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Nothing starker could have awoken the American conscience to the relentless massacre of Palestinian innocents by genocidally bent Israeli troops than an active US soldier‘s shocking suicide in a burning ring of fire last Sunday outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

His fiery protest against his government’s policy on the killing dunes of Gaza was not only a stunning indictment on US policy but a condemnation in charred flesh and boiled blood for its double standards in issuing tame messages calling for Israeli restraint while simultaneously condoning the slaughter by supplying arms to continue their genocidal spree against the Palestinian people.

Sixty years ago a Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc sat in the centre of a busy Saigon street and set fire to himself to draw the world’s attention to US atrocities committed against his country. But 25-year-old US airman Aaron Bushnell, who calmly doused himself with a can of fuel and set himself ablaze in Washington, sacrificed his life to mark his extremely disturbing protest at the US administration’s tacit nod for Israeli forces to continue its racial sweep on the Gaza strip.

There will be no badge of honour posthumously pinned on his military uniform nor a carefully folded US flag solemnly placed on his coffin. Instead, his burnt ashes will be lowered to its grave without his cap on the casket in what’ll be the civilian equivalent to a pauper’s funeral.

WORLD SCREAMS FOR PEACE: While tucking into his vanilla ice cream cone, Biden announces the much-awaited prospects for a Gaza ceasefire

But the whole world will mourn his death, including those in the US.  Reports reveal that the colossal tide of support to the Biden administration to extend all possible assistance to Israel to finish off Hamas for good at the start of hostilities, had dramatically begun to ebb with the massive increase of civilian lives put to Israel’s sword. The American people’s warrant had not extended carte-blanche support for Israeli troops to indiscriminately kill innocent Palestinians too.

Ever since Hamas terrorists crossed the Israeli-Gaza barrier in an early dawn raid on October 7th, and brutally killed 675 Israeli and 71 foreign civilians and took 200 odd hostage, Israeli retaliation has not only far exceeded the permitted scope of ‘proportionate response’ under international law but also exceeded their own Hebrew edict of ‘proportionate response’ in vengeance, as found in the Biblical commandment of ‘an eye for an eye, and life for a life’.

Reciprocal justice, measure for measure: not in endless measure.

The current toll this week: Over 30,000 Palestinians dead, claims Hamas. On the Israeli side, the figure stands at 1410 killed. The chance for even a tenuous temporary peace hasn’t been given. For the third time, a draft UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire was vetoed by the US last Tuesday. Not that Israel would have meekly abided by it either.

Efforts by 81-year-old US President Biden to bring to heel Israel’s 74-year-old thrice Prime Minister Netanyahu who appears to have broken loose from his American handlers, have so far proved futile. Benjamin Netanyahu has stood defiant against all international demands to curb his insane blood lust for Palestinian scalp.

THE LAST SALUTE: Aaron’s video of his death seconds before he is engulfed by flames

That defiance was reflected in his impudent reaction to international appeals for a ceasefire. He marked the 100th day of the present conflict, which had seen thousands of Palestinian civilians killed and civilian hospitals bombed, by declaring on January 14th: ‘Nobody can stop us’. He delivered the same message to Biden by flatly rejecting his appeal for restraint.

This led an exasperated Biden to come to terms with accepting the ‘two state solution’ – which had long been on the table – as the only just solution for a lasting peace in war-torn Gaza. Netanyahu, in a massive rebuff to Biden, rejected it out of hand on January 20th.

On social media, Netanyahu redoubled his opposition to the ‘two-state solution’, and arrogantly declared: ‘Israel must fight till victory is complete. I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan River. As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to firmly stand by this. I have withstood pressure over the years to move toward a two-state solution. Israel must retain security over the territory after Hamas is destroyed.’

In mid-February, Biden repeated his call for restraint. He told the Israeli Prime Minister that he should not proceed with military action in Rafah without a credible and executable plan to protect Palestinian civilians, only to be rebuffed again.

When Biden was asked if Netanyahu was the stumbling block to peace in Gaza, he replied, ‘no, he’s not.’ In Biden’s continued mollycoddling of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, it has emboldened him to dismiss world outrage with scorn.

Worse. He has left in the rubble of his merciless military campaign against 2.3 million people in the Gaza enclave, the ruins of an old world order that tenuously survived on legal and moral duties; and shown, instead, how easily a unified legal and moral code of behaviour for states, weakens its strength and loses force before the armed might of awesome military power.

It’s only faith that makes the world believe that good will triumph over evil at Armageddon.

On January 26th, the UN’s International Court of Justice in Hague announced its decision in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. It ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide against Gaza civilians, including 5 other provisional measures. Human rights activists hailed it as a groundbreaking decision from a court that conveyed trust, hope and faith in justice and fairness.

BUSHNELL: Human torch

Amnesty International was beside itself with euphoric joy when it enthused:  ‘Today’s decision is an authoritative reminder of the crucial role of international law in preventing genocide and protecting all victims of atrocity crimes. It sends a clear message that the world will not stand by in silence.’

But a helpless world still stands in silence. Powerless to prevent Israel from decimating the Palestinian people whose daily horror and sufferings continue unabated.  Scant solace for them to learn, amidst the alarms of war, that a UN international court has issued an injunction to protect their safety and wellbeing.

Forty-eight hours after the UN court’s order, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Israel had maintained its daily killing tally with no let up on the numbers. One disappointed activist told TIME, ‘It will embolden international civil society to put pressure on President Biden to support a ceasefire’. It may well do so, but are their leaders listening? Can they make this rogue state, gone mad with satanic blood lust, obey?

What we witness today, is the world’s frightening retreat into the dark ages where brute force reigns supreme without even a veneer of pretence to moral worship.

Netanyahu in his insolent refusal to abide by the UN court’s judgement has shown the impotency of the much-hyped United Nations to keep world peace, as a canine that loudly barks but does not scare, and exposed its smug International Court of Justice, as being as effective as an old well-groomed poodle whose toothless jaws cannot bite.

Moments before Aaron Bushnell set himself ablaze, he calmly recorded his last words while walking towards the gates of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He said: ‘I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.’ He then laid down his cell phone at an angle on the ground and, with the camera still running and airing live on social media, set himself on fire.

Two days after Aaron Bushnell’s supreme sacrifice, paid in the name of all humanity, irrespective of territorial borders or race, it seemed he had not died in vain. In what could well turn out to be the turning point in the promised land of the chosen seed – for over 70 years a blood-soaked theatre of carnage – the prospect of a Ramadan truce began to emerge from the Oval Office.

Biden expressed his optimism while tucking into a vanilla ice cream cone in New York after taping an appearance on a TV late night show on Monday. He told reporters: ‘Well I hope by the beginning of the weekend. I mean the end of the weekend. At least my National Advisor tells me that we’re close. We’re close, we’re not done yet. And my hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.’

That will be the hope, too, of the watching world who will also hope that the prospect of a Ramadan ceasefire will hold good and pave the way for a lasting peace in Gaza. Not one that will quickly melt away in Gaza’s heat like the vanilla ice cream in Biden’s hand-held cone.

For the Israelis on the other bank of the River Jordan, they, too, can enjoy the sweet fruits of peace a lasting settlement will bring to the Promised Land to whence Moses led the chosen seed 3000 years ago.

And not be dismayed as their ironed willed premier Golda Meir once was when she exclaimed 51 years ago at a banquet dinner in honour of West Germany’s Chancellor Wilily Brandt: ‘Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil.’

Baby joy hatches in Sajith’s family nest It had certainly taken time for the stork to bring the bundle of joy but when it finally arrived, it lit the Premadasa household in wondrous splendour. The agonising heartbreak that Sajith and Jalani had long kept concealed and bravely borne alone, was at last over. The late delivery was swiftly forgiven as if it’s only been a jiffy late. The anguish quickly forgotten, swept in a wave of euphoric delight. When the time came to share their secret happiness with the rest of the world, proud father Sajith could hardly contain the happy tears that flowed nor prevent his voice from being choked: when he declared, ‘I, too, am a father, now.’ THE FAMILY MAN: Sajith and Jalani with their baby daughter But even while atop the blissful alpine peak of first-time fatherhood, the consummate politician didn’t miss a beat to remind the public that he was well aware the same hopes that lay harboured in his heart for his baby’s future, lay anchored in the breast of countless other parents for their own; and he pledged to ensure a level field where the aspirations they all shared for their seed and blossom could equally bloom. Announcing the good news at an SJB rally in Kandy, he said: ‘I know the same prayers I have for my own daughter to grow up healthy and educated, and become a good citizen who will serve the country with pride, will resound in the hearts of all other parents’. ‘Recently I took my daughter for her vaccinations. The paediatrician asked me to give her the Synflorix vaccine as protection against pneumonia. I told him to go ahead. I also asked if the vaccine was given to other infants as well. He said they do not give it at government hospitals since it costs Rs. 7,800’. That’s the state of Lanka’s medical service today. I wish to assure all parents that it will henceforth be my solemn responsibility to ensure, the same treatments available at private hospitals will be made available at state hospitals for free for all babes born on Lankan soil.’ Take a peep from your bassinet little Diyathna and make your debut bow. Your arrival to the world has already heralded the promise of good hope to all.  May the best wishes of the nation be yours, and may proud papa’s promise of ensuring the same medical care for the rest of Lanka’s children be soon fulfilled.