TEHRAN-For the past 17 years, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been held captive in what’s known as the world’s biggest open-air prison by Israel, an apartheid regime that has no regard for the so-called peace treaties it has imposed on the people of Palestine with the help of its Western patrons. 

The truth of the matter is that the current war on Gaza did not begin three weeks ago. The war has been ongoing for the past 70 years between the people of Palestine and the Israeli occupiers. Groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are only natural outcomes to years of devastating crimes against a nation that has now decided that a sudden death would be better than a gradual and degrading one. 

Before the October 7 attack, Netanyahu’s cabinet made plenty of provocative moves to rile Palestinians. It slaughtered tens of Palestinians in the West Bank where the Hamas resistance group has almost no presence. Israeli politicians have also been desecrating Muslims’ holy sites, going as far as holding dance parties in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa mosque. 

Such acts were undoubtedly part of Israel’s efforts aimed at provoking Palestinian resistance groups and drawing reactions from them. But what the regime did not expect was getting humiliated by a highly impressive operation that was carried out by people who have been living their lives under a brutal siege.  

The tragedy that unfolded at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital, where hundreds of innocent women and children were killed during an Israeli strike, and Netanyahu blaming the event on resistance forces is highly reminiscent of another fake story that was produced by the American propaganda machine during the cold war. It tells the story of a Russian soldier who is tasked with escorting 20 German soldiers to be executed in the streets of Berlin. A family member of one of the soldiers recognizes him during this sad parade and proceeds to beg the Russian man to spare him for the sake of his children and wife who are waiting for his return. The Russian man who knows he needs to turn in exactly 20 people for execution, lets the soldier go and proceeds to choose a random person in the audience to add to the execution list. That civilian was executed along with 19 German soldiers. 

Now, individuals like Netanyahu, who are killing as many Palestinians as the martyrs in the Al-Ahli hospital every two or three days, like the same false story of the Cold War soldier and claiming to replace a dead soldier, do they have the moral authority to disown themselves from any killing?

Telling the people of West Asia that they can reach peace by reconciling with Israel and trying to fool them with glitter, celebrations and pompous claims is like having a doctor named West giving a patient called east painkillers to cure his painful symptoms. The painkillers will only act as a temporary relief until the patient finds out that he has been in fact suffering from cancer and the doctor who didn’t want his patient to seek treatment has been hiding the truth. 

Perhaps the innocent people of Gaza are experiencing these prophetic words of John's Revelation in the New Testament: “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.”

And in this apocalypse, this rider of death, for all the people, is undoubtedly Netanyahu.

Now, the Western backers of Netanyahu’s killing campaign like Biden and Macron should be able to answer one very important and fundamental question. If years of brutal siege on Gaza resulted in the creation of resistance groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, what will the killing of thousands of women and children and further displacement of Palestinians lead to for Israel? 

Do this rider of death and his supporters not realize that the massacre and genocide of Palestinians these days is only carrier of a basket for a more intense revenge in the future, which instead of the Nile will start from inside the tunnels of Gaza, and like Moses, with complete surprise, will continue within each and every room of Pharaoh's palace forever.