BY God, what horrible images are coming across our TV screens these days! The Israeli assault on Gaza is heartrending.

Particularly poignant are the pictures of the innocent women and children who are being systematically massacred by an out-of-control and vicious Israel.

Four Israelis were killed by a Hamas rocket; at last count 500 and some Palestinians had lost their lives and 3,000 had been injured. We may have occupied your land, the Israelis seem to say; but you kill one of us, we will kill 100 (and more) of you.

Even western news channels such as CNN are showing graphic images of the dead and the horribly injured, telling us that fully 20 per cent of Palestinians killed are little children. Hospitals are overflowing and medicines and other hospital supplies have almost run out because of the months long Israeli blockade of Gaza.

But is this attack mindless or what? Whilst Israel tries to drive a wedge through Gaza City so that Hamas fighters cannot cross from one part to another, military observers of every hue say this attack will solve nothing for Israel. That, if anything, they will get bogged down as they did when they attacked Lebanon.

So why is Israel brutally attacking Gaza? Is it in preparation for the upcoming elections in Israel, or is it to welcome Barack Obama to the White House by handing him a sine qua non, to say this is a no-win situation for you, buddy, we will do what we will?! So, butt out?!

Which be as it may, it is instructive to see ordinary Gazans interviewed live on TV. Whether it is an aged woman who has just lost a daughter and her children; or an old man who has just seen his grandson blown to bits; or, and indeed, young children who have seen more than their fair share of death and destruction, there is no fear in their hearts; their eyes are defiant. They know they might be dead in the next few hours, but you only die once they say! And they do not have any F-16s Mr Chief of the Pakistan Air Force! Why, they don`t even have a Mushak!

The question to ask, however, is how in heaven`s name Israeli children, and their children`s children, will live in peace 50, 70 years from now? The Arab population is growing, the Israeli population is decreasing; and several generations of Palestinians are growing up hating Israel and what it does to the weak.

In all of this what does the government of the Land of the Pure do? Except for yet another mealy-mouthed statement from our FO, precisely nothing. Christians, even Jews, have come out in protest in London and in America; Turkey saw a demonstration of up to 700,000 protesting the Gaza massacre just the other day, while we, the thekedars of Islam, merely make press statements.

The government, mainly made up of members of the country`s largest political party, should initiate mass demonstrations demanding an immediate Israeli pullout from Gaza and the other occupied territories, followed by equitable negotiations with the Palestinians who have lived for too long under the American-supplied Israeli jackboot. Indeed, so should the other political forces mobilise their workers to stand up and be counted.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there is much heartening news. The recent visit to the presidency by the soft-spoken and sagacious and wise Sheikh Rashid `Tulli` came as a pleasant surprise to those such as I who thought Asif Zardari needed to further improve the excellent team that co-rules the Pakistan People`s Party with him Khosa, Naek, Awan & Company.

What a stroke of genius to add `Tulli` to the ranks of those to whom the president listens! For, in addition to knowing governance backwards, and being familiar with every department of statecraft, the man is widely known to be cultured, refined and extremely well-read. Apart from being very well-connected (wink, wink).

Why, he even has a remarkable sense of propriety, applying his great wit with extreme care and courtesy. Once when questioned why he thought Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Indian prime minister, knew something or other, `Tulli` retorted in his dulcet tones “Is he a 16-year old girl that he doesn`t know?!”

So, good choice once again, for he can only enhance the prestige of the Zardari presidency, as he once did the Commando`s. This is not all, though. There is even better news that `Tulli` will either become a candidate of the People`s Party for a Senate seat (and then, I hope, be elevated to become a member of the party`s CEC and chairman of the Senate) or be given a diplomatic post to an `important` country.

An even better idea, the second one, for the Pakistan Foreign Service needs to be bolstered and given a facelift which, whilst he is the bestest diplomat in the universe and the worlds beyond, H.E. Hussain Haqqani can hardly be expected to do all by his lonesome self. Natural choice then? None other than Sheikh Sahib.

As to countries where he could be posted Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Land of the Pure, he is eminently suited to go to Paris. I would immediately suggest Delhi though, given the respect he enjoys there especially after he reportedly suggested at the height of the Mumbai crisis, that Pakistan`s nukes weren`t meant to be placed in a mandir.

There is even better news. Mumtaz Bhutto, who finds it hard to win elections generally, has been arrested in a huge raid by 50 police mobiles and hundreds of armed policemen, at least three deputy inspectors general of police, God alone knows how many superintendents of police, and so on.

The charge is that some armed workers of his party, led by his media advisor, had threatened the staff of a Sindhi language newspaper because it did not print Mr Bhutto`s news or writings on a certain page of the paper. The APNS statement on the matter also said the media advisor was a well “recognised” person.

Well then, why not arrest just the media advisor, the actual perpetrator of the alleged crime, and his companions? Why make a hero out of someone for no reason when you are already in deep trouble?

Since Mumtaz Bhutto was arrested on the very evening of the day that Sheikh Rashid called on Zardari, could he have recommended it? Send the man to India I say; and the sooner the better.