Tiger, Tiger Burning Dim
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers may now see their shining star of Tamil liberation burned out in its plunge toward the atmosphere of defeat, but as an empowering symbol of guerrilla warfare unleashed on a state power, it served its purpose to inspire and to train other terror groups, most notably those in the Middle East. Tamil Sri Lankans had historically suffered degrading human rights abuses by the majority Sinhalese government of the country, and saw a country of their own the only solution to their subservient and oppressed condition.Enter the Tamil Tigers, a dedicated, conscienceless group of terrorists determined to wreak havoc within the country by creating terror through their own version of massacres; attacking Sri Lankans in general and murdering Tamils who opposed their methodology, while blackmailing the general Tamil population into supporting their grimly murderous tactics to prevail in their nationalist battle. Tamil civilians, mindful of their delicate position, bereft of full status as protected citizens of the country, dependent on the success of a terror group for a homeland of their own, caught in an existential vice.
After decades of battling the ever-insurgent guerrillas, despite the occasion cease-fire that never had any lasting value, the government of Sri Lanka finally decided, after beefing up their military, to make an end to the insurgency. This was no casual army of volunteers they fought. The Tigers operated within a mini-state they had fought for, complete with a police force, ships and submarines, small planes and an arsenal of tanks. Funding from abroad through enforced expatriate Tamil 'charities' ensured a steady supply of underground munitions.
The Sri Lankan military were this time determined to obliterate the Tigers, and they didn't much care about fall-out. Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians were held hostage by the Tigers, and fired upon by the military and the Tamil Tigers, both. Those who could fled in huge numbers, the wounded and the merely fearfully starving, to settle in meagerly-provisioned refugee camps. Humanitarian groups and foreign diplomats, along with news media were not permitted entry into the disputed area where fighting raged.
As the Tamil Tigers finally were forced to surrender, many of their elite opting for cyanide capsules rather than submitting to torture or death at the hands of the military, the sheer numbers of internally displaced and desperate civilians present as an overwhelming disaster of humanity in dire straits. The United Nations estimates are that 7,000 civilians were killed in the massive offensive, and 16,700 wounded.
There is an eerie resemblance between this offensive by the government of Sri Lanka against the terrorist Tamil Tigers and that between the State of Israel and its own terrorist entity in Gaza, Hamas. Hamas too presents as the protector of Palestinian Gazans, with its own police force, its armaments, its constant attacks on Israel leading to the Israel-Gaza offensive. Like the Tigers, Hamas used its population as a human shield, drawing fire from the military. Like the Tigers, Hamas murdered its own.
Unlike the government of Sri Lanka, Israel agreed to pull its IDF forces out of Gaza. Unlike Sri Lanka, Israel was internally perturbed, conscience-stricken at the deaths of civilians caused by the offensive in Gaza. Unlike Sri Lanka, whose deliberate ignoring of the censure of the international community led to a successful conclusion in obliterating the terror army of the Tigers, Israel has always been sensitive to pressure from abroad, pulling back before it might accomplish success.
Sri Lanka's problem has been put to rest, for the time being - before a resurgent group of militant Tamils once again surfaces. Israel's viciously vexatious problem with Hamas is infinitely more complex; that of a state forced to negotiate with a population wishing a state of their own alongside one that they covertly intend to continue terrorizing. Even from within the State of Israel, which has extended full citizenship to Palestinians living within the nation there are threats of upheaval.
Regardless of legitimizing Palestinians as fully-recognized citizens of the state, enabling them to elect Members of the Knesset, those MKs often prove to be resiliently devoted to the cause of jihad rather than the flourishing of the country that nourishes them. Where Israeli Jews celebrate the anniversary of the creation of their state, Israeli Palestinians view it as a day of mourning, "Nakba Day", where rallies are held to mourn the creation of Israel as a Jewish state.
The Israel-based Islamic Movement warns that Israel as a Jewish state is in the descendant, while Islamism within Israel is on the ascendancy. "The sun of Zionism will set as the sun of an Islamic state rises" proclaimed the sheik who is second in command of the Islamic Movement. "If there will be a future Nakba, it will be suffered by another people, not ours." The 'nakba' referred to is referenced as a 'catastrophe'. Young Israeli Muslims are warned to avoid serving Israel in any manner: "Do not fall into the trap of national service."
Sri Lanka faced a movement for secession, one it could have solved by ceding a parcel of land to the Tamils whom they have systematically and historically demeaned and ill-treated. Israel has no assurance that with an agreement to pull its settlements out of the West Bank and to agree to a two-state solution, it can secure peace for itself. The Israeli Arabs who have full nationhood in the State have no intention of leaving Israel to join a nascent Palestinian state.
They will work assiduously from within Israel to destroy the state and reclaim the entire geography, in tandem with the terror group Hamas. Handily assisted by Hezbollah, in deference to their masters in Syria and Iran.
Labels: Middle East, Terrorism, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, May 17, 2009
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