IT is one year since Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and it continues. Gaza is almost destroyed. It is said that Arab petro-dollar will ensure rebuilding. But to use the words “Herculean task” is a misnomer. It will take decades to rebuild Gaza if that is possible at all.
The Israelis are now trying to do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza. There was only one brief Gaza ceasefire and that was last November. The genocide occurred after November last year and since then there has not been a cessation of Israeli genocidal violence.
Before we speculate on why there has not been a ceasefire even though 42,000 Palestinian, mostly women, children and civilians have died, we should digress to the Ukrainian war.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Western sanctions were put on Russia. Russian assets were frozen in all Western countries and those hundreds of billions, the West has decided, will be given to Ukraine. It has not been delivered as yet but it raises the question of the legality. Even more questionable is the confiscation of the assets of Russian billionaires on the pretext that they are friends of President Putin.

The Western media refer to these billionaires as oligarchs. These are legitimate businessmen doing legitimate business in the world yet they are referred to as oligarchs. This approach to the use of words and their meaning causes one to ask if, in the West, the hundreds of billionaires there are oligarchs. Why is a Russian billionaire an oligarch but not super-wealthy businessmen in the West?

It just goes to show how the Western media operates. Let’s digress once more on journalism before we return to the question why there is no ceasefire in Gaza. Dr. Maurice Odle, the Guyanese expert on international trade and finance, who just published his memoir, had this to say in his book: “The mainstream media in the West acts not as a watchdog but as a veritable lap-dog. This is particularly the case in the USA where there are no debates aired relating to USA foreign policy.”

I have dealt in several columns since the genocide in Gaza, with the permanent damage of the credibility of Western journalism in the eyes of the peoples of the Global South. So there is no need to go further here. Bear up with me, another digression is important.
On the anniversary of the genocide, an interesting thing occurred which should open the eyes of the peoples of the Third World, and one sincerely hopes that there are no fools in Guyana whose minds are so burdened with the colonial narrative that they cannot see beyond their nose.
The US and EU countries held an anniversary event on October 7 not to observe the one year of one of the worst acts of violence in history committed by an invading army, but to observe the attack on Israeli citizens and abductions by Hamas militants which led to the deaths of people based in Israel. Can you imagine that?

You have to listen to the words of these Western leaders as they spoke on the anniversary of October 7. There was no reference, not even fleeting, about one of the most horrible acts of violence committed by an invading army of Jews against another race group – Palestinians – in the history of the world. The consciousness of the people of the Global South is deepening because not one country in the Third World held an event to reflect on Hamas intrusion into Israeli territory.
So finally, why is there no ceasefire? Because the West does not want one. Israel has one of the weakest economies in the world. Israel is one of the countries of the world that is characterised by economic dependency. Take away American aid to Israel and it will disintegrate. It is a small, barren country of 8,000 square miles and nine million people.

Even a high school student would know that such a country is open to the edicts and demands of its patrons. But its patrons have decided not to use its clout to pressure Israel. They can do it but will not do it, hence no ceasefire.
The EU has used aid as sanction to threaten countries in CARICOM that refused to abolish the death penalty. The US has threatened sanctions on countries based on the way those countries voted in the UN. So if those kinds of pressure can be exerted for those inconsequential issues, why not for genocide? Judge for yourself the nature of those countries that continue to preach to us that we must follow their democratic standards.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.