Peace has eluded beautiful Swat valley for past two years. The once buzzing tourist spot became bloodied after two years of constant fighting between Taliban militants and Pakistani troops. Taliban even bombed the famous mountainous international resort at the valley to stamp out all “un-Islamic activities”. Finally rebels have agreed to ceasefire. But under hardliner Taliban regime life will never be easy in the Valley.

British paper reporter Daud Khattakis entered Swat Valley last week and the news he sends is grim. He went few days after journalist Musa Khan Khel all of 28 years of age was brutally killed by militants.

The Swat Valley is under control of Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah who is hell bent on implementing harsh version of religious law sharia. The picturesque Swat Valley has turned in to a hell-hole dotted with destroyed, bombed hospitals, schools, library and other buildings. Girls above eight years of age are banned from taking lessons.  All forms of entertainments stand banned. Women have to follow religious dress code. The punishment for those not the obeying religious laws is anything from flogging to public executions.

Religious fundamentalists preach religion and implement religious laws in the name of God and promise of Heaven after death. It is indeed horrific that they turn the very land and life into a deadly hell hole without leaving any options of desperate escape either!

Via Timesonline

In spite of a mutually agreed upon unilateral ceasefire declared last January 18, Hamas still launched rockets against Israel. Two missiles and several mortars were fired by militants into Israel. Three Israelis were injured. Israel now says that their reaction will be “huge.” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterates, “We have said that in the event of a launch of rockets against the South, there would be a disproportionate response.” In no time at all, Israeli retaliated with airstrikes, hitting a police station in central Gaza and tunnels near the border with Egypt.

Radical Islamists groups, such as Hamas that occupies Gaza, do not exist for peace. They exist precisely for chaos. Creating strife is their business. It is their mandate to sow terror. Radical Islamism and Islamic peace are an oxymoron. Most Muslims, especially those who do not have acute political ambitions, condemn the strategies and the very principles of existence of radical Islamism. Islamist groups are what give Islam an unnecessarily negative reputation. But Islam is not radical Islamism. Muslim extremist militancy is but a small percentage of the entire Muslim world that is generally peace-loving.

Israel can never solve the Hamas problem precisely because of conflict of interest in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, like any typical radical Islamist group, will not stop until they achieve self-rule and self-determination. Such is the way of radical Islamists: they settle upon a land, stir up chaos upon fighting for their claim of the land, and unceasingly wave the cause of oppression of their basic human rights while invoking the purported oppression of Muslims through the millennia.

We’ve heard it before. We’ve seen it happen elsewhere. Radical Islamism is a modus operandi upon itself.

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Via CNN

This small vital information about state of children is not going to deter the government neither it is going to tame the rebels. The ceasefire is not even an option anymore. The fate of young children remains uncertain. Some of them are just few months old. UN insists safe areas such as school and medical facilities be protected. UK has doubled its emergency aid to protect civilians. But Sri Lankan government has preferred to ignore and deny the numbers.

Sad violent deaths, mutilated bodies and souls of children are a reality of any war. But yet armed conflicts for land continue abated in all parts of the globe. Gross human and child rights violations continue. Ironically for the sake of political future the future generations are being systematically desensitized and killed.

Via: BBC

Gaza has been declared a humanitarian crisis. According to the Palestinian health ministry, the Israeli offensive has already incurred 595 lives, 195 of which are children. The war has been ongoing over the past 11 days. A most recent assault on a school building said to be housing Hamas militants left at least 30 people dead and 55 injured, according to the UN. 18 months of blockade and siege have left Palestinians weak, hungry, and cold because of electricity outage.

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, demands for an immediate ceasefire, blaming both Israel and Hamas. The possibility of a ceasefire is at a standstill, with both warring camps insistent on their ceasefire requirements. However, Israel continues to control the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, establishing just a small functional corridor for food and medical supplies. Israel can close this anytime and stop the inflow of aid, though. With this kind of situation, it would be unlikely that any ceasefire proposal can earn the support and approval of Hamas. Islamists are hardly known to compromise.

A complete and accurate humanitarian scenario cannot be estimated at this point, much less reported to the rest of the world, as Israel has blocked the entry of international journalists into Gaza. Israel, though, has pledged to prevent a humanitarian crisis by proposing to suspend offensives in some areas of Gaza so that people can avail of essential goods and basic necessities such as food and medicines. According to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, these areas will be free for “limited periods of time, during which the population will be able to receive the aid.”

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Via BBC

From Palestinian body count, the death toll in Gaza has reached around 500, with about 2,300 wounded. The Israelis reported that there have been four deaths on their side, as well as 60 wounded. From these figures, it can be easy to conclude that the fighting is askew. But while Hamas leaders issue fire and brimstone through hateful rhetoric, Israeli troops have already bisected Gaza and moving their way into Hamas lairs. No calls for ceasefire seem to be heard by either side. Staunchly and steadfastly, amidst dead bodies, Hamas insists for its conditions in a new ceasefire: that Israel stops its fierce assaults, that Israel lifts its longstanding economic embargo of Gaza, and that the Rafah border crossing into Egypt be opened as transshipment point for people and trade.

Staunchly and steadfastly, as well, the Israelis have articulated their conditions for the new ceasefire. This time, the requirements are more stringent. They want control of the crossings into Gaza to end smuggling. This is tantamount to economic blockade. They also require a strict monitoring of ceasefire deal. This is logical but very tricky. Many factors have to be taken into account to actually put this into realization as objectively and scientifically as possible. The toughest condition set by the Israelis on the Hamas is to stop rocket-firing. This can be near to impossible for the Hamas if they want to keep their movement intact. Radical Islamists use firepower to perpetuate their political agenda. Ceasefire agreements and radical Islamists seem to be an oxymoron.

Part of this political agenda is neutralizing suspected Israeli collaborators from the ranks of the Fatah, Hamas’ political rival whom they suspect to be working in cahoots with Israel to bring them down. This move is ultimately destructive to the whole of Palestine. Hamas is killing its own Palestinian people. The reports on Hamas crackdown on Fatah members over the past few days are as follows: 35 killed, 75 “shot in the legs” and “others had their hands broken.” Many Fatah members have also been under ‘house arrest.’ With these developments, Hamas is the last thing that a Palestinian legitimate government should be.

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Via guardian.co.uk

According to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the United States is working on a “durable and sustainable” ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas at Gaza. This ceasefire is planned to avoid the situation where the Hamas can continue to launch rockets aimed at Israel. The air strikes that have been going on, launched by Israel, are retaliation to the rockets fired by the Hamas in the first place.

Rice said she does not plan to travel to the Middle East at the present time. Perhaps, the reason for this is because a ceasefire can happen very soon. All the protests currently happening across the globe against the bombardment of Gaza are putting tremendous pressure on Israel to stop the air strikes. The US would want to make sure that the next round of ceasefire will be impervious to a repetition of the current scenario. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded because of the Israeli offensive on the Hamas’ territory, some of them innocent civilians and children.

Rice has been known to plug the holes in the interventionist foreign policy of her White House boss. She did it in Iraq and is expected to do it in Gaza, too. Well, until later this month when a new president takes over Bush, and Hillary replaces her. Obama, not quite inclined to be interventionist, would want to make amends with the old US enemies for a change. Hillary, on the other hand, is about to face the Taliban as the centerpiece of Obama’s foreign policy is ending the militant insurgency in Afghanistan.

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Via Reuters

Predictable as the International politics and diplomacy goes; Israel rejected a ceasefire proposed by France and other countries. Israel indicated that it was not looking for a quick fix or a band aid to the problem. The government f Israel is under tremendous pressure to appease the hardliners in the country who have supported the Likud party for its rightist and hawkish policies. Now that the elections are fast approaching, any step backwards would mean loss of power and votes during the coming elections.

Thus, all parties in Israel have vowed to decimate Hamas once and for all. However, the issue is more complicated than bombing people and getting rid of them. Hamas is a terrorist organization that may not even be based in Palestine. Israel pounding Gaza is like using a hammer to destroy an ant hill. The ants would viciously strike back.

We can’t ignore the colossal human tragedy caused by the Israeli bombings in Gaza. The more number of people die in Israel, the more alienated will the Israeli nation get from Arab nations and from a larger perspective, from other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Perhaps, the best solution sometimes is just peace. Peace and unadulterated peace, which is not what either side wants.

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Via: BBC