ankara and Trump returned to Washington DC, things returned back to normal. 

Time and again Prime Minister Netanyahu has insisted that Hamas will and should have no role to play in the Gaza. This indeed is a fair proposition given the savage terror attack on Isreal of October 7, 2023, set in motion a bloodbath that still continues in that small strip of land. Some 1200 Israelis were brutally done to death by that terror outfit and scores taken hostage; and Israeli retribution has stunned many in the comity of nations including fair minded people of the Jewish faith. 

It is now said that more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed many of them children and women; the place literally levelled; and with meagre facilities like potable water, electricity and hospital care. And if health facilities are being targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces it is on a conviction that the Hamas is using these to carry on with their activities. In recent weeks Gaza is in the grip of a famine like situation with Israel maintaining a tight control on the movement of supplies. What has outraged many nations, including from the West, is that a diplomatic delegation that had gone to the Gaza to see firsthand relief supplies had come under Israeli fire.

The patience with Netanyahu is wearing thin in Washington DC and European capitals. After being a thorn on the side of the Biden administration at election time last year, the Israeli leader who thought he could get away with anything under the Trump administration was recently shown his place. The 47^th President snubbed Netanyahu by not scheduling Tel Aviv in his Middle East itinerary when normally any American leader would have done so, perhaps even starting off with the Jewish state as the first port of call. 

The Israeli leader has said there will be a “decisive outcome and a different future for Gaza,” neither specifying the timelines nor the plans down the road. But has maintained that all this will come about “under clear conditions that will ensure the safety of Israel.” In his words, all hostages would have to be back home, Hamas laying down its arms; loses power; exiled from Gaza; a strip fully disarmed; and President Trump’s plan “that is so correct and revolutionary” carried out. Arab states, on the other hand, were pushing for a Palestinian governing committee minus Hamas, a United Nations Peacekeeping Force and eventually a Palestinian security force that will be trained by Egypt and Jordan. 

The real peace for the Middle East will come only if there is lasting solution in the Gaza. And this requires some cool-headed thinking of nations in the region, the West and the world at large. Senseless killings only result in more of the same. 

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.

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