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How much longer must the Palestinian people be bombed, starved, humiliated and abused before the international community speaks up with one voice? How much longer will world leaders avert their eyes from the cruel way Israel is pursuing a land grab? How much longer will ordinary people prefer the World Cup and blissful ignorance to the facts of Israel’s crimes and their effects on an entire people?



The US and the EU have labeled the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority "terrorist", a move that has virtually given the Israeli government carte blanche to do its worst. George W. Bush says Israel has the right to defend itself even as it works to deliberately terrorize a civilian population. The proof of intent is Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s instruction to the IDF last Sunday: "I don’t want anyone to sleep tonight in Gaza".

Almost 50 percent of Gaza’s 1.5 billion residents are without electricity at a time when temperatures are hitting the mid-30s. Israel saw fit to bomb a major power station, in blatant contravention of the Geneva Conventions, during an operation sadistically titled "Operation Summer Rain".

Experts say it may take up to eight months to restore power during which time hospital patients will die, families will be left without air-conditioners, fans, refrigerators and televisions, office workers and students without essential computers.

Those of us who live in this region and who have experienced inevitable brief power outrages should ask ourselves whether we could survive months of unrelenting heat and dark without even the respite of a cooling drink.

There is worse to come. Fuel for generators is running out fast. Water supplies will dwindle and the sewage system will collapse when electrically powered pumps become inert. In short, there is a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the making. Yet, far from showing regret or remorse, Olmert, on Sunday, told his army to step up the action, with whatever related horrors that will entail.

During his weekly Cabinet meeting, which takes place in an air-conditioned board room, Olmert made this callous statement: "It is true that the situation in Gaza is inconvenient, so those who engage in terror should be inconvenienced. I told the United Nations secretary-general, 'It’s inconvenient that there is no electricity but rockets kill’."

Yes, rockets do kill, and so do Israeli bombs and tank shells that are currently raining down on the world’s largest open prison, where mothers can do nothing to protect their infants from the terrifying sounds of death and destruction, not to mention the deafening supersonic booms of low flying fighter jets.

Olmert hopes that no one in Gaza will sleep. He has got his wish. One wonders how this true ideological son of Sharon is able to sleep himself, provided, that is, he possesses a heart and a conscience.

Could this disproportionate military reaction to the abduction of a lone Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants be for real? The more cynical among us conclude it has more to do with the destruction of Hamas than the fate of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, especially when these heavy-handed Israeli tactics coincide with the acceptance by both Hamas and Fatah leaderships of the "Prisoners’ Peace Plan" that incorporates US and EU demands.

The last thing Olmert wants while he is thrusting his unilateral Convergence Plan on to the international community is for Hamas to accept Israel’s right to exist, thereby morphing into a potential partner for peace.

And so Hamas was systematically goaded into breaking its yearlong cease-fire beginning last August when Israel began assassinating high-profile Hamas figures.

This pot-stirring tactic stretches back to the days when the Yasser Arafat was president. On almost every occasion that Arafat would declare a unilateral cease-fire or support new peace measures, Israel would go out of its way to upset the applecart.

In recent days, Israel has rounded up dozens of Hamas Cabinet members, legislators and officials using the pretext that Hamas has officially been declared a terrorist group and has bombed the offices of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. These aggressive acts are surely shameful when the Palestinian people were encouraged by all and sundry to embrace democracy, which they proudly did, little knowing they would be judged and punished for their choice.

It seems that Israel is intent on bringing Syria into the row as well. Last week, Israeli jets buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in an attempt to force him to close down Hamas offices in Damascus and deport Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. On Sunday, Olmert told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "the directives to carry out operations and the orders to carry out terror attacks all come from Syria". This accusation Meshal vehemently denies.

What is becoming increasingly clear is this. Israel would prefer to escalate the crises rather than allow any possibility of returning to the peace table.

It is not prepared to accept any conditions related to the soldier’s return, including a request for the release of 335 Palestinian children incarcerated in Israeli jails. It’s ironic that while the uniformed Shalit is being portrayed as an innocent, bespectacled boy-next-door, those children have been forgotten, along with over 9,000 adult Palestinian prisoners.

With bridges literally burned by the Israelis, the Palestinians are pinning their hopes on Egyptian negotiators.

"We ask the international community and the Arab League to take its responsibilities toward our people and intervene to end Israel’s insane policy," says Haniyeh. Judging by recent history, it’s a forlorn hope. We who do nothing and say nothing should all hang our heads in shame.

Lind can be reached at sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk