Who are seeing the children's bodies?

GAZA is one big prison being bombed from above and assaulted from the ground. Close than 500 Palestinians have been killed, including around more than 80 children. In the past nine days since it began its aggression, Israel has butchered more people than the number of Israelis killed by the Palestinian parties over the past seven years.

Yes, more Palestinians have been killed in less than 10 days, than Israelis killed in seven years and yet all that the international power holders have been doing is justifying the aggression — as if Israel's actions were beyond judgment. In fact, President Bush has called this massacre an act of self-defence on Israeli part! Would he ever respond to a Palestinian attack on Israelis by blaming the Israeli government for holding its citizens hostage with their army's violence?

The stated purpose of the attack is to drive out Hamas, which means to kill anyone in Hamas and to scare the rest into turning against Hamas. Considering Gaza's overcrowded environment, it is hard to fathom how anyone can argue that Israeli's aerial bombardment is focused exclusively on "Hamas targets". Not only does this tactic not work, it in fact clearly fits the definition of terrorism: unlawful violence intended to frighten or coerce a people or government in order to achieve a political or ideological agenda.

"Israel is operating as a terrorist state in the true sense of the word," says Anna Baltzer, an American Jewish peace worker who has been based in the occupied land for years.

"I wonder if people in the US are also seeing the bodies and faces or, as I fear, only some rubble and angry Gazans. The day after the attacks began, Yediot Aharonot covered almost the entire front page with the words, '500,000 Israelis under Attack!' In smaller font, one could learn that in addition to 1 Israeli, 225 Palestinians had also been killed. It was surreal. Consider where you are getting your news, and what is not being told to you."

Forget about Yediot Aharonot, the media both in the West and elsewhere have been largely reduced into nothing but a group of parrots toeing the Israeli line. No wonder that many people hare not "seeing the bodies and faces" of the real human beings being slaughtered.

Who then are seeing the faces and the bodies of the Palestinians and their children? Who are listening to their cries of fear and pain? Certainly not the American leaders, and this is why Dr Mahathir Mohammad's recent open letter to US President-elect Barack Obama constitutes a breath of fresh air.

Highlighting how America and Americans have become "the most hated people in the world," the former Malaysian prime minister "politely" suggested that the US "stop killing people" something that it is too fond of doing in order to achieve its objectives even if it causes whole countries to be devastated.

"Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you," Mahathir said. "Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you. In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed. What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing, except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people."

"Stop your scientists from inventing more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently. Your crusade to democratise countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway."

There are several other suggestions that Mahathir made, saying that if Obama can do only a few of them, he will be remembered by the world as a great leader. "The United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them," Mahathir said.

Will Obama listen? Will the United States listen?