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Dear Pervaiz,
This is a sad state of
affairs in this tragic and troubled land. The Palestinian citizens and
occasionally Israeli citizens are the victims of this ever ending
politico-religious conflict. I am deeply troubled by the take over of a
genuine freedom struggle of the Palestinian people by the religious
extremists. If Hamas didn’t start sending these random aimless rockets (Hamas
knew very well that these rockets have no ability to cause real damage to
the other side), Israel
would have no political justification for this action. Hamas provided
Israelis the pretext to invade this most poverty stricken piece of land
called Gaza.
There aims are not to improve the life of the innocent Palestinians, but
they are eying gaining political advantage and sympathy in the West Bank and in the Muslim World. This is their
actual aim. This will eventually bring West Bank to the same level of
poverty and despair as Gaza
and then they will cry barbarism of the Israelis and the West. Remember the
recent bloody conflict between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza when hundreds of Palestinians lost
their lives. This propaganda will not influence World opinion in their
favor (I am sure they are also not interested in changing the World opinion
in their favor), but unfortunately will influence the most poor,
unfortunate Palestinians and other poor and misinformed Muslims around the
world with further disastrous consequences.
I am absolutely not condoning Israeli
actions. They are looking for their interests. The Palestinian people have
suffered gravely at the hands of Israeli aggression. That is why the whole
World (including US and many Israeli citizens) sympathize with the cause of
freedom for the Palestinians. I see this being hijacked in this religious
fervor. Our intellectuals are also being affected in their analysis with
this utter confusion. The ‘religiously tolerant’ intellectuals feel that
religious extremism is brought about by the Western and Israeli actions (US policies in
particular) and therefore they have also
unwittingly joined with the religious extremists , thus creating a
win win situation for the Hamas, Al-Qaida and
many others actors who are seeking utter disorder. Religious extremism
flourish when there is disorder and civil war..
It so important for
the intellectuals to work closely in advocating peaceful resolution of
these conflicts. The power of non violence has already been shown to be the
most powerful force. Instead of blaming outside forces we should engage in
self analysis. Blaming others will get us nowhere.
Peace,
M. A. Nazir
NJ, USA
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