Gaza tragedy: Blinken is no Kissinger

Anthony Blinken is on a foray through the Middle East in light of Israel's massive military assault on Gaza. Back in 1973, Henry Kissinger undertook a similar trip through the region in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War launched by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat against Israel. It was a gamble by Sadat to try to recover Arab land that had been seized by Israel during the June 1967 war.

But where Kissinger toured Cairo, Tel Aviv, Amman and Damascus in his efforts to convince the region's leaders to turn their attention to ways of bringing about a peaceful settlement of the conflict they were all embroiled in, Blinken is on his tour to defend the Israeli military action in Gaza. He is of course also worried that the current crisis could widen out into a larger conflict. The point is he is not on a peace mission. Judging by the sheer speed with which western governments have rallied behind Benjamin Netanyahu, to a point where measures to enhance Israel's defence against Hamas have been put in place by them, it is hard to see what Blinken will gain from his travels in the region.

Diplomacy is clearly not working. More to the point, it is not there at all. Israel continues to pound away at targets in Gaza. It has already dropped no fewer than 6,000 bombs on 3,500 targets in the enclave. There are no sights of a let-up in Israel's offensive any time soon, given that even the United Nations has been forced to close down 14 of its food distribution centres in Gaza, thus leaving 500,000 Palestinians without access to food supplies from these centres. The crisis has thus been compounded, given that Tel Aviv already has Gaza totally blockaded, with the trapped Palestinians going without food, fuel, electricity and water.

The Israeli government has now ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to the south because the Netanyahu administration plans a wider assault, possibly through a land invasion, on the region. The UN has of course asked that the order be rescinded, for if it is not, the present tragedy will translate into a calamity. But will the Israelis, with the West solidly behind its massive operations in Gaza, comply with the appeal? The answer is obvious. They will not.

Since Hamas launched its missile attacks on Israel, targeting Ashkelon and Tel Aviv, on Saturday, as many as 1,537 Palestinians have died in Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli army says the Hamas attack left 1,300 Israelis dead. Altogether 423,000 Palestinians have been displaced.

The humanitarian crisis grows in dimension. Sympathy for Palestinians is sorely lacking in the West. Anthony Blinken's tour of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar promises no breakthrough, for the aim of the Israeli government and its friends in Western capitals is clearly one of pounding Palestinians --- and not just in Gaza --- into petrified silence. Blinken is there to justify Israel's actions in Gaza. Blinken is no Kissinger.

Syed Badrul Ahsan. Sketch: TBS