Like the 2009 aggression in Gaza, Israel has managed yet again to fog its uncritical western backers by using sympathy-eliciting language which privileges Israeli life over Palestinian life. Rather than challenging Israel over its latest genocidal operation in Gaza, both the western media and the politicians have uncritically ignored Israel’s killing spree as a series of justifiable retaliatory acts conducted in self-defence.

The much-touted veneer of self-defence, to cover Israeli racist genocidal aggression, has killed more than a hundred Palestinians, including scores of children. On the other hand, Israel’s fatalities remain just a few.
This asymmetry lays bare Israeli sophistry which has involved portraying Israel as a tiny enclave of peaceful, civilised and democratic westerners, living among a sea of uncivilised, terrorist-minded and undemocratic Arabs.

In line with this warped logic, widely accepted in the western capitals, Israel has been systematically engaged in annihilating any traces of Palestinian presence by further colonising Palestinian lands through settlements, closure of all entry-exit points and emasculating economically and politically as a whole. And, the West, with some very few exceptions, has been solidly behind this exterminatory campaign.
In 2009, Israel launched a similarly grand ‘Operation Cast Lead’ which killed an estimated 1,400 Palestinians while Israelis suffered only 13 fatalities. As well as the disproportionate number of Palestinians killed, Israel took special delight in destroying Palestine to rubble as part of its broader exterminatory strategy (Israel also undertakes serial destruction of Lebanon which constitutes commercial challenge as tourist rival).
Yet the invasion failed to dismantle Hamas. Rather, the invasion resulted in Hamas’s increased popularity as a resistance force while eclipsing the secular alternative PLO.
This brings us to 2012 with the second edition of earlier Gaza operation being replayed — with same arguments and issues revived.

The new operation, though grandly titled ‘Operation Pillar of Defence’, is ‘Operation Cast Lead 2.0’. The latest operation is geared more towards burnishing the electoral fortunes of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Other reasons for the latest edition of Israeli aggression are spurred by a medley of mixed strategic motives. First, testing out Israeli anti-missile technology; second, gauging world opinion in case of Israeli strikes on Iran (indeed some ground is being prepared by reference to Gaza-fired missile as being of Iranian origin); third, to test the resole of new democratic government such as Egyptian’s Muslim Brotherhood government which is ideologically close to Hamas; and lastly, to provoke Hamas into exposing its missile storage sites in Gaza and decapitating the arsenal.

Having said that, the latest Israeli aggression took place against changed regional background, too. Israel’s claim of being the only democracy in a region of Arab potentates has come under severe challenge in the wake of the Arab Spring which has returned democratic government in some countries, such as Egypt. This changed scenario may pan out differently this time round. Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi is under pressure from the Egyptian street, to act tough as opposed to previously supine positions taken by Egyptian leaders. Reacting to this popular groundswell, President Morsi sent his prime minister to Gaza to show solidarity with the besieged city and its democratic government. This means that despite Egypt’s other strategic compulsions the government would have to act in a more pro-Palestinian way than has been the case under previous non-democratic governments.
This placed Egypt in pole position to determine the direction of the current round of Israel-Palestinian hostilities. The obvious sign of this influence in reflected in the ceasefire arranged on Nov 21. This has put a stop to the Israeli threat of ground invasion which would have been difficult to execute surgically due to the possibility of new pro-Hamas government in Egypt opening up Raffah border — thus opening up supply and arms routes into Gaza. The upshot would have been Israel’s prolonged entrapment in guerilla war in case of full-scale Israeli ground invasion.

Looking beyond the ceasefire, the West has a moral responsibility to encourage Israel to become part of the Middle East rather than supporting Israeli narrative of western-style democracy under siege from undemocratic Arab neighbours. Abetting this line is the surest recipe for further conflict.

Here the West has a historical role to play by steering its test tube creation in a regional peace and prosperity direction.