A warning was made of things to come

Oct 18, 2024 Letters

---

 

Dear Editor,

Nations around the world, have been cautioned, perhaps through a plethora of note verbals to be careful not to attack or criticize Israel now at war because Israel “has the right to defend itself” …. by any means necessary even if it means violating the territorial integrity of a neighboring country because it has the capability to “reach” any part of the Middle East to “defend itself.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a warning that any country that attacks Israel in any shape or fashion will be making “a big mistake” and will “pay a heavy price.” As such, any country, that makes that ‘big mistake’ will, according to the Israeli authorities, be subject to bombings of residential areas by Israeli jet fighters; destruction of social services and physical infrastructure, schools, universities, hospitals , places of worship because it is ‘in those places where the terrorists are hiding and using women and children as human shields’; The world has been notified that journalists engaged in covering events in Gaza will not be spared and volunteers providing humanitarian assistance to suffering Gazians, desperately in need of basics to survive, will be mowed down indiscriminately while UN service providers will not be spared.

The kidnapping of suspected Hamas supporters especially young men, will see them being undressed down to their underwear and in some cases stark naked, and marched off to Israel where they were made administrative prisoners at overcrowded jails. There, some will be whipped, tortured, humiliated and raped.

The world will be continuously scoffed at and told that humanitarian aid, food and medical supplies will be blocked from entering the Gaza; while water and electricity will be denied because Gazians have been branded “animals.” At the same time, Gazians will be displaced in the thousands with no place to hide and as in the case of Northern Gaza where a siege is currently in place with the objective of forcing hundreds of thousands trapped there to starve to death. Anyone trying to escape the dragnet will be shot and killed on sight. They will be considered collateral damage in war.

Governments have been warned to be careful not to attack Israel in any shape or form because if they do, they will be branded anti-semetic; and be lectured to about conveniently forgoing lessons learnt from the holocaust. Ultimately, any government found involved in such activities, will find themselves attacking as the ‘Israel the victim’ instead of recognizing the Arabs as the aggressors and who propagate hostility and hate against Israel and whose aim is to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and to ‘throw the Israelis into the Sea.’

Worse yet, such governments will be viewed as antagonistic towards the United States, Israel’s most dependable political and diplomatic ally in the Middle East and its biggest arms supplier and financier; known as ‘America’s outpost’ in the Middle East.

Governments have been warned that any action taken against Israel and America by extension, will be deemed unfriendly and as a consequence, Washington will show its displeasure with those government in one way or another resulting in the souring relations. And insofar as the hawks and neocons in the USA are concerned; “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

The Israeli government in tandem with a number of Governments around the world have been told to discourage, if not ban protest demonstrations against Israel in their respective national jurisdictions; they have been advised to instruct state controlled and, if possible, independent media houses not to carry stories with an ‘anti-semetic slant’ nor to use such language in their coverage of events in the Middle East nor in editorials or by their columnists.

Furthermore, governments were advised to avoid use of the word ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’; governments have also been directed to discourage Universities from mobilizing student protests against Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ and to not publish or say nothing favourable about Palestine’s and their rights nor entitlements to land or a two-state solution.

Governments have been called upon to join with Israel to condemn the UN “as nothing more than a contemptuous farce.”

In addition, Israel has called upon governments to support its claim that UNWRA has been infiltrated by Hamas’s fighters and that the UN body should be banned by law from operating in Israel, though no evidence has been provided to validate Israel’s spurious claim.

The world was reminded that in early October, this year, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, had declared the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, persona non grata. In other words, Guterres was banned from setting foot in Israel. In his own words, this is how the Israeli Minister described Guterres; “A Secretary General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and now Iran — the mothership of global terror — will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN”

Israel has exerted pressure on governments and called upon UN member states to exert whatever influence they have to discourage the Special Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing Arrest Warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and his defense minister.

Governments have also been requested, and in some cases, pressured not to join with South Africa in the case it took before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) nor to take any or such actions that will be viewed as unfriendly acts against both Israel and the US.

Nations of the world have been called upon to abandon all the calls for a ceasefire because it just won’t happen “so long as Israel faces an existential threat to its existence and the right to defend itself; Governments around the world were told in no uncertain terms that there will never ever be an independent Palestinian state” and that they should back off from what was described as “a foolish idea.”

Save the stern declarations from Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, the rest of the Arab world have engaged in diplomatic wordsmithing and political sandancing around the war in Gaza. However, when we hear words to the effect that ‘the world is watching’ those words seem to be particularly relevant to the masses of both Sunni and Shiite Muslims particularly in the Middle East.

Capturing the mood and seething resentment of the populace in the Middle East against the inhuman treatment and wanton destruction of life and limb in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon as well as the laid back attitude of Rulers in their kingdoms, Sheikdoms and governments, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim had this to say; “Due to the general feeling of frustration and other reasons in Arab countries that I do not want to delve into, but the future may not bring us peace and stability when popular pressures increase, forcing politicians and decision-makers to make difficult decisions. Therefore, the Arabs must start now in order to achieve peace.”

These words have deep meaning and an uncanny sense of predictability, anyone who can read between the lines would understand that it is more than just a warning of things to come.

(A warning was made of things to come)

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

---

• demonstrations, favourable, Gazians, governments, humanitarian, Middle East, survive

---