After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some of the thinking heads tried to make us believe that public opinion would now save the unipolar world from going out of plumb. Though the people all around have spoken clearly against the genocide in Gaza, it does not seem to have helped. Then, there are some very powerful countries who would like to bring this atrocity to an end – but haven’t gone beyond blowing hot and cold. Even regimes that owe their office to popular support have shied away from doing anything of substance. They use any number of ruses to rationalise inaction: risk of retaliation by the US; if any men or material was provided to Hamas, they might be charged with sponsoring terrorism; fear of escalation may also be cited to keep one’s fingers out of the fire; and indeed, countries like Pakistan would talk about their economic woes.

No surprise, therefore, that the three 'Hs' – Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – are the only hope for the Palestinians.

The Laws of Nature, according to Iqbal, were safeguarded by the people of the desert and from the mountains. No longer. Bedouins are now comfortable in their sedentary lifestyle, and no one is descending from Mount Sinai to help the Gazans. To learn how the world works, I suggest we reach out to the beasts. Switch on a channel like Animal Kingdom, and there is a good chance that one will see a predator chasing a herd of Zebras. It will get one, and the others would be relieved to be saved – for now. Next time around, another one would certainly be caught and killed. If you patiently watched on, another clan would show you how to turn the tables. A group of horned buffalos would go into a cauldron, like the Red Indians, and convince the hunter to give them a wide berth.

Haven’t we seen the two scenarios played and replayed by the superior-most of God’s creations?! A bully on the block can terrorise a crowd, except when it becomes a gang. The mighty Indian subcontinent often fell prey to invaders since the latter could deal with its constituents piecemeal. Even the freedom-loving Afghans could be trampled over till Ahmad Shah persuaded them to fight and plunder together.

So, the question is, why do the states act like zebras, but the non-state actors have grown horns?

Roman Herzog was the German President in the mid-1990s. Having been the head of the Federal Constitutional Court, he had no........

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