TEHRAN- Other than biased and ideologically driven persons and except those who seek the backing of Zionist lobbies in the West, particularly in the United States, people who are noticing the sufferings of people in the Gaza Strip are asking what are the motives for so much Israeli barbarity and savagery in Gaza?

So far, Israel has killed about 19,000 people for every person killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel. This in addition to the indescribable suffering it has caused for about 2.3 million people in the blockaded coastal strip. 

The Western world says it considers Israel as an ally and friend, claiming that it is the only country in the Middle East that is democratic and respects human rights.

However, if this is truly some Western politicians’ view of democracy and respect for human rights, then the meaning of “democracy” and “human rights” must be redefined.

If Israel represents an example of democracy and human rights, as the West claims, then why has it prevented Palestinians from deciding about their future and deprived them of having a peaceful, independent, and sovereign state of their own?

Apart from the Western colonial plot to create Israel on the native Palestinian lands in 1948 in which hundreds of thousands of people were driven out of their villages and cities, Israel has been continuously stealing what has been left of the remaining Palestinian lands in the West Bank and incarcerated 2.3 million people in the tiny sliver of Gaza.

In addition to bombarding and making land invasions into the Gaza Strip in the Past, this time, Israel is acting like a person who is terminally insane. It is shockingly violating the laws of war, proportionality, and international law in its war on Gaza.

The way Israel is behaving in Gaza has stunned the world. How one could imagine that the Palestinians in Gaza, whose descendants had been driven out of their lands in 1948, are now being starved as part of a punishment for the October 7 attack in which they did not have a role. 

International law professor Richard Falk, who taught at Princeton University, says the situation created for the Gazans is “a nightmare beyond even Kafka’s darkest imagining.”

No matter the degree of the madness of the 
ultra-right government of Netanyahu, the Palestinians, especially the youth, will not give in to Israel’s crimes even if the Zionist regime, as it has declared, succeeds in weakening or eradicating Hamas. 

The Israeli rulers, the former and current ones, have been ruthlessly suppressing the Palestinians. Yet, they have failed to cause a crack in the will of the Palestinians to get rid of the Israeli occupation, injustice, homelessness, repression, etc.

Former British defense secretary Ben Wallace has warned the Netanyahu government’s “killing rage” will fuel conflict for another 50 years.

“I am sure that the shame Benjamin Netanyahu feels for not foreseeing the October 7 attacks is deep, especially for someone who presented himself as a security hawk and tough guy. But perhaps that shame is driving him to lose sight of the long term. Wallace wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
He added, “If he thinks a killing rage will rectify matters, then he is very wrong. His methods will not solve the problem. In fact, I believe his tactics will fuel the conflict for another 50 years. His actions are radicalizing Muslim youth across the globe.”

The carnage against Palestinians in Gaza has also enraged people, especially the youth, around the world against the Israeli rulers. It is for this reason that the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll has shown that two-thirds of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 see Israelis as oppressors. 

Also, a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College shows strong American disapproval of President Joe Biden’s handling of the Gaza conflict. Over half of the poll’s respondents (57 percent) object to Biden’s handling of the conflict.

Add to this the frequent rallies around the world, especially in the West, in expressing support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

Such strong support for Palestinians may have even come as a shock to the Western rulers who have been staunchly backing Israel but now under the pressure of public opinion are reluctantly calling for a ceasefire after more than 75 days of carnage in Gaza.   

The world is now realizing more and more about the unending griefs and pains of the Palestinians at the hands of ideologically driven Israeli extremists.