IT IS NECESSARY TO RID OF ILLUSIONS AND RETURN TO THE REALITY
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir.am
12:25:49 – 15/01/2009
What is happening in the Gaza area on these days is a real humanitarian
disaster, a human tragedy. The Israeli-Palestinian war takes the lives
of innocent people, children, the wounded do not get medical aid,
there is no drinking water, people hardly survive. In this sense,
when innocent people are killed, when the peaceful population suffers,
the situation is to be condemned, no matter who wages a war and for
what purpose.
However, it is not news that in the world, whoever launches or wages
a war, its consequences for peaceful people are hardly ever taken
into consideration. On the other hand, most wars begin to protect the
peaceful population from regular attacks. Israel says to have launched
the war because the southern cities of Israel were regularly shelled
by Hamas from the Gaza area. To guarantee their security, since Hamas
did not respond to the calls to stop shelling, the army of Israel
entered the Gaza area to neutralize the fire emplacements of Hamas.
The people who track the news on the war from afar are divided into
two parts. One part sympathizes with the Arabs because they have
appeared in inhumane conditions and would not surrender, the other
part is for Israel which does not hesitate to defend its interests
with weapon despite the calls of the international community and th
e Muslim world, does not fear from the fact of being surrounded by
Arabs and protects its own state. Of course, underneath these human
judgments there is great politics, there are interests of great powers,
interests which perform a role both in terms of the staunch of Arabs
and boldness of Israel.
In our case the problem is judgment, the judgment of Armenians. After
the war in Gaza official Yerevan made a neutral statement, holding
out hope that the problem will be solved with peace. Perhaps more
would have been unnecessary. From unofficial Yerevan only the union
of Armenian volunteers spoke up which condemned the step of Israel
and supported the Arabs. There were individual responses, at the
level of political scientists, who mostly sympathize with the Arabs
and condemn the action of Israel. In addition, it should be noted
that response from Armenia is not based on the humanitarian factor
but political evaluation. If it were the humanitarian factor, it is
quite possible that we sympathize with the Arabs, not Israel. However,
the response refers to the political aspect.
On the whole, we may say that the Armenian official and unofficial
community is not adequate to the situation. It is adequate to its own
state of soul and mind. The point is that it was difficult to expect
other response from Armenia to the recurrent Arab-Israeli conflict
because the Armenian officials, experts, as well as the most part o f
the public and political community is guided by stereotypes, complexes.
Since we have always been victims, or historically we have mostly
been victims, we consciously and subconsciously sympathize with
victims. Besides, we may also think that since Israel does not
recognize the Armenian genocide, and the world is ruled by the Jews
who plot conspiracies against the Armenians, we must not be loyal to
any step of Israel. Meanwhile, several important circumstances in the
unofficial response from Armenia are ignored, which are worthwhile
to focus on in viewing the Israeli-Arab conflict. For instance, that
it has been a long time we were not victims, we are a winner society
and we must display mature judgment in such situations rather than
instill inhibitions and a feeling of victim in our society with a
weeping image of a future victim.
And most importantly the current Israeli-Arab conflict is evidence to
one more thing that there is no more reliable guarantee of security
than one’s own position. It should be taken into account and displayed
to the figures who are preparing to return territories to Azerbaijan
in return for international guarantees of security of Karabakh. The
example of Israel is the best evidence that there are only one’s own
guarantees of security, never international. And instead of telling
the world that by failing to condemn Israel the world encourages other
countries such as Azerbaijan to take similar actions, the Armenian
community should tell themselves that it is necessary to rid of the
illusion of international guarantees and return to the reality and
reinforce the reality rather than put it up for political sale.