Breaking the Gaza blockade?
In Cyprus, there are two ships and a group of ca. 30 international leftists calling themselves the "Free Gaza" group, based in California, that are planning to sail to Gaza in order to break the Israeli blockade. They claim to be concerned about the "human rights" of Gazans and are bringing medical supplies etc. Also, they are against the "Israeli "occupation" of Gaza. However, quite frankly this is a pure publicity stunt!
Consider the following, Israel delivers all the food and medical supplies required by Gaza thru the entry points, as long as they are not under attack by Hamas gunmen (as they often are). Why we do this defeats me, but we are doing it. Most of the supplies are paid for by the UN and the EU. Also, Israel no longer "occupies" Gaza, all civilian settlements and the IDF were completely withdrawn in 2006. A "blockade" does not constitute an "occupation."
The Gaza Strip is occupied and controlled by the Hamas movement illegally, since they staged a coup against the Fatah forces of Pres. Mahmud Abbas in 2007. Hamas is recognized internationally as a terrorist group that is stockpiling weapons rather than improving the plight of the citizens of Gaza. This is not just my opinion, this was stated a few days ago by a Minister of the PA in Ramallah, who said that Hamas were carrying out human rights violations in Gaza, by arresting, torturing and killing Fatah members. So these international "Free Gaza" dupes are carrying out a publicity stunt in support of a terrorist organization.
About the 188 Fatah gunmen of the Hilles clan that were rescued by Israel last week when they were about to be massacred by the Hamas forces. It turns out that while Pres. Abbas requested Israel to take them in, he then changed his mind, deciding that it would be too dangerous to have them in Ramallah, so he used the excuse that he didn't want to establish a precedent that all enemies of Hamas would flee to Israel and then supposedly arranged safe passage for them back into Gaza and asked Israel to repatriate them, Israel sent back 33 of them, but they were immediately arrested by Hamas and their fate is now unknown. So Israel stopped the repatriation, and Israel and the PA agreed to send the rest of them, now 87 (those that are not still in Israeli hospitals receiving treatment) to the relatively neutral PA region of Jericho. While this is going on Hamas have declared the area of the Hilles clan a military zone and are busily demolishing their houses and stealing their property. Also, 14 of them were arrested by Israel for security violations, i.e. terrorism.
A month ago Israel was criticized internationally for not allowing 13 Gazans to leave for the US to take up Fulbright scholarships. The reason Israel gave was that some previous students had turned out to be intelligence gatherers for terrorist groups. However, the US State Dept. criticized Israel and as a result the Israeli Govt. did a U-turn and decided to allow the students to leave. Today however, the US reversed itself and decided that 3 of the students would not be allowed into the US - the reason, concern about their involvement in terrorism! The Israel Govt. had no official comment.
Also, at the same time a medical student from Germany was arrested on his return to Israel. He is an Israeli Arab who had been recruited by an al Qaeda agent in Europe and had been paid for his work. He was supposed to obtain a position at an Israeli hospital (not unusual since there are many Israeli Arab doctors in Israeli hospitals) and obtain information on wounded IDF soldiers, but he had been detected before he could do any damage. All these facts should put to rest the falsity that terrorists are poor, desperate men, when in fact most of them are educated, affluent and are motivated by money and/or ideology.
Coming back to the "Free Gaza" group, they supposedly have spent $300,000 on renting the boats and buying supplies and equipment, so the question is where did they get all this money? My advice to the Israeli Govt. is that they should use the Israeli Navy to sink the bastards, even if Tony Blair's sister-in-law is among them!
Consider the following, Israel delivers all the food and medical supplies required by Gaza thru the entry points, as long as they are not under attack by Hamas gunmen (as they often are). Why we do this defeats me, but we are doing it. Most of the supplies are paid for by the UN and the EU. Also, Israel no longer "occupies" Gaza, all civilian settlements and the IDF were completely withdrawn in 2006. A "blockade" does not constitute an "occupation."
The Gaza Strip is occupied and controlled by the Hamas movement illegally, since they staged a coup against the Fatah forces of Pres. Mahmud Abbas in 2007. Hamas is recognized internationally as a terrorist group that is stockpiling weapons rather than improving the plight of the citizens of Gaza. This is not just my opinion, this was stated a few days ago by a Minister of the PA in Ramallah, who said that Hamas were carrying out human rights violations in Gaza, by arresting, torturing and killing Fatah members. So these international "Free Gaza" dupes are carrying out a publicity stunt in support of a terrorist organization.
About the 188 Fatah gunmen of the Hilles clan that were rescued by Israel last week when they were about to be massacred by the Hamas forces. It turns out that while Pres. Abbas requested Israel to take them in, he then changed his mind, deciding that it would be too dangerous to have them in Ramallah, so he used the excuse that he didn't want to establish a precedent that all enemies of Hamas would flee to Israel and then supposedly arranged safe passage for them back into Gaza and asked Israel to repatriate them, Israel sent back 33 of them, but they were immediately arrested by Hamas and their fate is now unknown. So Israel stopped the repatriation, and Israel and the PA agreed to send the rest of them, now 87 (those that are not still in Israeli hospitals receiving treatment) to the relatively neutral PA region of Jericho. While this is going on Hamas have declared the area of the Hilles clan a military zone and are busily demolishing their houses and stealing their property. Also, 14 of them were arrested by Israel for security violations, i.e. terrorism.
A month ago Israel was criticized internationally for not allowing 13 Gazans to leave for the US to take up Fulbright scholarships. The reason Israel gave was that some previous students had turned out to be intelligence gatherers for terrorist groups. However, the US State Dept. criticized Israel and as a result the Israeli Govt. did a U-turn and decided to allow the students to leave. Today however, the US reversed itself and decided that 3 of the students would not be allowed into the US - the reason, concern about their involvement in terrorism! The Israel Govt. had no official comment.
Also, at the same time a medical student from Germany was arrested on his return to Israel. He is an Israeli Arab who had been recruited by an al Qaeda agent in Europe and had been paid for his work. He was supposed to obtain a position at an Israeli hospital (not unusual since there are many Israeli Arab doctors in Israeli hospitals) and obtain information on wounded IDF soldiers, but he had been detected before he could do any damage. All these facts should put to rest the falsity that terrorists are poor, desperate men, when in fact most of them are educated, affluent and are motivated by money and/or ideology.
Coming back to the "Free Gaza" group, they supposedly have spent $300,000 on renting the boats and buying supplies and equipment, so the question is where did they get all this money? My advice to the Israeli Govt. is that they should use the Israeli Navy to sink the bastards, even if Tony Blair's sister-in-law is among them!
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:52 AM
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