We must not miss the real account in Gaza

On the 164th day of the massacres of genocidal Israel in Gaza, even in the month of Ramazan, that is, even in the spiritual climate of the month of Ramazan in which both all Muslims living today and all believers who have lived in history unite at a single point in time, they are continuing without slowing down. Far from pausing the genocide for one reason or another, at the last meeting of the Israeli war cabinet an attack even on Rafah, where the people of Gaza driven from the North have taken refuge and gathered, is being discussed. What is being discussed is already being done, and has been done. The people, who for months have also been struck with the weapon of hunger, become targets en masse of Israeli bombs and volleys of fire at the aid points where they gather to receive the aid that barely reaches them. Each time dozens of people lose their lives in the most terrible way.

This scene has three aspects that, unfortunately, have come to be taken for granted everywhere in the world as normal: Israel's immoderate, unstoppable aggression; the powerful who brazenly, with or without excuses, lend unlimited support to these crimes against humanity of Israel; and those who, even if they raise their voice in the loudest register against these massacres, in practice do nothing, or are unable to do anything.

The protests, the voices against genocide and Zionism put forth from all over the world since 7 October seem to have affected all perceptions, feelings and attitudes about the present world order. But this effect does not have the effect of stopping these genocides in the short term, and this situation in itself has quite different effects, perhaps diverging ones, especially on those who oppose this genocide at one level or another. In place of the hopefulness that "a bandit does not become ruler of the world," the slow absorption of a pessimistic realism that the bandit has in fact always ruled the world.

The people of Gaza dispel this pessimistic picture with their resistance, their martyrdom, and the festive air with which they receive all the calamities that befall them by referring them to an entirely different calculation, and they make the brightness of faith prevail in its place. By reminding that hardship, martyrdom and the hereafter are all included in the calculation, they set up once more the mathematics of the calculations made on this subject, but of course for those who understand.

Perhaps many people can still, sitting and standing, put forward their own shallow mathematics: "What did Hamas gain by carrying out these actions? It dragged so many people to death." Yet the Gazans keep reminding us every day of the calamity that the world we are floundering in contains for us. They point to the danger within the very state of affairs in which we find ourselves and which we think very safe. The truth thrown in the face of those who can understand the command of the Noble Book "do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction" as fleeing from death, from a harm that may befall our bodies, is that the real danger is the danger of fleeing from putting forward your death against those who set out to take your honor and dignity from your hands when needed. The know-it-alls, the all-knowing strategists and tacticians who say "if they had not gone to war they would not have died" always appear during this reckoning. As for the ancient Word, it reminds the real calculation by saying to them: "Would they have been exempt from death if they had stayed in their comfortable beds, in their sheltered houses? Do you suppose that death will not come and find you wherever you are?"

Everyone must know that the Gazans, who today knowingly and willingly put their lives on the line for their freedom and their honor against the rampant enemies who have occupied their country and set upon their sacred things, their honor and their beliefs, have lost nothing. The real losers are those who cannot interpret these events correctly, who cannot see the signs, the plain truths, that these events contain.

WHAT CAN TURKEY DO FOR GAZA?

The imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ikrima Sabri, in a speech he gave on the occasion of Ramazan, said that the leaders of Islamic countries have done nothing but speak and at best condemn, even strongly condemn. He spoke from the office from which the Muslim world's grade can best be given. This grade is not like the grades given by others. It is a far more realistic, far more authentic assessment than the grades given by international rating agencies in this or that field.

The stance the Islamic world has displayed on what can be done for Gaza will be recorded as helplessness for as long as it does not stop the massacres, indeed does not make Israel and those behind it pay a price. Gaza will win; those who stay silent over its being exalted by martyrdom will lose. The so-called "realistic" justifications put forward on this subject do not reflect a state of having truly investigated and probed what can be done, shown a will, and run up against a limit. On the contrary, what can truly be done on this subject has not been seriously investigated by any actor, nor has a will been shown.

Although it is a fact that Turkey, from which everyone expects more than from anyone else in this process, is "alone" in moving and doing something on this matter and especially does not get sufficient support from the Arab world, this fact can never constitute an excuse for being content with what has been done. In essence, Turkey can still be a pioneer in mobilizing the Arab-Islamic world and getting them to develop a more effective and result-yielding stance on this matter. It can mobilize the Arab world by making the following reminder:

This unresponsiveness to what is being done ultimately razes the legitimacy, honor and dignity of the Arab leadership. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates must see the attacks on Gaza directly as attacks made on themselves, which in fact they are. Every bomb dropped is dropped on the existence, independence and personality of each of these countries. Their silence about it shows every day that neither their Arabness, nor their Muslimness, nor their statehood, nor their leadership has any value left. Of course, with the necessary diplomatic style, a pressure can be created at least in the direction of taking the Islamic world on one's side and together using all the trumps that can be used against Israel, the USA and all the countries that stand by Israeli genocidalism.

In fact, after the decision of the International Court of Justice, the possibility has arisen of using a different, more superior and more insistent language against the USA as well. New diplomatic maneuvering spaces have emerged. Israel is guilty according to universal values and laws; everyone who helps it is also an accomplice to this crime. Of course one must begin by first doing what can be done more easily: completely halting trade and starting to deliver humanitarian aid by creating facts on the ground.