Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Gaza blockade

We all know that the Turkish flotilla and other boats sent to Gaza are really a PR exercise and not really intended to "break the blockade" and deliver "humanitarian aid" to Gaza. One way we can know this is that Gaza port does not have the facilities to berth any ship the size of those taking the aid, such as the Mavi Marmara and the "Rachel Corrie." If these ships arrived at Gaza port they would have to unload their cargo onto small boats and some of the cargo, including bulldozers and cement, could not be transported easily if at all. There is a report that Gaza port officials asked Israel is they would help in organizing a system to ferry the aid to the shore.

Let's be clear, the blockade doesn't mean that food or other essential supplies are not getting to Gaza, on the contrary, the blockade is intended to prevent arms from reaching Gaza. But, all the rest of the material is trucked into Gaza. Hundreds of trucks take ca. 10 -15,000 tons of materiel, from food and medicine to cement and clothes, into Gaza from Israel every week. Most of it is paid for out of aid money and is ordered by the UN agencies, particularly UNWRA that has numerous warehouses around Gaza. Material such as cement that could be used by Hamas to construct war-related facilities must be specifically directed to UN facilities. The cargo of the ships that were detained by the IDF was off-loaded into Ashdod port to be trucked to Gaza after being searched. But, Hamas has refused to accept these goods. This shows how much of a humanitarian crisis there is in Gaza. Apart from the goods trucked in by Israel there are enormous amounts of food and other goods (even cars!) smuggled thru tunnels under the Egyptian-Gaza border, as well as arms and rockets. The Egyptian Army is building a steel barrier to stop smuggling under the border, but so far it has had no effect, the payoffs must be huge.

Not only are such blockades legal in time of war, as exists between Hamas-controlled Gaza and Israel, but most nations criticizing Israel have also used them, such hypocrisy! Apart from the historic ones (including NATO blockading the Serbian coast - when they had one - to prevent smuggling of arms) but right now there is a UN ordered blockade of the Lebanese coast. This was part of UNSC resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In order to stop arms being shipped to Hizbollah from Iran, the French and Italian navies agreed to carry out the blockade of the Lebanese coast. Not only has this blockade been ineffective, but, unfortunately there was no provision for the UN force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to blockade the Lebanese-Syrian border, thru which most of the arms are smuggled. So now Hizbollah is even stronger than before that War, and they reportedly have up to 40,000 rockets (!) some of them long range that could hit anywhere within Israel. Why do they need this huge arsenal, in such a small, poor country, only to attack Israel!

The EU this month is chaired by Spain, and the Spanish PM Zapatero met in Madrid Saturday with PA Pres. Abbas. Abbas' position is nuanced, he supports the military blockade against Hamas but opposes the blockade of goods to the Palestinian people. Sunday, Amr Mousa, Head of the Arab League, visited Gaza for the first time since Hamas took power there. He spoke against the Gaza blockade and called for reconciliation betweeen Fatah and Hamas (rejected by them!). But, why was he there? Because the Arabs are being put on the defensive by the excessive PR support of non-Arab Turkey and Iran for the Palestinians, out-flanking the Arabs.

Tony Blair, Representative of the Quartet (US, EU, Russia and UN), has made a proposal that Isael change the blockade and open it up to more goods. He proposes that instead of Israel using an inclusionary blockade they change it to an exclusionary one. In other words instead of preventing most goods from getting into Gaza, Israel should exclude only those items, arms and explosives, that are of military use. The proposal by Blair also includes a recognition of the need for Israel to prevent arms reaching Hamas and calls for the release of Gilad Schalit. Also, all building supplies allowed into Gaza would be carefully monitored by the Quartet representatives to ensure that they are not diverted to military uses by Hamas, but would be used to rebuild the damage inflicted by Operation Cast Lead. Although Israel has little reason to trust the EU, by making this proposal attractive to Israel, the hope is that the crisis caused by the Turkish flotilla and further attempts to break the blockade could be circumvented.

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