Harare,Zimbabwe (Aug 11 2006)
THE escalation of the war in the Middle East which has since claimed the lives of more than 1 000 people in Lebanon and 100 in Israel is quite tragic and terrible blow to humanity.

The harrowing images of young Lebanese children killed by a rain of Israeli bombs, the large scale destruction of properties, the desperate war victims battling to get elusive food aid and the gory tales about the war in Lebanon evokes a sense of hopelessness and anger on the untold suffering brought by the Israelis on Arabs.

Africans know what war means. Remember the devastating wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1998 -2002), the Darfur crisis in Sudan, civil war in Angola (1975 -2004), west African conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and other trouble spots that caused immense suffering, dislocation and human movement of biblical proportions when refugees fled the conflicts.

Of course, peace initiatives have brought so much hope and a renewed sense of the future.
But during those dark moments of the wars in Africa, people suffered and died, starved and endured the most humiliating of experiences while rich and powerful countries watched as if nothing was happening.

They never cared a hoot about Africans. To them, as Americans like to say, they have 'permanent interests and not permanent friends." This explains why it took so long for black South Africans to gain freedom as the British and the Americans practised double standards -denouncing apartheid in public but falling short when it came to imposing sanctions on apartheid South Africa.

What they cared most about where the diamonds, gold, oil, uranium and other agricultural and mineral products and not about the welfare of the Africans in war-torn countries.

 In the 1970s war of independence in Zimbabwe, more than 50 000 people were killed by the Ian Smith regime, supported by the British and American governments and apartheid South Africa. Smith was never prosecuted for these war crimes. He is still a free man and has a farm in Shurugwi in the central part of Zimbabwe despite all the noises against President Robert Mugabe. If the tables were to be turned, then by now Mugabe would be languishing in jail under the Smith regime because of racism.

All these sad memories about the wars fought in Africa evokes a sense of hopelessness and the burden of oppression which weaker nations like Lebanon have to endure in the wake of military superiority of the US-backed Israeli government which is causing untold suffering on Arabs as it kills and maims with impunity under the cover of the mighty American government of George W. Bush which has a sharp appetitie for war and conflict.

The war has come with enormous cost to Lebanon and its people who virtually have nothing to point at save for the huge pile of rouble and other properties which have been callously razed to the ground by the Israeli forces. Fuel supplies have run out, hospitals and other centres of hope have been paralysed, electricity and running water is now a luxury most Lebanese people no longer afford as the Israelis have turned the whole situation into a humanitarian crisis of bigger proportions.

For Africans, the Middle East crisis serves as a reminder of the tragedy of war when rich and powerful nations disregard the respect of human life in favour of protecting 'permanent interest -oil and Israel.'

Nobel peace laureate and veteran anti-apartheid activist, Archibishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu bemoaned the lack of restraint evident in the Middle East conflict.

"I think God is crying that god's children can do this to one another," he told the South African media in Cape Town this week. "Whatever the provocation, there can never be justification for targeting civilians. There is absolutely no reason and we would say the act is an immoral act, from whichever side. both sides. To shell civilian dwellings is just unacceptable."

He was quoted saying South Africans had learned there would never be true security from the barrel of the gun. It was only when everyone felt their human rights were recognised and acknowledged that there would be a peaceful Middle East.

"I feel so deeply distressed. Aren't the leaders of faiths on both sides, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, saying please, please, please, whatever else you do, stop this destruction, mutual destruction? Although worse has happened in Lebanon than in Israel. But it is still that they are shelling there as well, and this is how you recruit suicide bombers."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has appealed to most governments in Africa to support his country's call for a cease fire and their seven point plan.

In the midst of this crisis, it is very easy for the international community to pay more attention to Lebanon and forget the plight of the Palestinian people who have endured for many decades Israeli bombings and attacks.

And whatever criticism have been laid against the Hezbollah fighters, they are a force to reckon with, a determined people who have stood their ground despite intensive shelling and aerial bombardments by the well-equipped and US-backed Israeli troops. Arab countries have limited power to confront this US-backed Israeli war of aggression.

One Russian Jewish billionaire is supporting Jews that have been displaced in northern Israel to the tune of US$500 million a day while the Lebanese people are failing to access food and other humanitarian supplies from the UN  relief agencies.

More than 1 000 Lebanese people have died as Israel seeks to revenge over the capture of just two soldiers. The principle of proportionality has been disregarded because of the US military and diplomatic cover Israel enjoys.

  No matter the injustices that we see with our naked eyes perpetrated by the military mighty, they say: "History does not disappear by not dealing with it, it remains there and it remains a wound."

This conflict has provoked a mood of shock among Africans and admiration of the determination of the Hezbollah guerrillas who with unbending determination are standing their own ground despite the huge cost to their nation and people.

And as Americans prepare to observe the fifth annivessary of the September 11 terror attacks, one hopes that the Bush administration which is in an expansive mood and in the frontline politics of the war against terror will realise that their hands have blood and that his administration will be held responsible for the turbulent and tragic history of the Palestinian people and the Middle East as a whole.

The world now, needs peace and a reasonable and measured American foreign
policy that respects other opposing cultures and views, that tolerates other religions, that addresses world disputes with fairness and without double standards.

To me as an African, the Middle East crisis, is a tragic reminder of how racism and American politics has wrecked havoc on the mental, economic, social and spiritual world of not only the Arabs but the African people as well as they seek to dominate them and plunder their resources. 

"How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look," Bob Marley's voice still resonates powerfully capturing the tragic events in the Middle East.