Sunday, June 06, 2010

Which Palestinians?

Leftists and well-meaning Western liberals who support "food for Gaza" and "breaking the blockade" in order to help the Palestinian people, have chosen the wrong Palestinian cause. What about the majority of Palestinians who live in the West Bank and who are governed by the Palestine Authority, controlled by Fatah. Politically these are the natural allies of the liberal left, since they support the founding of a secular national Palestinian State. Gaza, controlled by Hamas, is an Islamic State, where movie theaters are closed down, children's camps are burned (http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-summer-camp-for-gaza-kids-vandalized ) , independent NGO's are being closed down (http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177444 ) and women are being "encouraged" to wear full Islamic covering. This is all happening while the leftists are supporting a campaign of "breaking the blockade" that if successful would enable Hamas to smuggle in arms and rockets to use against Israeli civilians and against the PA/Fatah, and where Western liberal/leftists would be in danger of being kidnapped and beheaded for their views.

It is notable that even though the PA supported the "freedom flotilla" in principle, they were not as openly supportive as many Muslim States, such as Turkey. Not only do they know that this is all arranged by Iran to take attention away from its development of nuclear weapons and its take-over of Gaza through support of Hamas, but Pres. Abbas announced that the "proximity talks" with Israel thru the US would continue despite the incident involving the death of passengers aboard the Mava Marmara. And Pres. Obama specifically urged that the peace talks be "bolstered" in order to counter the negative effects of the clash at sea.

At the same time as the flotilla clash, there was an investor's conference for the PA in Bethlehem, that resulted in the commitment of ca. one billion dollars (!) to the PA ( http://www.jpost.com/Business/BusinessNews/Article.aspx?id=177348 ), and the theme at the conference was upbeat because of the current growth in the PA economy at 8%. This was ignored in the media, but this is what people who support the poor Palestinians should be focussing on! Not only is the West Bank developing economically and improving the life of ordinary people with the help of the Quartet representative Tony Blair and of PM Netanyahu, who has facilitated trade and reduced checkpoints, but if the theory is correct, then the population should have a greater desire for peace. But, at the same time as the PA is developing and having indirect talks with Israel, Hamas is against any negotiations with Israel, has a declared policy of destroying Israel and in fact fires rockets into Israel on a daily basis (yesterday four rockets hit Israel, but this is not news).

It is because of these policies and actions of Hamas that Israel was forced to institute a blockade against Gaza, that incidentally Egypt has also done. But, even though there is a naval blockade to prevent the smuggling of arms, Israel allows humanitarian shipments of food, medicines and other material into Gaza, with the cooperation of the international aid agencies, including UNWRA. There is actually NO humanitarian crisis in Gaza (see : www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001114.html ) This is merely an excuse for committed anti-Israel organizations to discredit and embarrass Israel. They may succeed in this to some extent, but Israel will never compromise its security.

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