On an extremely wintry but sunny Sunday morning, Saleem Jan, the President of the Bank where I worked and I were walking up and down Champs Elysees. Both of us loved long walks — during which we discussed, this, that and the other, and rarely about the financial institution we were associated with. In one such conversation, our discussion gravitated towards how France was rebuilt following the devastation caused by WW-II.
This rebuilding of the nation happened under the powerful leadership of Charles De Gaulle. Talking about the Nazi forces’ atrocities we discussed the guesstimates of loss of human life during the war; the generally accepted number is over 50 million, rising up to 85 million deaths.
Most killed were innocent civilians, who had no reason to wage war upon one and another. Politicians play the dirty role of sending young men to death on the war fronts (the scoundrel’s sense of false patriotism drives the lunatic thinking). After 5-6 years of bloodiest war in history, peace was restored.
Saleem Jan then narrated a story that shook me out of my wits. An old woman in Charrsada lost her son to “Shahadat” during the Indo- Pakistan War of 1965.
She was proud that her son was a “Shaheed” — a life laid down in the cause and service of the State. Later, the villagers informed her that a peace pact was signed as ‘Tashkent declaration’ which called for cessation of all hostilities and for return of the armed forces to the original Line of Control (LOC); any gains made were to be surrendered by both the countries.
The old lady asked, so my son gave up his life to let the politicians decide, when to have peace. She was overwhelmingly dismayed. A “Shaheed” for a lost cause, she thought. I was stunned by the story. How many lives are lost to war, when, ultimately, the warring parties sit across a negotiating table and work out disengagement.
The old lady asked, “Why couldn’t they sit across each other, earlier? Why my only son’s martyrdom was made a prerequisite for peace?” Hearing these comments was heart wrenching. Peace has a steep price.
Peace exacts a very heavy sacrifice from humanity. Oliver Cromwell despite his mean politics had remarked, “Though peace be made, yet it is interests that keeps peace”.
During debates at school, college and university, I would brandishingly quote the highly inflammatory remarks of Chairman Mao Zedong, from the now infamous Red Book: “to stop a war, you have to start a war; to drop the gun, you have to pick up a gun”; and more importantly, quoted often the following also: “Every destruction is followed by construction and every construction must lead to destruction”. Wow!
Little did my young and immature mind imagine that I would in my life time, see and experience the practical use of the above quotes; they seemed utopian then and hence had only “value” to win a debating competition.
It has taken more than 75,000 lives of innocent men, women and children, during the last two years of military engagement in Gaza. As a student of history, there is complete loss to understand why Hamas would choose to attack Israel, with full knowledge that they were the weaker party, both in terms of men and material and of not having the necessary backing of the international characters/ actors.
Israel, given its leadership’s senselessness, wasn’t going to lie down quietly against this adventurism; they (Hamas) knew it that the reprisals will be swift, severe and lethal. Was it a complicity to achieve what is now on the cards or what is being negotiated as a peace plan? Interests are far more important than innocent human blood. Human life is cheaply traded.
Hamas knew full well that besides Iran, for their own political considerations, none would stick their neck out to aid and assist them. They remained alone. The neighbour states besides issuing worthless and meaningless statements of condemnation did nothing beyond.
The eerie silence speaks volumes of the fragile concept of brotherhood. The Israelis knew no Arab nation would dare to help Hamas. Instead they brought upon the innocent people of Gaza, an onslaught of murder, crimes against humanity and ruthlessness, not seen ever before. The last two years in Gaza have seen brutal repression.
Hamas cannot claim innocence of not knowing of the barbaric mindset of Israeli soldiers. They mocked, mutilated, danced upon the corpses of innocent women and infants. In one footage, a criminal/ animal dressed as soldier is shown shooting from a point-blank range an infant who was clinging to the bosom of the mother. Unheard inhumanity. The Nazis may look like saints in comparison to the mentally sick, Israeli army.
Israel for its genocidal tendencies and behaviour perpetrated upon Gazans is/has been forgiven. The loss of human lives will become a “number” in history. A Persian adage quoted to me by a senior banker, loosely stated, says, the death of one person in the village is a great human tragedy, but the death of a million of these is a time for celebrations.
Youth is the first victim of war; the first fruit of peace. It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; while it takes only thirty seconds of war to destroy him. (Baudouin).
The peace deal on the table is the prelude to the celebration of the killings of human beings exceeding 75,000. Posted anonymously on some social media site is the chilling reminder of the callousness of human mind against the kind spirit of humanity.
History will record that Muslim nations only blamed the consumers, while they themselves were consuming aerated drinks from the West. History will record that the West took to the streets against genocide, while Muslim and their scholars sat at home, discussing and revisiting the issue of the woman who went to hell because of a cat. They did not discuss the deaths in Gaza.
The sleeping Ummah is drowned in a slumber of escape from reality. The sickle of time will mow down the silent spectators in a flash. It would be very late then.
The brokered peace plan initially created fissures. Many claimed that the documents of peace (nay, surrender) were altered at the behest of the genocidal war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some Muslim states are developing cold feet to support but aren’t brave enough to out rightly reject the amendments made. Should a reluctant “Hamas nod” towards the peace plan be appreciated or should they first be held accountable for the massive death of civilians.
There are enough reports to suggest how all the capitalist vultures are willing to converge upon Gaza with greed to eat upon the dead soul of humanity in the name of “reconstruction” of Gaza. (Readers recall the quotes, I stated earlier). We shall shamelessly have the “Gaza Riviera” in competition to the “French Riviera” — the neighbouring elite and ruling class will travel less to the southern shores of France and Italy. Disgusting. “Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.” (An Aesop fable: “The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse”). Defining and identifying these two different mice is the job of the reader.
A name floating in the international media is of a person considered by many as a war criminal, who is likely to be appointed as “Administrator” (read Royal Viceroy) of the truncated Gaza and he will be assisted in the task of restoring peace with the help of coalition forces. The world is back to the 19th century, the only difference is “Royal Imperialism” is now replaced by “Democratic Imperialism”.
The actors in the Middle East must recall the words of Woodrow Wilson (a former US President), “only a peace between equals can last”. Peace must not be confused with temporary truce. War would likely put an end to mankind.
Peace requires today mutual cowardice; this trait is in abundance in the politics of the Middle East. Peace is expedient to the victor and an absolute necessity for the vanquished. How many Gazan mothers (whole families) be asking the same question raised by our lady from Charsadda!
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is Senior Banker & Freelance Contributor