A 1000 reasons not to smile - Middle East and Beyond

NOTE:These are just my personal views, and one of millions of people asking the question why are we fighting and killing each other. By any stretch of imagination I don't have any relation to any of the warring nations or religions involved in the middle east conflict. Though I have tried to state the facts to the best of my knowledge, apologies for any factual or technical errors :)

It feels as if the sense of happiness has been taken out of all us from our day to day life.It has become difficult to enjoy ones own happy moments when we see all the things happening around us. The loss of so many lives in Indonesia tsunami, the 6000 people dead in Iraq in 2 months (an average of 100 a day), the 200 dead in Mumbai blasts, the soliders and civilians killed in Iraq,Afghanistan and Kashmir, the people dying due to civil wars in several countries in Africa, when the continent has already been facing so many deaths for decades due to something which every living creature coming to this planet deservers - food.Things have been made all the more difficult to ignore with the invasion of our homes with live coverage of all of these by our brave reporters.

It was another day this monday and I was praying against all hopes that I dont see another carnage making headlines in the Lebanon-Israel war. But, to my horror it turned out be the worst day in 20 odd days of war(should we say genocide or brutal abuse of military might by Israel). 34 innocent children and several elderly people were killed with a total toll of 70 plus dead by the Israeli raids over Qana in Lebanon.
Not to mention the dastarldy act of blowing up 4 UN relief officials without mercy, even when one of the UN Irish army officer had warned the Israelis atleast 6 times after one of the Israeli rockets landed very close(infact 300m) to the UN mandated post in southern Lebanon and which has been well in existence even before the war broke out. Well, its nothing short of a cowardly act on the part of the Israseli's to just rub it off their shoulders saying that it was not deliberate. Probably they take the entire world to be made of fools outside the Israeli border. And Kofi Annan, should be appreciated for his courage in putting it straight to the Israeli's that it was more of a deliberate attack than a mere accident, even when he knew that it might not be well received by all.At the end of the day what really matters is he stood up for the cause of his subordinates, who gave their precious life serving their duty to save the innocent lives.

One might wonder why should I write about something to which I bear no relation. I dont belong to any of these nations or to any of the religions that are warring, and I might as well be better off writing about our own Mumbai blasts that happened recently. Well, the difference is that Mumbai blast was a genuine case of terrorist attack which was no different from the other attacks we have witnessed the world over in recent years, what Israel is doing is a sheer case of state terrorism sponsored by a regular army and literally the world has come down on its knees begging it to stop it, but still couldn't stop it. At the end of the day it will come to an end, but it inevitably will be too late and Israel would have got sufficient time to accomplish its so called mission - wiping out Hizbollah and creating a buffer zone in the southern Lebanon. With already close to 1000 people killed, stopping the war even tomorrow is not going to do any good.

Now lets come to the point why the entire offensive by Israel could be termed as a state terrorism.While it might be difficult to define what terrorism is, different groups and nations have their own definition, of course to suit their needs. Well all this for what? For the 2 Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah operating out of South Lebanon and 1 held by Hamas operating out of Palestine. So, now lets ask the fundamental questions. What happens to the hundreds of Hizbollah and Hamas prisoners held by Israel as prisioners of war. Its also an altogether different matter, if these prisoners being treated by Israeli army as per the Geneva convention.

We can't ask the same question to Hizbollah or Hamas, because you see those are terrorist organizations, and going by our own description of a terrorist organization,they dont care about any rules. But, what about the Israeli Army? But, it makes me wonder if the Israeli have ever read the Geneva convetions rules of a war. It says the civilian lives and property should be spared from any attacks. Now it makes you wonder what made them to blow up several brigdes, the TV station, wireless towers, apartments, UN posts, relief vans. And ask Israeli's,for them all these are terrorist targets and terrorists are hiding here every where. We know the pain in India, how much tax payers money and effort goes into building flyovers and bridges. With the brigdes blown, the Lebanese refugee movement to Syria was hampered.It makes ones heart skip a beat when you realise that more than half of the killed were children and almost the entire population was civilian population and Lebanon's 6 years of effort of rebuilding their nation has been undone in a few hours.Israeli's will shout again that these were terrorist targets. And, the Israeli reponse to the Qana carnage and UN post attack was apalling to say the least. For them its another case of mistaken target. What was the need to launch such a full scale war even before trying to initiate a bilateral dialogue.when what Hizbollah wanted was a swap of prisoners.
It also made me wonder how hard hearted the Israeli nation's conciscience could be. One report on one of the news channels showed that the 85% of Israeli's wanted to hit Lebanon harder and they have nothing to say more than the rockets landing in Haifa and other Israeli areas. With due respect to the right of every country's right to defend its land and people, Israel has all the right to defend it self and why should the innocent people in Isreael live under the constant fear of rockets from Hizbollah, while Lebanon people had no such threat from the Israeli army before the war borke out.But, bottomline is who has suffered the most. If rockets were a concern, why launch a full blown air raid and a subsequent infantry attack on lebanon. Israel could have as well used their 'precision' rockets. It makes me wonder how better are the Israeli rockets or the men guiding them than those of Hizbollah rockets, considering the fact that so many Israeli rockets have so hit so many wrong targets (anyway for them all those are terrorist targets).By any standards the Hizbollah rockets have caused less casualty in terms of property and civilian life.While the entire world is engrossed in the war on the lebanon side, more than 100 have died due to the Isreali offensive on the Gaza strip,well they want the Hamas government out you know. While Israeli people are shouting from top of their voice about their difficulties, anyone who compares the living standards in Lebanon/Palestine people and Israel itself will know the truth. By the way, Israel has blown up several power supply stations in Palestine, as if they thought why not add little more gloomness to the existing darkness. Anyway its not going to be a big difference. If the facts in one of the British papers is to be believed, Isrealis had their own organization called Ingun which had similiar style of operations to that of Hamas and Hizbollah. Well, its for you make a call what to call it, if Hamas and Hizbollah are called terrorist organizations. More striking is the reference in the article that the Israeli prime ministers immediate ancestors were part of Ingun and had close ties with it during Israels struggle for a free state.

One of the statements by a US official caught the essence of it all. He says 'we will continue to counsel Israel to show restraint', as if acknowledging that Israel is behaving like a physchiatric child which needs to be taught some discipline. But, the question is who will do it?

Its time to realise that we are facing greater battles in the form of global warming,bird flu, deforestation,water shortages and food scarcity. Its time to realise that in the mindless wars to save a piece of land for oneself, we might loose our earth in the bigger battle.

Lets pray that we learn to treat every human life to be as precious as our own, and mother nature shows more kindness towards all the creatures on earth, which is the only place we will ever get to live and ofcourse to die!