Stopping the genocide in Gaza

May I ask when we are going to shed aside the collective guilt that the civilised world carries because of the pogroms and genocide carried out by previous generations against the Jews? The civilised world, the EU and the US, with like-minded countries like Canada and Australia as well as many other UN member countries, must join ranks to stop Israel from razing Gaza to the ground.

These are not Roman times when one could order “Carthago delenda est” (Carthage must be destroyed) from the Senate in Rome. It is now the Israelis, and I distinguish between a majority of Israelis and Jews in general, who bear the weight of the guilt of genocide and of the Palestinian pogrom that they are carrying out under Benjamin Netanyahu.

The citizens and parties that support this killing spree must carry this weight and pay the price. They should be declared to be pariahs.

Thank God that the UK, France, Spain and Canada begin to rally against the flattening of Palestine, the killing by starvation and indiscriminate bombings of women, children and boys and men in Gaza. The EU is discussing the suspension or termination of the association agreement with Israel and Spain asked to exclude Israel from the Eurovision.

This just cannot go on.

Our own country speaks loudly in favour of the Palestinians but our prime minister lacks the courage to recognise Palestine and to join the other EU countries which have already done so. Who is pressurising him to keep his government from recognising Palestine? Is it the US? Is it Israel or some other dark forces?

Why did the two parties in government and in opposition secretly collude together to keep the truth from us about the use of our airspace by Israel and the sending of drones from our airspace or, possibly, even our territory to attack and stop a ship carrying food and supplies to starving Palestinians from even entering our harbour for repairs and provisions? When will the truth come out?

This just cannot go on- John Vassallo

Why, may I ask, does the world, does Donald Trump and the EU continue to support Israel? Why does Germany not shrug off the guilt of their grandparents and take a stance like France and the UK, Ireland and Spain?

Are we to continue to be regaled in our news channels with horrendous pictures and scenes of murder and starvation that might please some inhabitants of Israel but will certainly disgust the Jews of the rest of the world and all other civilised people.

I wonder when the half of the Israeli population that never voted for Netanyahu or for the radical conservative fascist right-wing religious parties in Israel are going to ask their sons and daughters in the army and air force to become conscientious objectors and to rise up against their mad generals and their mad political leaders.

I know that in a dictatorship, like under the Nazis, it was not easy for the general population and the right-minded thinkers in the army to rise up against Hitler. The same applied against Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung or, now, Trump in the US.

But Israelis who pretend to form part of Europe in sports and music festivals do not count as Europeans now as they indiscriminately kill, starve and maim children, women and old men while looking on and applauding that barbarian who leads them. Wake up Israel, wake up world and put an end to all dictatorships and to all barbarians.

Palestinians deserve part of the land which belongs equally to them and their forefathers just as part of it belongs to the fathers and forefathers of the Jewish people. A return to the borders of 1947 and transfer of all illegal settlements to the Palestinians must be forced upon the two peoples with an international force dividing the two to keep the peace is the only two-state solution that will last. Otherwise, this will never end.

And where, may I ask, are the rich Arabs wallowing in their barn houses and air-conditioned houses and cars enjoying their oil wealth? Are they fawning to Trump and ignoring the fate of their Muslim brothers? Have they no courage either?

John Vassallo is a former ambassador to the EU.