>Gaza <---> Guernica<

Years ago, on a liberal forum I used to visit, someone was very upset about Sharon's plan to take Israeli settlers out of Gaza. 

The poster wailed that the place would turn into a huge concentration camp.

That seemed over the top to me, but as it was a person who I respected to give their own opinion, and not someone who usually acted like a troll for either Israel or the Palestinians, I let it go.  (Well, to be honest I've only met trolls for the I/P conflict from one side, the one with the large number of English speakers, personal computers in their comfortable homes, and $10b American tax dollars last year to help pay for reeducating the world about their plight.)

I still thought the post writer was a little bit of a worry wort or actually I though quite a bit of a worry wort with possible delusions.

I was wrong.  I guess I was the one with delusions to think that Israel was ever going to let Palestinians rule themselves except as a population of serfs.

What we've seen since the forced removal of the Israeli settlers from that hot, dry, and crowded land to a spot that had to have cooler air and better agricultural possibilities, shows that essentially the poster had a better idea of what was going to happen than I did.

 Even West Bank complains about having Israelis keep them from exporting any products, so that they can afford to pay for those that need to be imported, like medicine and school supplies (two that I've heard specifically mentioned).

How it goes: A farmer with a perishable crop rolls up to the border of Jordan, only to be stopped by Israeli security guards and kept there for security reasons until his crop rots.  For what reason?  These farmers aren't threatening Israel.  The border is with Jordan.  If the men were terrorists they would be going to Jordan, where few terror acts are committed.  On the other side of West Bank, Israel has it's wall so that terrorists can't get bomb belts in Jordan and bring them on through if the checkpoints on the Isreali side are working.

 Around to the other Israeli borders?  Israeli security is so tough on those who look Muslim that, at their airports, people don't even have to remove shoes.  This has been a big complaint among American travelers, that they have to remove shoes unlike even people traveling from Israel.  But the laxity in checking shoes for lighter skinned people is due to high levels of profiling at Israeli entry and exit locations.  Therefore, delaying a Palestinian with crops to sell at the Jordan border can hardly be considered a security measure.  

West Bank has little industry and that's one of the reasons they need to sell their crops over the border in order for the region to have some money to develop industry.   So they need crops.  And they need imports if they are not to be relegated to a 15th century society.  But to pay for imports, they need exports or charity.  Charity tends to end up at "crust of bread and such", nothing that can create a well functioning economy. Yet, there seems to be a perverse reason that Israel is set on keeping even West Bank from having a decent chance to develop a nice economy.  And West Bank has been heaven compared to Gaza.

Gaza is like West Bank crossed with Abu Ghraib and compressed until it is the most crowded territory in the world according to reports I've heard.

The worst of the treatment of Gaza started after Hamas was elected to the majority of Parliament of the Palesinian territories in early 2006.  Israel has publicly stated that they will not accept the democratic rule of the elected majority though  the political corruption of Fatah which lost the 2006 election was to blame  for the loss of leadership.  

Israel cites Hamas as a terrorist organization, a tag they never seemed to be able to remove, even though they worked for peace at times.  The Israelis bring up the point that Hamas has never accepted the existence of Israel, which is true.  But on their side Hamas leaders point out that they aren't presented with an Israel with fixed borders to accept or reject.  Israeli borders keep moving and mostly into Palestinian territory.   After they failed to win some of the best farm land in the region in Lebanon in 2006, the nation immediately slowed down the idea of just breaking off West Bank except for the established settler regions, and started eyeing the good parts, even saying they would take some of the northern regions (more great farm land) and give Palestinians more land in the Negev in return.  (The Negev is featured in the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" as the an extremely deadly desert, though that might only be part of the Negev.  Sharon was staying at a compound --I believe the news reports described it as the former prime minister's -- in 'Negev' when he had his first stroke).  There are some underdeveloped phosphate deposits in Negev,  but the last time I looked at a map of areas that Israel wanted those locations weren't in the ones to be handed over to the Palestinians.  So this is why Hamas says  they can't give Israel a blank check over existence within whatever borders their neighbor wants to take, and Israel, on it's part won't set borders.  After all, Israel prime ministerial candidates depend on keeping the promise of a cheap supply of new land alive to gain or maintain office.

In the case of Gaza the land is even more easily surrounded and controlled and Israel has even kept humanitarian supplies from reaching the people there.  Simple things you know  like food, medicine,  and fuel to feed power plants that run hospitals.

First, after Hamas won the a majority in Parliament, Israel cut off the tax and custom money they actually owe to the government of the Palestinians, leading officials including the Palestinian Prime Minister to try to smuggle some extra aid money into the Strip to keep things going.

Israel, because of it's blockade of the region and embargo of it's tax and custom money is charged with providing it with fuel for power, medicine and food.  But over the last few years those of us who at least listened to NPR know that Israel has practiced exreme cruelty on the Strip by cutting off these products one at a time or in concert in addition to money supplies.  I know TV News needs the time to spend on celebrity gossip so they don't pass on this kind of information, but it's been happening.   

There's a whole world out there beyond Paris and Britney. Someone cue the TV newscasters.

You could also find some of this information from BBC sources and newspapers online, if your own local version is going downhill as fast as ours (Tribune Company) is.  During a crisis though American news media goes into campaign mode which means they tend to water down analysis of how the conflict got started.

During the height of the US election Israel used what was a proclaimed truce period to impose the most extreme measures yet on the crowded land it blockades. 

It was like watching North Korea treat a small piece of land in which it wanted to kill the inhabitants so the powerful could build more fancy estates for themselves.

Like you,  I was   busy trying to help myself and other Americans understand who the better candidate was in our  recent election.  And as planned to squelch American dissent after elections, the holidays begin right around that first Tuesday of November so Americans were distracted again and Israel kept tightening the noose on Gaza as they figured they could with Americans and even Europe distracted by winter fun.

People actually died from Israel's latest round of denying the small area the necessities of life.  And now  Israel shrugs before the world and says "We don't know why Gaza won't renew the truce!" and pretends the only issue is the homemade rockets that are sent up by people who may or may not be allies of the Hamas government.

I have to leave now, but I'll write more later and get links to any news reports or analysis I can find that offers any decent information or analysis.

tags: gaza  israel  palestine  hamas  

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