Gaza's agony

What is peace? The dictionary definition, I believe, is simply "the absence of war". At this moment Israel and Palestine are at war. Netenyahu tells us that around the world there is great support for Israel's actions, that everyone agrees it has a right to keep its citizens safe from attack. And though I doubt very much whether Israel really does enjoy the support of the world community, it certainly can continue to rely on its greatest friend, America, whose leader, Barack Obama, has done little to rein in its ally beyond asking it to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Considering the way Israel wages war that isn't going to be easy.


Israel has the best equipped and most powerful army in the Middle East. They have been using F16 warplanes and the latest attack helicopters (courtesy of the US, of course) to blast civilian areas in Gaza for several weeks, causing hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries (which have overwhelmed the medical services there) and tremendous damage to Gaza's already parlous infrastructure They thoughtfully send text message to residents of Gaza suggesting they leave the area, then one minute later the bombs start falling. Some are simple high-explosives, others are horrible phosphorus bombs, and now, increasingly often they are using anti-personnel devices  packed with little blades known as "flechettes", guaranteed to cause maximum injury to any living thing within a 50 metre radius. Residents flee the area if they can, but where can they go? Gaza is like the Warsaw ghetto: no one can leave. So all the residents can do is run from one area of jeopardy to another.


Hamas is believed to possess 10,000 missiles ready to fire into Israel. It sounds terrifying looked at like that, but these missiles are old, half of them don't even explode and when they do more often than not they land in empty desert, because their guidance systems are antiquated. In the West Bank the Israelis are not yet using their full fire power, but a new weapon of subjugation has recently been deployed: "skunk water"-  water which smells like faeces and once on the clothing or skin is almost impossible to clean off. They spray it on the streets to keep people in their houses, and they spray it into the faces of demonstrators, partly so they may be identified later when the army breaks down doors to extract whoever they feel is any kind of threat. This includes pregnant women and children- big threat there.


Tony Blair is the Middle East "peace envoy". Yet at the peak of the crisis where is he? Is he standing, like the Pope did, next to the separation Wall and declaiming: "I am for peace! Stop the killing now- on both sides!" No, he's back in England, being stroked by the labour party who are celebrating 20 years since he became Labour leader. Let us not forget he filled dead men's shoes: the most excellent John Smith dying suddenly of a heart attack was the cue for Blair's assumption of power. Would Smith have travelled the dubious road Blair has, with his poodling to the Americans and now his sickeningly hypocritical approach to the Middle East? I don't think so. Because John Smith was a conviction politician, one who really believed in labour ideals, not spin and cant. Rest in peace, John Smith. How we could have used you right now...