International community fails to check Israeli aggression

While slogans like "Shame Israel Shame" and "Free Palestine - Free Gaza" rent the air across the globe - from Australia to India - from Europe to the Middle East  condemning the brutalities of Israel in Gaza, the international community has largely remained silent. Sadly, the United Nations - considered as the forum of the mankind - has been ineffective in checking the Israeli aggression on civilian population in Palestine. The big powers, too, are playing a role of spectators while occasionally speaking about "peace" or the need for "brokering peace" in the Middle East in the aftermath of the latest attacks by the Tel Aviv government. It is really a terribly disappointing spectacle that Israel, which has launched ground offensive along with air strikes against the innocent Palestinians, is going scot-free. Even such organisations like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League appear to have become too inert to react adequately - let alone taking effective measures to halt the aggression. In the meantime, the number of casualties is swelling - mostly women and children being the victims.
The Middle East has been in flames this time over the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers followed by the similar fate of a Palestinian boy. The incidents caused sharp deterioration of the situation with Israeli air attacks killing Hamas militants and civilians mainly in the Gaza strip.
The Palestine-Israeli relations have nosedived in recent times. When Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in the last national elections with a reduced majority, the outcome had surprised and shocked his supporters. In fact, the Israeli voters clipped his wings as he just managed to scrape through the challenge to his rule. The electoral result raised many questions such as: would he soften his hawkish policy in the Middle East crisis? The general impression was that he was unlikely to do that since he would continue expanding Jewish settlements and remain lukewarm to peace talks with the Palestinians. However, the outcome of the polls also served a warning to him - Israelis are wary if the prime minister's extreme rightwing policy is isolating them from the United States, their key ally, the West in general and the international community. This seemed to have an effect on him when Netanyahu started a fresh term in the office.
The Israeli prime minister's stubborn attitude scuttled the ME peace talks that now remains dormant, creating further hurdles towards a possible settlement of the crisis. His earlier comment that he cared little about international criticisms on his government's plans for new Jewish settlement drew criticism even from the United States. This had clearly showed his intransigence that is potentially dangerous to queer the pitch of any possibility of a settlement of the ME imbroglio that broadly involves the Palestinians, Arabs and Israel. Needless to say, global peace and stability largely hinges on this tangle - one of the most complicated international   flashpoints.
The hawkish Tel Aviv government's belligerence soared following the massive support by the UN General Assembly on the status of the Palestinian Authority in the world body. The development in the form of upgradation of the status of the Palestine Authority in the United Nations on November 29 last year, did not come as a surprise when a proposal was placed in the General Assembly session of the world body in this regard. The  Palestinian Authority was upgraded as a "non-member" observer in the UN from the earlier "observer" status and this evidently came as a shot in the arm for the Palestinians. The voting in favour of the resolution was overwhelming since 138 members endorsed it and only nine opposed while 41 chose to abstain. Such an outcome was in the line of expectation. In fact, the number of votes favouring the resolution surpassed estimation since several European nations, including France, Norway and Denmark, parted ways with their NATO allies United States and Britain to support the resolution. The US and Israel, not surprisingly, opposed the resolution tooth and nail. Britain's coalition government was split on the issue and finally, abstained from voting. Indeed, it had been a remarkable show of support for the Palestinians as their nemesis Tel Aviv was crestfallen by the development and Washington too was upset by the turn of events. This development in the UN had some effect on the Israeli prime minister who sought to be a little less hawkish while his stubbornness largely remained unaltered.
The upgradation of the status of the Palestine will not make it a full member of the UN. But what is significant is the greater access that Palestine now enjoys in the international organisations because of the new status - and that is what badly disturbs Tel Aviv.
In the meantime, the formation of the unity government in Palestine, burying the differences between Fatah and Hamas came as a jolt for Tel Aviv.
It appears that Israel has taken advantage of three factors while launching fresh attacks on Gaza. The fighting among the Shia-Sunni Muslims in Iraq, the weakening of Tel Aviv's arch foe Syria in the current civil war and the emergence of Field Marshal Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, who is known to be relatively friendly towards Tel Aviv, as president in Egypt. Israel has been emboldened by these. But the question is: how can a country get away with killing civilians and destroying properties of another country with impunity?
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