The reality of the 'siege'

[Mediocrates]

http://www.jni.co.il/rec/44-How-the-...srael-in-Gaza/

Benjamin Doron

December 2007

Since Hamas conquered the Gaza strip last summer, a new offensive has been kicked off against the state of Israel. Around the world, and within Israel itself, editorials, op-eds, NGO reports and even news reports have accused Israel of committing a crime in the form of 'denying' fuel, supplies, and the free flow of traffic to Gaza.

Those who criticize Israel on this level seem to have blinked out Israel's “disengagement” of the Gaza Strip whereby Israel ended its military and civil occupation of that area. These writers, government representatives and Palestinian advocates still, somehow, assume that it is Israel's responsibility to supply the Hamas-run Strip with whatever it needs.

More than this, as Israel continues to complete the disengagement of its occupation by withdrawing the services that, in some cases, it was obliged to provide as an occupier and in other cases it supplied out of goodwill, the cries of accusation grow louder.

After decades worth of protestation, legal action, UN resolutions, and 'armed resistance,' that is, those who fought Israel's occupation of Gaza are now forcing Israel to remain an occupier.

A recent article in the New Statesman (“The grim reality in Gaza,” December 10, 2007) provides us with a striking example of this unwillingness to let Israel let go of the occupation. The writer, Mohammed Omer, says under a subsection entitled, “Death Penalty,” that, “...since last month at least 31 medical patients have died in Gaza, a result of Israel’s lockdown on borders and preventing of medical access to Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian hospitals, as well as West Bank hospitals.”

The short and seemingly factual sentence is rife with so many assumptions and such an a priori placement of blame on Israel that it's difficult not to construe it as malignant.

Omer does not give an account or explanation of a single one of the '31 medical patients' who have died in Gaza. He does not state whether these people were suffering from terminal disease, had undergone trauma, or if they had even sought medical treatment outside of the Gaza Strip.

Worse than this, however, is the implicit, undefended premise that Israel is responsible for the lives (and, ipso facto, deaths) of Gazans. It would be an extremely tenuous case to make that more than a year after the cessation of the occupation Israel still bears responsibility for what goes on in Gaza.

The problem with this view is further exacerbated by Hamas' involvement in the situation. Hamas' conquest of Gaza this summer began its own sort of occupation. It used military force to oust Fatah, and whatever civil infrastructure that semi-political group had cobbled together in Gaza, and, without a mandate or legal authority to do so, assumed armed control of the area.

The media and so many commentators have spent many years now reminding the Bush administration and supporters of the Iraq war of Colin Powell's pre-war admonition that if “your break it, you own it.”

Hamas, according to those who lay blame on an absent, disengaged Israel for Gaza's internal problems, seems to be above the law (or conventional wisdom) when it comes to Powell's well-cited truism. It might be objected that the people of Gaza cannot be held responsible for the failings of an armed group whom the population is unable to fight. This objection, however, requires yet another major lapse in recent memory: the Gazans, along with the rest of the Palestinians, elected Hamas to the government by a gross majority. It's true that they might not have gotten what they bargained for but the population, so successful at routing the mighty IDF, is not doing much to resist the Islamist, Iranian proxy that acts more in the interest of its Persian overlords than in the interest of the Palestinian people-- 31 of whom, we are told, have died in Gaza this month from some kind of medical negligence.

Sadly, at the end of the day, the ultimate blame-- not for the situation in Gaza but for the bizarre and ironic refusal of people like the New Statesman's Mohammed Omer to let Israel end the occupation-- rests with Israel itself.

By imposing a false obligation on itself, by not stopping services to Gaza immediately, especially as Hamas-led terror parades destroyed Gaza's former synagogues and greenhouses only to set up rocket-firing pods and factories, Israel has cultivated this view of who bears responsibility for daily life in Hamas' Gaza.

The result is the polemical, clientilistic 'news reports,' such as the one found in the New Statesman, which hurl dangerous and perhaps libelous accusations at Israel without supporting or investigating basic facts. Whatever the various political outcomes of this new front again Israel might be, one of the more certain ones is that Israel will not be allowed to end the occupation in Gaza.

[GratefulFred]

I wouldn't allow any of them to come into Israel under any circumstances. Let them throw out the Hamas first or if Egypt wants them, let them go that way.

People who write stories saying we are cruel will still damn us even if we let them in. They'd just fabricate some other reason to condemn us.

[John]

If, at that time, the writer had wanted to know what kind of illnesses were causing these deaths in Gaza the information was freely available. In an Article written a month before that piece some of the cases are identitifed, tumours , cancers , heart surgery , etc. Nothing to trivial, I'm sure you'll agree.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9110.shtml

Examples:

M.A.W, a 32-year-old woman, suffering from obstruction jaundice and ascending cholangitis with high fever. She gave birth a month ago and is rapidly weakening. Her most recent attack was on 17 November. She is referred to Nablus in the West Bank.

Y.A.H, a 37-year-old heart patient in need of open heart surgery. Referred to a hospital in Nablus, the West Bank, for surgery. He previously received a permit but was asked by the GSS to provide information on friends of his brother. When he failed to he was returned to Gaza and told "go die in Gaza." Since then he has no permit. His condition is deteriorating and he is very weak, with breathing difficulties, and is in danger of sudden death at any moment.

R.M.T., a 40-year-old man, has prostate cancer with secondaries. He needs urgent diagnostics and care due to development of secondary tumors. His condition is deteriorating and he is very weak. Currently at Shifaa' hospital in Gaza. Referred to Jordan for care.

N.S., a 28-year-old man, has a head of pancreas tumor. There is no change in his condition, and he is referred to Jordan for diagnostics and treatment. He is at home receiving painkillers since the hospital can no longer help him.

Y.M.S., a 20-year-old man, had a giant brain tumor and needed emergency surgery, for which he was referred to East Jerusalem. Since he receive no permit, he was operated on in Gaza, at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, and the tumor was removed. He now has motoric difficulties as a result, and his condition is still unclear.

You will see that these people werent trying to get into Israel, they were just trying to get out of Gaza. Israel owns the borders on two land sides. Controls the Egyptian border through prior agreement enforced by the US through political and financial blackmail against a corrupt and spineless Egyptian Regime. And now, as we can see by merit of the noble efforts of the Free Gaza Movement, Israel also retains control of the Gazan sea lanes.

If you seal a people into a compound and refuse to allow the chronicly ill to get access to life saving treatment then it is a fact that you denied them life (ipso facto : you caused there death). No amount of poorly written propaganda pieces will relieve the giult of those intentional killings of the very weakest and frail of Gaza, and be advised that since this "article " was written, many hudreds more have died

[Mediocrates]

A common problem is that Israeli Arabs lend or trade their ID cards to Gazans so that they can come into Israel illegally to get free health care, etc. This is why the checkpoints are erected.

And oh, Lauren Booth left Gaza today through Egypt. You've heard of Egypt, right? It's that other country next to Gaza.

[John]

Yes Ive heard of the Egypt - Gaza border. Its patrolled by Israeli death squads, you know ?.

You've heard of Israeli death squads havent you ?

Israeli troops shot and killed late on Saturday night a Palestinian man, the army says he was infiltrating, along with two others, on the Gaza-Egypt border lines.



http://www.imemc.org/article/57070

Oh and good for Lauren Booth I hope she found some nutritious sticks of Rock in that well stocked shop, to bring back to her brother in law. Seeing as how he cant get into the place he might to have something to show for his tenure as the man of peace.

[Mediocrates]

What's it like being delusional? Do they pay well for that?

[Kenneth]

http://www.imemc.org/article/57070
"...In 2007, a democratically-elected Hamas government took control of Gaza after ousting Fatah-allied security forces."

Ousting? That's a rather tame description of what happened in Gaza.

90 people dead by April 2007. Another 50 by May. 150 dead by Mid-June.

I seem to recall more outrage expressed because Israel closed the borders during this period and for the Israeli reprisal attacks when rockets were fired at Sderot than for the 150 who were killed by their fellow Palestinians.

Are Palestinians only worth something when an Israeli kills them?

[Achihud]

prostate cancer with (!) secondaries; better sit down and CRY

pancreas tumor; stop crying already, this is the worst kind of tumor there..

giant brain tumor; once a year do some columbian shrooms, they'll nip any would be-tumor in the bud besides cluster headaches, depression and so on

btw Medio, is eating oysters considered kosher?

[Mediocrates]

No it's not. No shellfish.

[John]

Kenneth, you havent got a friggin clue what you're on about.

Look up Muhammad Dahlan on any source you like and you'll find out that he is a dangerous man. The type of man that Israel loved to hate down the years a man who liked conflict.But for a brief period he was a bright and shining star for Israel and the US in their attempts to destroy Hamas and undo the democratic efforts of the Palestinian people. Civil war was rife on the streets of Gaza and it was your friend Dahlan that was the demagog in charge of efforts to destroy Gaza with crime and violence. Hamas drew a line and explosively defeated the Warlard Dahlan and restored security in Gaza against the best efforts of your friend Dahlan the US and Israel. I'm not sorry that the Warped dreams of a few Imperialist lunatics didnt work out for you. And I am sorry that those same crazies continue to punish and molest the Gazans for that failure of theirs. But its not the first time that happened and wont be the last. The Cubans paid the price over the decades for US Imperial failures also. I presume you hate them too.

Anyways, your mentor wants to know what its like to be delusional. I presume he means as opposed to being demented. Can you help him ?

[Mediocrates]

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in intra Palestinian violence in Gaza this year.

[Kenneth]

Kenneth, you havent got a friggin clue what you're on about.

Look up Muhammad Dahlan on any source you like and you'll find out that he is a dangerous man. The type of man that Israel loved to hate down the years a man who liked conflict.But for a brief period he was a bright and shining star for Israel and the US in their attempts to destroy Hamas and undo the democratic efforts of the Palestinian people. Civil war was rife on the streets of Gaza and it was your friend Dahlan that was the demagog in charge of efforts to destroy Gaza with crime and violence. Hamas drew a line and explosively defeated the Warlard Dahlan and restored security in Gaza against the best efforts of your friend Dahlan the US and Israel. I'm not sorry that the Warped dreams of a few Imperialist lunatics didnt work out for you. And I am sorry that those same crazies continue to punish and molest the Gazans for that failure of theirs. But its not the first time that happened and wont be the last. The Cubans paid the price over the decades for US Imperial failures also. I presume you hate them too.

Anyways, your mentor wants to know what its like to be delusional. I presume he means as opposed to being demented. Can you help him ?

Your belief that everything bad that happens in Gaza is the direct responsibility of meddling Israelis and American comes as no surprise.

What was the point in the alleged attempt to cause civil war anyway?

[John]

Kenneth, why would you bother posting me back my own post, then asking me a question that I had posted the answer to in the post you pasted and posted back to me ?

What was the point in the alleged attempt to cause civil war anyway?

to destroy Hamas and undo the democratic efforts of the Palestinian people.

I dont think you know whats going on the ISrael/Palesine game; lets talk about the Kerry /Tyrone Game ? How bout them reds?

[Kenneth]

I was referring to the long term aim. What's the Israeli/USA long term plan for Gaza?

[John]

This is the middle East Kenneth, there are no long term aims.