West weak while Palestinians pay

If he is the man of compassion and hope that his supporters never tire of telling us he is, then how can he be so indifferent to the suffering of ordinary Palestinians over the past days?

How can he sit back and let the Israelis make life so intolerable for those on the Gaza Strip that even the apolitical Red Cross has condemned Israel?

The pro-Israel lobby says Hamas is an organisation that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. True, but this only tells part of the story.

Hamas might be a terrorist organisation in the eyes of those who would jail you for supporting it in Australia, but to many Palestinians it represents a lifeline.

Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control in 2007 and sought to strangle the area economically.

This has merely made Hamas more relevant to people in the area as it provides medical help, welfare, housing and employment. Israel has created the monster it now seeks in its bullying and indiscriminate fashion to destroy.

What is unfolding today - a sad case of history in this part of the world yet again repeating itself - is due to the West's refusal to pressure Israel's leadership for significant concessions and recognise the yearning of the Palestinian people for a homeland is as legitimate as that of the Jews.

It is the Palestinians who, from the Oslo Accords in 1995 onwards, are forced to make the big plays in diplomacy. The Palestinians are meant to stomach continual humiliation and eroding of their rights so that Israel might come to the party and negotiate some form of peace.

The leadership of Israel is today morally and ideologically corrupt. It does not matter who replaces Ehud Olmert as prime minister in the next couple of months, it seems political leaders in Israel know only one thing - use military and economic might to destroy ordinary Palestinians so they give up on groups like Hamas.

It is a flawed and failed strategy, but Israel gets away with it because they are the good guys that politicians in places like Washington and Canberra pander to time and again.

Meanwhile, Palestinians are denied their fundamental human rights to be citizens of a place that is their homeland.

They talk about justice for all? Yeh ... and pigs might fly.