It can be considered as a good textbook case of visitors overstaying their welcome, or squatters stubbornly holding on to land that is not theirs in the first place. But Israel is no visitor, and much less a squatter. It has acted the part of usurper and oppressor for several decades, thanks to the Zionist ideology which has clouded many a mind in Israel and has spread to much of the Western powers.

The bombs falling down on Gaza and the West Bank have yet again sparked a carnage, a humanitarian crisis, and outrage. For how long will the Palestinian people suffer from this flagrant violation of their right to exist, their right to be? For how long will the world wait till the superpowers, both Muslim and non-Muslim nations decide once and for all to teach a major human rights violator that it can no longer hide anymore behind the Holocaust as an excuse to oppress the people who tolerated them and co-existed with them before? When will Israel be punished for its misdeeds against Palestine and her people?

As the world grapples with these questions, the bombs have not stopped dropping, the killings have not stopped from happening. How many more lives would need to be destroyed before something could be done to at least cease the hostilities?

As long as the oppressor is backed by the powers that be, there will be no end in sight for the debacle. It does not take a genius to recognize that what is happening is not just a failure to keep Israel in check, it is also a failure for the Muslim World and the world at large. PMT