Hamas Ground Reality

I have the good fortune to have travelled West Asia during 1994 to 1998. Once in 1996, I travelled to Jordan on my business trip to Amman. I happened to be at Jordanian port Aqaba in the Red Sea to settle a dispute with a liner. The Dead Sea was not very far from there. I spent a day at Dead Sea on Amman Beach. On my way through the Jordan river I was shown by my local friend Mohammad Hajdeeb far across the west of the river a range of Mount Nebo and the Biblical cities -- Jericho, a Palestinian city in the West Bank and Jerusalem claimed by Israel and Palestine both. I decided to visit these cities on my next visit to Jordan or Syria and make my way to Jericho, Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, Ramallah and Bethlehem etc via Israel. There is still no airport for the civilians in Palestine which consists of two territories, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Palestinian borders are controlled by Israel. Therefore a Palestinian visa doesn’t exist. One has to have Israeli visa to take permission from the Israeli authorities at Tel Aviv to visit Palestine or at a border check post while entering Israel from Jordan by road. 

It was 1998. I flew from Queen Alia airport Amman, Jordan to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. After getting all official formalities done I entered Palestinian territory in West Bank. I was amazed to encounter one after another check post with long waiting and traffic jams. At every check post my papers were checked and then only allowed to proceed. I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and saw the sites where Jesus was believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected. I went to Bethlehem where Christ is believed to have been born in a manger. During the entire trip inside the Palestine territory of West Bank, I saw the walled areas inhabited by the Jews not under Palestine Authority. The West Bank was divided into area under Palestinian Authority with no autonomy and Israeli controlled areas with  military cantonments. I saw the extreme level of Israeli greed that had not only swallowed 88% of Palestinian land to make a new country as Israel but also not allowed Palestinians to control the 12% remnants of their country!! They are not allowed to keep their own army and subsequently they have no arms and ammunition. I saw the proverbial heartless Shylock of an Israeli greed which went to the meanest extent to suppress Palestine.

If we go by history, the Jews had no country of their own. The claim for their self determination in Palestine originated from Hebrew Bible. Palestine became the hub of Abrahamic religions like Judaism recognised by the Jews, Bible by the Christians, Quran by the Muslims etc. In the name of religion, crusades were fought to liberate the holy land as their own. Roman and Byzantine periods saw the pinnacle of civilization. Later the religious superstitions ignited the territorial ambitions of religious fanatics, which later disturbed the peace of the tribes already settled in the region of holy land.  

The Jews came from nowhere entered Palestine bought land from the locals, increased in numbers by staying together in pockets and later captured Palestinian land little by little and forcibly pushed Palestinians into 12% of Palestine land to declare their possessions as their own country. The only pieces of land left today for Palestine are the West Bank and Gaza strip with a rider that they will not have their own army, weapons and ammunition. 

The violent activities are only in Gaza through the Guerrilla attacks on Israel which have nothing to do with peace loving Palestinians in the West Bank as they have no army, no weapons and no ammunition. A vast multitude of Palestinians have left their own country and now they are refugees in Syria, Lebanon, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia etc. Israel is now also planning to create Greater Israel by extending its borders into parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon.

It is a historical fact that Israel usurped Palestine. Palestine never belonged to Israel even till 1946. This is the fact India always accepted since Nehru to Vajpayee to Modi and always sided with Palestine till date. Israel started capturing land in Palestine ever since 1948. In 1948 the UN divided the land of Palestine between Palestine 48%  and Israel 52%. After the military action  by Israel in 1956 and 1967 Palestine was left with 22% and later due to series of Israel's attacks in 1973, 1982 upto 2011, Palestine was left with only 12% of their own land. 

Guerrilla  attacks by terrorist outfits earlier by Yasser Arafat of PLO and at present by Ismail Haniya of Hamas from Gaza have nothing to do with the government of Palestine because the government has no army. The missiles used by terrorist outfit Hamas are very inferior in comparison to Israel's hi-tech attacks. Russia, China and Pakistan do not consider Hamas a terrorist outfit on the logic that they have every right to self defense since Palestine has been stripped off land and army by Israel. Gaza has a sea opening and a passage through Egypt; the weapons are smuggled and transported to Hamas gorillas by Iran. The West Bank is landlocked surrounded by Israel along with Israel's hold on Golan Heights which was also captured by Israel long ago to block any possible acts of insurgency from Syria. 

Israel has the support of the US but not of India. The fact of the history is that India too supports Palestine and she did it openly in the UN, only recently, and said in strong words that Israel knew the Palestinians were weak, denuded them of their own army and thus emerged as a land grabbing country with no geographical history of its own.

At the same time India also does not support violence by Hamas. Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas militant leader Ismail Haniya, also condemns violence by Hamas and militancy by Hamas like any other Islamic militant terrorist outfits  and severed his relation with his terrorist father and now he is a converted Christian. But his support for Israel that sucked Palestine, built its own country by usurping Palestinian land is condemnable and against any sense of logic that Mosab Hassan Yousef engaged in espionage on Israel's behest to harm the legitimate cause of Palestinian agony. 

India knows that it is not going to be any diplomatic gains if India supports totally emaciated Palestine. India also cannot openly support Israel to weaken her stand on POK and Aksai Chin in UNO. Pakistan and China want us to take side with Israel so as to allow them to pounce upon the opportunity to legitimise their occupation on POK, Aksai Chin, Tibet, LOC, LAC upto Arunachal Pradesh. 

India's diplomatic stand with Israel has been to convince Israel that India cannot openly support the cause of Israel keeping in view India is still grappling with POK and Aksai Chin. Rather Israel should help and support India in her effort to get back POK and Aksai Chin. In the process if India gets these back only then she could think of openly support Israel. So whatever arms and defence equipment India gets from Israel is only due to the hope that if India gets back her legitimately lost territories with Israel's help and support, India may support Israel's illegitimate claim over Palestine. Military build ups and action in haste will be too emotional to lose more territories as has been the case with Palestine. Armless Palestine lost their land to the invading Jews well equipped with sophisticated weapons. Israel needs whole Palestine. Pakistan needs Kashmir. China needs Aksai Chin and territories upto Arunachal Pradesh. Can India afford to jump into military action like Palestine? Israel always instigated Palestine for wars only to capture and occupy Palestinian lands. Conflicts need to be resolved by diplomacy than emotional outbursts.