Palestinians Topple Gaza Wall and Cross to Egypt
RAFAH, Egypt - Thousands of Palestinians streamed from the Gaza Strip into Egypt on Wednesday after a fence at the Rafah border crossing was toppled, going on a buying spree of fuel, medicine, soap, cigarettes and many other supplies that have been cut off during days of blockade by Israel.
The scene at the border was one of a great bazaar, with Palestinians piling donkeys, carts and motorcycles high with goats, mattresses, chickens, televisions, cement and other goods they had been unable to buy in Gaza.
Israel ordered the closing of its border crossings into Gaza last week, halting all shipments except for emergency supplies, after a sustained and intense barrage of rocket fire into Israel by militant groups in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas. Israel allowed in some fuel, medical supplies and food on Tuesday, as temporary relief, but has said that its closure policy remains in place.
Initial reports suggested that Hamas militants had used explosives to blow a hole in the corrugated-iron border fence at Rafah. The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been shut since Hamas took over Gaza in a short war with Fatah last summer.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions early Wednesday morning, and said that Hamas then sent bulldozers to push the fence over. Some reports said Hamas militants had blown as many as 15 holes along the fence. Later television footage showed that the fence had been toppled in several sections.
People began pouring over the fence before dawn, said one witness, Fatan Hessin, 45. She had crossed into Egypt to be reunited with a childhood friend. “I am not Hamas or Fatah, but I thank Hamas for this,” she said.
Arye Mekel, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said: “I think Hamas has been planning this for a long time. Maybe they thought this would be an opportune time.” He was referring to the mounting international concerns over Israel’s blockade.
Hamas supporters held a protest in Rafah on Tuesday, when dozens of protesters, many of them women, tried to push through the crossing into Egypt in two waves and were forced back by Egyptian police officers and soldiers, sometimes using a water cannon and shooting into the air.
On Wednesday, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said he ordered his troops to allow Palestinians finally to cross because the Palestinians were starving, The Associated Press reported.
“But today a great number of them came back because the Palestinians in Gaza are starving due to the Israeli siege,” he said, according to the A.P.
Gaza’s population of 1.5 million depends on imports for most basic supplies. After the border fence fell, Egyptian merchants took goods to the Egyptian side of Rafah to sell, and some Palestinians were bringing home televisions and computers.
Bags of cement were in particular demand, since building materials have been in short supply for months due to restrictions Israel imposed after the Hamas takeover of Gaza. Israel suspects Hamas of using cement to build tunnels.
Muhammed Mowab, 22, a student and barber, said he brought in 25 bags of cement to build a home so that he could get married, which he has been awaiting for a year. He said he had paid the equivalent of about $5 per bag, compared with $75 a bag of cement in Gaza.
Gas stations on the Egyptian side of the border were besieged, according to the BBC.
There were few signs of police officers directing the crowds, and Egyptian border guards stood aside to let the Palestinians cross. Riot police waited a few streets away.
The Rafah crossing has been a point of controversy between Egypt and Israel. Hamas and Egypt have opened the crossing briefly on a few occasions, most recently to permit about 2,000 Palestinians to make the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
But Israeli officials contend that Hamas exploits these occasions to bring weapons and money into Gaza from Egypt.
Mr. Mekel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said of the latest breach: “The danger is that Hamas and other terror organizations will take advantage of the situation to smuggle in weapons and men and make a bad situation in Gaza worse.”
Aid officials had warned earlier this week that Gaza, gripped by fuel and electricity shortages, was two or three days from a health and food crisis.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, announced Monday that it would have to suspend its food aid to 860,000 Gaza residents by Wednesday or Thursday if the crossings from Israel into Gaza were not reopened, because the group was running out of the nylon bags it uses to measure and distribute staples, like flour.
Ms. Hessin, who used the breach of the border to meet up with her childhood friend, Inshira Hanbal, on the Egyptian side, said: “We are extremely tired of this life. The closure, the unemployment, the poverty. No one is working in my household.”
On Tuesday, Israel pumped about 750,000 liters of industrial diesel into Gaza, part of the 2.2 million liters it said it would provide for one week only to Gaza’s main power station, which had shut down after its tanks ran dry.
On Tuesday afternoon, the plant started one of its three turbines, bringing power to parts of Gaza City that had been dark or running on generators.
Steven Erlanger reported from Rafah, Egypt, and Graham Bowley from New York. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
© 2008 The New York Times
Hooray!
And it’s Iran which is sanctioned by the UN. This is too weird, too sad.
I guess that’s what happens when you have forced starvation.
I was wondering how the Egyptian side could keep it under control when they hate Israel anyway.
Israel spends too much time getting its internet geeks to spam zionist posts on the guardian and other blog sites instead of thinking about their actions.
Yippie! Yahoo!
good for them. joshua strikes again………..
The spin and bias in this article are so blatant. But what else should we expect from the “progressive” NYT…
Does anyone know if Clinton, Obama or Edwards have said anything about the starving out of the Palestinians?
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said he ordered his troops to allow Palestinians finally to cross because the Palestinians were starving
I nominate President Hosni Mubarak for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Good for them!
What princesaflamenco?, the ’spin’ that the ZIONISTS are starving and witholding food, water, oil, meds, and everyday human needs from the Palestinians? Or is it because Palestinians bomb Israel for being treated like dogs, having their borders closed so their children die daily, I would do in kind if my child was denied basic necessaties of life.
Of course since She, the Mighty Israel has her own oil pipeline, nice and shiny straight from Iraq, through other lands on the way, they really have a reason to withold any heating from Gaza, yeah?
it is a travesty the way the Israel government and its religious zealots have treated the Palestinians for far too long… hooray for this…
I wonder who`s permission they have to go and get food and medicine ,why can`t they be like Ghandi and just sit and wait for help.
Analogous to the crumble of Berlin Wall
This story along with the reports of Kenyans setting fire to government buildings and worldwide stock market crashes, give me hope for humanity. Why? People are taking matters into their own hands. They are not waiting for the corrupted UN, or biased US government to come to their aid. Palestinians know they are slaves with no human rights Israel will respect. Kenyans know, unlike their American counterparts, that a stolen election means they don’t have a democracy. We Americans may be striking back at our government and economic system as well by so many of us not paying our bills. Then again, our actions are more the result of lack of funds than protest. It works just the same.
O roe.
I think you misinterpreted my post, since I was not more specific. I say there is spin in the article because of the following statement, that ignores all of those things you talk about in your post:
“Israel ordered the closing of its border crossings into Gaza last week, halting all shipments except for emergency supplies, after a sustained and intense barrage of rocket fire into Israel by militant groups in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.”
I have exactly the same point of view as you do.
One day, when the US empire crumbles and is forced to focus on it’s own internal struggles, the belligerent Israelis will find themselves isolated and surrounded, and will suffer the consequences of their own making. How they think that their actions are contributing to their safety and security is beyond comprehension.
principessaflamenco-
“Israel ordered the closing of its border crossings into Gaza last week, halting all shipments except for emergency supplies, after a sustained and intense barrage of rocket fire into Israel by militant groups in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.”
Once again….What do you expect them to do?? Hell, I’d fight anyone who stole my shit, and then had the nerve to call me a Thief and a terrorist! The blockade is specifically designed to strangle the entire population of Gaza-EVERYONE!! Israel wants it all for themselves, and they wanted it since the 1800’s and the spread of that ghetto mentality known as ZIONISM. The Palestinians have had everything stolen from them, and they’re treated worse than dogs. Let’s face it…Someone has to give the Palestinians a genuine helping hand. As far as I’m concerned-Kudos to Egypt, and Kudos to the overwhelming majority of Palestinians for getting the things they need for their families. For the most part-everyone in the area needs Palestine to be the way it is to further their own agendas-Namely Israel and other nations over there-and here as well.
I went to Haaretz.com to get more info on this event and I just happened to find yet one more reason why I can not support Obama. I’m not particularly interested in any of the DEMS or REPUGS. However, this note from the Senator’s office regarding the blockade was truly chilling..
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=865078
The last lines indicate under an Obama presidency we can expect 50 more years of Middle East strife. God these DEMS are such a dissapointment.
Albert Einstein, 1938, Page 192 of “Ideas and Opinions” on the idea of establishing a Jewish State:
EINSTEIN: “My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest.
“I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain–especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state.
“We are no longer the Jews of the Maccabee period.
“A return to a nation in the political sense of the word would be equivalent to turning away from the spiritualization of our community which we owe to the genius of our prophets.
“If external necessity should after all compel us to assume this burden, let us bear it with tact and patience.” (end quote)
Einstein’s worst fears have become horribly true. Israel’s policies, rather than standing for the best in Judaism and humanity, have come to represent the very opposite.
The very active peace movement among the Israeli citizenry shows true Judaism. However, Israel’s policies, like the USA’s, are controlled by armaments industrialists. This is part and parcel of fascism or Nazism. The Muslim world does not have that, never did.
War and Walls are the main industry of hatred’s salesmen. Yet even China’s wall was ineffectual. It surely made some people rich before it failed, though.
Eventually concrete walls must fall, and the humanity of the region will overwhelm the artifical spiritual barriers as well: the propaganda which intentionally divides humanity. There is no intrinsic conflict between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
No nation should hold one religion up for special treatment above all others, and especially never should the USA be party to this. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel are at this level equally unworthy of American aid, or even American recognition.
“Rafah on Tuesday, when dozens of protesters, many of them women, tried to push through the crossing into Egypt in two waves and were forced back by Egyptian police officers and soldiers, sometimes using a water cannon and shooting into the air.”
I find this interesting. Why was Egypt helping Israel enforce the embargo? its good that Mubarak finally let them through, but why so late? this is a question that seems to be lost in the discussion.
Egypt is complicit in the cordoning of Gaza into a warsaw-esk ghetto. Why?
““The danger is that Hamas and other terror organizations will take advantage of the situation to smuggle in weapons and men and make a bad situation in Gaza worse.””
Classic zionist/jewish propoganda by the NYT, which is really a jewish paper masquerading as a major american daily ! Who really made the situation in Gaza bad/worse ? Resistance is a way of life in Gaza as it should be since the zionist slimebags will cleanse them if they didnt resist.
What is this, Exodus, in reverse, with a new victimizer and victim?
And the fucking US of A blocking the UN’s condemnation of the zionists.
As always.
Ok, puppetmaster I’ll respond the same I responded earlier to O roe.
It seems I can’t get my message across clearly. I hold those points of view. What I am trying to say is that the NYT focuses on the rockets that Palestinians launch into Israel to justify the blockade, and at the same time ignores the fact that Israel is the one committing crimes against humanity.
You are preaching to the choir here. I understand and disagree with the opression of Palestinians. They need a fair and equal state for EVERYBODY.
Go Go Gadget Wall Demolition.
GottaGetOffTheGrid January 23rd, 2008 12:45 pm:
“Egypt is complicit in the cordoning of Gaza into a warsaw-esk ghetto. Why?”
Up till 2005, Israel controlled all sea, air and land routes in or out of Gaza.
Since 2005, Israeli guards left the border crossings between Gaza and Egypt, leaving behind video and other surveilance, on the understanding that Egypt would not allow anything or anyone to cross that Israel disapproved of.
Implicit is the understanding that, in the event of Egyptian non-compliance, US support for the Egyptian rulers may suffer and of course Israel may reinsert itself into the Gaza border, unopposed at any time.
Motives for the Egyptian government? They are pinned between their role as the local US client rulers and an increasingly radicalized population. They wish to continue profiting from the spoils of corruption under the patronage of US taxpayers while keeping a lid on the outrage inducing news coming out of occupied Palestine that might lead to their overthrow by the popular Muslim Brotherhood.
-principessaflamenco
I heard you. Trouble is, people get so heated up over this issue, their ears, or in this case, eyes, don’t work anymore… short circuit or something.
Thanks Medusa, you are right!
It was a jail break by some people who didn’t deserve to be in jail in the first place.
Pan wrote:
“why can`t they be like Ghandi and just sit and wait for help.”
Pan, you seriously need to study up a bit on Ghandi and his tactics. Perhaps you can start with renting the excellent 1980’s movie…
Egypt is also somewhat cowed by the terms of the Carter-brokered, Sadat-Begin Peace treaty. Any helping of the Palestinians will be interpreted by Israel as belligerance and breach of the treaty. Israel will then invade, and take back the Sinai.
principessaflamenco we know you are a strong supporter of Palestinian rights :). I always see your posts and appreciate them! Glad we are all like-minded on CD but we really need to do something about it in the real world!
I do not believe for one nanosecond that we are all likeminded on CD.
Nost folks who post here are very much RIGHT of center.
Well there are alot of those folks on the board too moonraven. However, I do see a regular group of posters who are supportive of justice for the Palestinians on the board too which is reassuring. Too bad there isn’t enough of that in the real world.
It’s becausae our species always wants to be on the side of the winners. We are like dogs, but dumber.
Bravo!!! I wonder what the Arab press is saying?
What would happen if Chavez (or some other national leader) sent a ship to Gaza with the widely announced intention of Liberating the Gazans from their Israeli oppression? No one can say that Gaza is just Israel’s affair; the situation has existed far too long for that reason to exist anymore. A NATO liberation of the Palestinians would end the “War on Terror” by defeating the root of Muslim/”West” emnity/reasons for hostility. The WAR is in Palestine, not Afghanistan.
Now that’s organisation.
Remarkable planning and execution in the cause of direct action. One could call it ‘asymmetric resistance’ given Israel’s so-called security apparatus.
They should all be feeling sheepish in Tel Aviv. Believing in all those build-a-wall fairy tales, silly people.
Thanks for the info PJD and jlocke123.
PJD,
“Israel will then invade, and take back the Sinai.”
What ridiculous, paranoid, fantasy world do you inhabit?
I love all you posters. There is no compromise. Israel bad - Palestinians good! Simple as that, Black - White. How refreshing to be a world that has abandoned nuance and shades of gray. Israel: Nazis - Palestinians: Paragons of virtue.
What utter bullshit.
Israel is a disgusting manifestation of U.S. Imperialism at its worst.
Tear down the walls!
principessaflamenco- Sorry for the misunderstanding in my prior post-i now see where you’re coming from-I think we all see that justice must be had for all the people over there who just want to live.
As for Kendpotter-
I love all you posters. There is no compromise. Israel bad - Palestinians good! Simple as that, Black - White. How refreshing to be a world that has abandoned nuance and shades of gray. Israel: Nazis - Palestinians: Paragons of virtue.
What utter bullshit.
Man you need to open your eyes. It’s not a black and white thing with this. The Israelis ARE that bad, LOL. Come on…for years, everything they did was ‘cute’…all for survival my ass!! Most of what’s happening to them has been perpetrated BY them! The palestinians are not exactly paragons of virtue, but if I were to sit here and say that I don’t understand why they resist as they do, well, I guess I’d be a fool then, wouldn’t I? I would fight with whatever I had at my disposal, and I think you would to. The knee-jerk reactionary defense of Israel must end-because of it, Israel has not had to take a cold hard look at herself and seen what a mess she has become.
Kendpotter-try looking at the nuances-the shades of grey when it comes to the palestinians-it’s called EMPATHY
Karma - What goes around, comes around. If this is so then Israel is going to be in a world of hurt when America falls off the world power throne. . .
Who’s idea was it anyway to rebuild and Israeli state in Palestine? You think the short sighted deciders didn’t see this coming?
They want them out so they gave them a way out. Would they have ever allowed Palestinians to topple the inside wall? No.
“And the walls come tumbling down”. History is full of the ineffectiveness of walls: The Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Roman England, France’s “Monitor Line” in WW I, The Berlin Wall. And currently, we have the hideus and obscene Israeli wall hemming in, and out, of the Palestineans. Homeland Security’s Mexican-USA wall,augmenting the failed walls made of military airport steel plates around places like Tijuana, and now cutting thru the heart of the bicultural region of the Rio Grand (Rio Bravo) in south Texas. The US has walled off neighborhoods in Bagdad. The affluent here in the US have walled off their neighborhoods in gated communities. In the scenic and rural Appalachia, the affluent are moving in and gating themselves in. The locals view this as, “Good, we hope they stay inside.”
I thought that as we move into the 21st Century, with freeing trade, consolidating political entities (European Union), and the Bolivarian movement in Latin America, we could break down barriers. What is going on?
With respect to Gaza, I am reminded of the phrase “Let my people go.” They finally got to go.
Bless those poor suffering people for getting some much-needed relief. I understand they were able to get some sick people out to be taken to Egyptian hospitals. Too bad Israel couldn’t have been as merciful.
“But Israeli officials contend that Hamas exploits these occasions to bring weapons and money into Gaza from Egypt”
how dare the israelis pen the palestinians in like cattle? how dare they? and then they still have the gall to say that hamas exploits to do this or that?
i know the analogy of concentration camps and nazis is old and imperfect, but what else is one supposed to think about when you see this?
Walls have never worked and never will. It’s disgusting how many Evilcrats voted for the wall on our border with Mexico. The death toll will rise as people cross mountainous deserts to avoid the wall and the fascist border patrol.
I know many may call me anti-zionist but after this it looks the Israeli’s have finially become the Nazi’s that they so much hated and clamed they aren’t. And Gaza has become both the new Warsaw getto and concentration camp for the world to see. After this I don’t think a two-state solution is possible now.
Damn.
How dare Egypt interfere with our divine right to implement the “Final Solution” on our Palestinian problem! The Jewish Reich must not let this act of treachery stand in the way of our Lebensraum policy!
For too long, too many people, mostly anti-Semites, have sided with the Palestinian untermenschen, hindering the manifest destiny of the Jewish Reich to all of our Holy Land, Eretz Israel. These people do not understand our unique “Chosen” status, or our destiny, and how uniquely persecuted we have always been. Their humanitarianism is naive and misplaced, they are anti-Semites, and ultimately it is might that makes right.
Above all, we must ensure that the Arab untermenschen of Gaza are punished, humiliated, starved to death, and deprived of basic amenities and services. When that is not enough, we can always answer their attempts to fight back with demolitions, bombs, and bullets. We must not allow them to acquire weapons they can use to try to terrorize us, which this breach of the Wall will allow unless we close it off. Although we have won nearly every war and battle against the Arab terrorist untermenschen, they still remain a nuisance within our domain, depriving us of our final victory. We have ethnically cleansed most of the Holy Land of the Arab vermin and successfully peopled it with God’s Chosen. Final victory is within our grasp!
Regardless of what Egypt does, regardless of what other Arab countries do or say, regardless of Iran’s support for the barbaric terrorists who seek to drive us into the Sea, regardless of world opinion, we must press on with our Final Solution to save the Jewish Reich from the Islamic vermin who seek to destroy us, even if this leads to World War III. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the founding of Israel, the Jewish Reich, and an amazing 60 years it has been in our heroic struggle for our Jewish homeland.
Since our founding, the Fatherland has increased in size immensely, it has provided a homeland for the persecuted Jews who fled Europe during and after the Shoah, our darkest hour in all of our troubled history. We made the desert bloom, we won many wars against our larger, hostile, anti-Semitic neighbors who tried to annihilate us, we drove out most of the natives, we won the support of the world’s only superpower, we created a prosperous nation, and we are a nuclear power. Once and for all we will crush the Palestinian savages. We must! Their fate is in our hands. There will soon be no more Palestine, the enemy will fall and will never rise again from our Holy Land. For we are the Chosen People, the Master Race, God gave us this land, for Jews and Jews only! Once the last stains of the barbaric untermenschen are removed from this land, only then will we be safe in this land God gave us, according to the Book. And only then, will the Messiah arrive to redeem the world. Together, and if we struggle just a little bit longer with U.S support, we can secure a Jewish future for our children and grandchildren and many generations to come in our sacred Jewish Reich!
Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!
God how poetic!
finally an explosive used peacefully to help people. i realize this makes me evil cause i said an explosion is good but….
FUEL, MEDICINE, SOAP, CIGARETTES!!
to stay warm, to stay healthy(er), to clean up, to deal with not being able to do the other three things!
almost brought a tear to my eye with the photo included.
beautiful picture.
The true poison here is religious fundamentalism and the anger/hatred that fuels it, on both sides of the border. I’m constantly saddened by how “religions” manage to justify violence as a means to creating peace, as though that were ever possible, as though anything other than retaliation, generation after generation, had ever not been its result. The trouble with violence as a “solution” is that it washes away basic kindness in relationships between peoples, in which it sends tsunami after tsunami of negative emotion across the collective landscape of peoples’ awareness. Because this world is so interdependent, interconnected, we end up destroying ourselves when we destroy our neighbor. This is the most encompassing tragedy of all in this world, as I see it.
“Let My People Come!”
I too was upset by the bias from the NYT, although I have learned years ago to expect it. It is so biased, and yet in a quite subtle way, that I am considering using it in a class I am teaching which will be doing some work on media analysis.
Here are a few of the things that caught my attention:
-buying spree - term used for unnecessary and excessive spending, not for necessities.
-bazaar - another term for a fun shopping experience, not for a lifesaving mission. With the exception of the word “medicine” all of the items listed are ones that seem chosen to appear to NYT readers to be discretionary spending rather than vital. I feel sure that some were buying the necessities of life, but the NYT isn’t going to let their readers know it.
-The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been shut since Hamas took over Gaza in a short war with Fatah last summer. - this fails to mention that Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza, so they were democratically elected and are the legitimate government.
-Palestinians were bringing home televisions and computers. - Again, this makes it sound like a bit of holiday shopping, not one word that someone might have been buying basic foodstuffs. This totally trivializes the desperate condition of the Palestinians.
-restrictions Israel imposed after the Hamas takeover of Gaza. - Again delegitimizing the Palestinian legal government.
-On Wednesday, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said he ordered his troops to allow Palestinians finally to cross because the Palestinians were starving, The Associated Press reported. - This statement, by Mubarak, is true, but the NYT has to qualify it with the AP as reporting, rather than just letting it stand alone. In fact, it says the AP reported twice, once before the quote and once after,
The Palestinian woman quoted, Ms Hessin, is not complaining about food shortages, but that she is tired, and doesn’t like unemployment. Hey we have unemployment here too, so the implication is that things aren’t really all that bad there. Surely they could have quoted someone else who might have had something more important to say?
-On Tuesday, Israel pumped about 750,000 liters of industrial diesel into Gaza, part of…. - So even in the midst of all this, the NYT has to end it on a positive note for Israel.
I was so disgusted reading this article, which managed to miss the actual humanitarian disaster completely, that I almost couldn’t get all the way through it.
Thanks Principessaflamenco for bringing up the bias.
Sorry for the long-winded rant.
“Egypt is complicit in the cordoning of Gaza into a warsaw-esk ghetto. Why?”
Along with Israel (whose under-6-million receive far-and-away the largest ’share’ of American-aid — enough for every-Israeli to live rather-well if located in Mid-Western Michigan, if they were direct-recipients of that Dole), Pakistan and Egypt are 2nd&3rd ‘most favored’ by American Largess.
I doubt Mubarak allowed ‘anything’ without private/covert Israeli approval — exigent as Circumstances-changed. He and Egypt fully-expect to ’share’ the Wealth that will be created by a ghettoed Labor-Pool and the subjugated/’captured’-Market that Gaza is being groomed-for. Soon jobs/factories for these desperate Palestinians will appear on most-sides of Gaza, and scattered-throughout the West Bank near Balkanized-concentrations. A virtual ’slave-class’ will provide Egypt and Israel, and others, with skilled/diligent labor at a ‘bargain-price’, with Security held ‘absolute’ such that any Bargaining on part of Workers will be held a Terrorist-Attack — if it benefits the Palestinians.
There is no “Israeli/Nazi-Extermination” of Muslim-’untermenschen’ — nor has there EVER been. This is obvious from the Fact that the incoming/Ashkenazic Jews found only under-800,000 Palestinians opposing-them in 1946-’Israel’ — and today, the Palestinian people outnumber the Israeli-Jewry by more than 2-million (if one also counts those Palestinians still huddled, starving and Right-less in foreign ‘refugee-camps’for generations-now, although their numbers within Lebanon while ‘penned-in’ have been violently reduced on several-occasions — including quite-recently). I DO count those refugees, because Israel fully-intends to “allow their Return” to Gaza & perhaps the West Bank as a ‘Concession for Peace and Human Rights’ — as soon as absolute-Control is established, and industrial slave-labor (probably for their thriving-if-Subsidized ‘Arms/Security Industries’) is needed in larger-numbers in a Walled-in near-Future.
Gaza will be the Detroit of the M.E., and Egypt wants to be its Dearborn.
This falls far-short of Nazism. It is merely Western Capitalism — at its finest and most-Profitable…
PFunk writes: “I know many may call me anti-zionist but after this it looks the Israeli’s have finially become the Nazi’s that they so much hated and clamed they aren’t.”
I’m fairly certain this is somehow the root –
read the German psychotherapist Karen Miller —
the effects of either physical or psychological trauma are stored within our bodies and within the collective psyche –
they are expressed through our unconscious actions, can telescope across generations –
there is no “proof” to any psychological theory, hence each new strain of thought trumps the last and if you are an Israeli psychotherapist, well the principles might seem dangerous or at least a threat to your practice –
for anyone seeking a true understanding, you have to dispense with absurdist discussion about ‘Oslo’ or ‘camp david’ or for that matter … ‘foreign policy’ –
‘foreign’ policy doesn’t exist any more — the world is too small and it’s shrinking as we speak — if you don’t believe me, skip to the financial news
I agree the coverage is warped beyond belief, starting with “supplies that have been cut off during days of blockade by Israel.” –
DAYS?? did you misspell ‘decades’??
JCHOTCH
‘what is going on?’
‘all in all, it’s just another brick in the wall’ pink floyd……..
re: the question about whether Edwards, Obama,or Clinton have said anything about the Palestinians– I received from “Tikkun” 3 articles from Ha-aretz (Israeli newspaper) critical of the punishing of civilians in Gaza– then there was a letter from Obama to the US ambassador to the UN, insisting that Israel was “forced to do this”, and while he concurs that people in Gaza are suffering, he toes the AIPAC line that when there is Palestinian violence (Qassam rockets, in this case) that Israel’s absolutely justified in punishing large numbers of civilians. Very disappointing- I wrote him immediately, suggesting he be open to a universe with more creative solutions than 100 eyes for every eye, and that he read ‘Tikkun’.
“PFunk writes: “I know many may call me anti-zionist but after this it looks the Israeli’s have finially become the Nazi’s that they so much hated and clamed they aren’t.” ”
Of course they are NOT acting like the Nazis, dammit. [When people say crap like that, they fall directly into the ‘trap’ Zionists have set for them!]
The Nazis wished to ‘Cleanse’ their country (of Ashkenazic/poor/leftist/communist-Jewry, ‘defects’, gays, Gypsies, Slavics, blacks, etc.). The Israeli’s (after chasing-away a number of the land-holding and ‘dangerous’ Palestinians) in-fact ‘raised/nurtured’ a controlled under-class of cheap-Laborers — without whom they NEVER could have survived or ‘thrived’ in this hostile/under-developed/’new’-environment for mostly-unskilled (and unwilling to ‘labor’) immigrants. Such immigration, en masse, was obtained by the ‘price’ of a Holocaust in Europe, and few would have ever moved-into a country that ‘never knew them’ unless lots of poor-Muslims were ‘for hire, cheaply’ to ease their ‘invasion’.
You’ll recall that there simply WAS no ‘Palestinian Terrorism’ until the massive-influx of ‘also never the Chosen’ from Russia — who took the menial/low-paying jobs away from internal-Palestinians and left them vulnerable to being characterized as ‘terrorists’ now their services were no longer ‘required’.
The Mossad invented the “Intifada” around the same-period America (most-usefully) invented Afghan-terrorism called by other-Names and deployed against the USSR, and established ‘Radical Islam’ where the other puppet-leader called ‘Shaw’ was ‘regime-changed’ to a new phony-’Enemy’). It allowed/facilitated the herding of internal (not the miserable/huddled masses of Palestinians in Lebanon/Jordan/elsewhere) poor-Palestinians into the Gaza/West Bank ‘conquests’ of an Ersatz Israel — and did-similar to or ‘controlled’ the once-Proud/friendly Palestinians of Jerusalem, as well.
With essential-help from the US, Israel has multiplied the population of Palestine from the initial 780,000 living in ‘their’ country into to today’s 7-million Palestinians — a precious-asset to them, just awaiting further-exploitation (most ‘aid’ sent by the ME and the World has already mostly-benefited Israel, directly or indirectly).
Palestinians are a Resource and needful-Asset and nascent-Market for Ashkenazic/Euro-Jewry (whose ancestors never set-foot in the ‘holy-lands’ — the Sephardi wanted NOTHING to do with any-’Israel’ sans-Messiah). NOT a ‘problem they wish ‘freedom-from’.
America didn’t ‘hate’ her indigenous-Natives, either. By being forced into ‘fighting back’, they provided all the Excuses and Mythos a militaristic/colonialist-Government needed in order to fully-Control, Seize, relocate-them, and Profit-from the ‘Push West’ — allowing Americans to also realize their ‘Manifest Destiny’ as the ‘Chosen’ of the New-World.
All should take heart. Israel is eventually, inevitably doomed. Their obnoxious belligerance ensures that all their neighbors which surround them, even the ones who recognize their existence, will remain their mortal enemies. Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan are just waiting for the day when Israel’s patron can no longer arm it and protect it. When that day comes, the Palestinian’s will get most, if not all of their land back, and Israel will once again be just part of a biblical fairy tale.
It will be interesting in the next few days to see who repairs the breach in the prison wall, Egypt or Israel.
puppetmaster,
I have all the empathy in the world for the Palestinian people, it’s their leaders that are stupid beyond the range of normal. To call them assholes is to insult assholes. They have used and abused their own people, kept them imprisoned in these camps for their own political ends.
They continue to dream that somehow the Israelis are going to just go away. That one day the whole population will just wake up and conveniently (for the Palestinian leadership) walk into the ocean. Then every thing will be just hunky dory.
There is only one problem. The Israelis aren’t going anywhere and if your approach to the problem ignores that starting point, then you too qualify to be a senior leader in Hamas.
All the issues that currently plague the people of the region, jew, gentile, and muslim, could have been solved years ago, if these buttheads gave up their genocidal fantasies.
There is plenty of blame to go around and for all of it to be placed at the feet of the Israelis takes a sincere desire to avoid reality and stupidity that rises above and beyond the call.
pcsmith - “Israel is eventually, inevitably doomed. [snip] When that day comes, the Palestinian’s will get most, if not all of their land back, and Israel will once again be just part of a biblical fairy tale.”
You do realize that at that moment, Mecca, Alexandria, Cairo, Amman, Damascus and probably every other city in the region would be erased from the earth by the Israelis as a parting gift.
I also don’t think that the combined Arab arms of all the neighboring countries would be able to defeat Israel anyway. The Arab nations have no airforces to speak of. Last time they were engaged, the Israelis shot down Syrian aircraft to the tune of 120 for every Israeli aircraft shot down. The Arab nations have no real navies. Their armies are under-equiped and antiquated. If there were some attack on Israel, it would be an a la WWI wave of bodies with the resultant horrific losses to the attackers and not the defenders.
Missles over a fence? Artillery? Raids by commandos? Sure. The Arabs can do that and they do with some regularity, but a real invasion? Not a chance in our lifetimes or our childrens.
The only way to have peace is to simply make peace. Stop shooting anything at each other. Accept some compromise border between the wall and the green line. Give up right of return. There can be NO “peace with justice” in the ME because justice for one group is the core injustice to the other, but there can be peace.
JUST STOP SHOOTING.
Israel can go on like this for a century or more, they become more technologically superior every year with better RPVs, their own electronics, their own munitions, their own aircraft, their own artillery, their own missles, and their own nuclear arsenal.
The Arab states have none of this, except maybe Iraq and that is debatable and over anyway. Iran, obviously not an Arab country, is the exception and they have a vibrant defense industry that in time might present a challange. I think though, that Iran over the long haul is a lot more interested in business with the West and the region than it is being a beligerent with Israel. I believe it is going to be a regional superpower and frankly a reasonable and advanced one at that.
At any rate, hoping for the Arabs to destroy Israel is the same as hoping that Israel destroys the Arabs. And Israel of course has the capability and the Arabs do not so be careful for what you wish for.
kendpotter - “There is plenty of blame to go around and for all of it to be placed at the feet of the Israelis takes a sincere desire to avoid reality and stupidity that rises above and beyond the call.”
I agree totally. The Palestinians have fired 200-300 rockets in the weeks before the blockade was tightened. Cutting off everything is wrong on the part of the Israelis, but no one can seriously say that it was unprovoked. If you do say that with a straight face then you need to be excluded from any discussions on the issue as you aren’t rational.
Your posts are clear and thoughtful and many of us here appreciate you posting. Please don’t stop.
Goose2: Your reasoning isn’t watertight enough for you to suggest exclusions.
The USA hasn’t been paid megabucks for providing useless equipment to Arab states have they?
The Russians also have thriving arms export sector, and is a favourite shopkeeper for oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and their proxies. Can you say with a straight face that Israel isn’t disturbed?
Certainly Hamas provokes. Certainly Israel provokes. All the way back to the creation of the Jewish state. The first provokation.