Eyeless in Gaza: Tragedy without end

"Marhaba, smell the jasmine in the air ." So read the greeting that I received on my cellphone as our chopper took off from an air force base not far from Jerusalem. "Marhaba" is hello in Arabic and I was pleasantly surprised to receive the message from a Palestinian mobile operator while still within Israeli territory. That was in December, 2005 and I was visiting Israel as part of a journalists' delegation.

There was no mistaking the eerie symbolism about the message on my mobile: We were flying over the fence that divides the territory between the two states at one point. But then, borders and fences have meant so little in the Middle East conflict for so long.

On the same trip, I was smuggled one evening, in what looked like a minor covert operation, into the Palestinian Authority's (PA) territory, for which I had no visa. Only for about an hour and only to visit the place where Jesus is said to have been born. The place, where a church stands now, is within the PA territory and the two sides cooperate in allowing pilgrims and visitors to spend time there. The souvenir shops around make brisk business, selling both Christian icons and Palestinian memorabilia. One common sight is tourists having their pictures taken in the white-and-black Palestinian head scarf. All that, of course, in normal times.

These aren't normal times in Gaza or for the whole of Palestine. The smell in the air is not of jasmine, but of gunpowder and phosphorus. Cynically, though, one could say these are indeed normal times in a region where a conflict has raged on for more than 50 years. It is the lull in the fighting that is a departure from the normal. But cynicism has been the worst enemy of the peace process in the Middle East

Everyone agrees the Israeli invasion of Gaza is an act of pogrom. From the UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon, to the protestors in the streets of countless capitals of the world - from Washington to London to Jakarta - people from all walks of life are calling upon Israel to halt the strikes in Gaza. And, many analysts agree that Israel's attacks on Gaza this time ultimately reflect its refusal to accept Hamas' political authority, which it had questioned at the time of Hamas' election victory in 2006.

Nobody denies, however, the truth in the Israeli complaints about the missile attacks inside its territory from Gaza. They happen almost every day, making life for ordinary Israelis insecure in several parts of the country. Tragic scars of these attacks are to be seen just about anywhere.

One poignant moment I remember from that trip is an evening at a caf by the sea beach in Tel Aviv. As we were about to enter it, our host stopped at the gate, pointing to a picture of a young man playing his guitar. It recalled a tragedy that happened at the caf a few years ago - the young man in the picture, a friend of our host, was killed, along with many others, in a bomb attack on the caf. That tragic evening too, he was singing at the caf.

It's the human tragedy, now unfolding in horrific proportion in Gaza, that is the cruelest face of the Middle East crisis. It has hit other parts of the region time and again.

Statesmen and politicians - from the two battling sides and from the rest of the world - have their own solutions for the big issues in the conflict. The world generally agrees on what the solution is - the restoration of the 1967 border.

But it is the humanitarian catastrophe that cries out for an end to the conflict. True, peace has been fragile in those sands. But, as the saying goes, there never is a good war - or a bad peace.

E-mail: ashis@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/16/2009 page8)