Conflict Continues In Gaza

Posted on January 22, 2008 by | 4 Comments

The Gaza situation took another turn as Egyptian troops opened fire on Gazans demanding that Egypt open the border to allow needed supplies to enter. About sixty people were wounded in the melee. Kassam rockets continued being fired, Israel slightly relaxed the blockade, and the UN began discussing the situation. A UN discussion must include all facets of the issues ranging from closing borders to prevent supplies from entering to the firing of rockets at civilian targets in Israel. To discuss one without the other leads only to failure at identifying solutions. On a more hopeful note, President Abbas said he would continue negotiations for peace with Israel. Abbas even offered to assume control over Gaza if Hamas would allow this to happen.

Secretary of state Rice urged Israel not to provoke a humanitarian crisis by halting shipment of needed supplies into Gaza. The International Red Cross warned medical supplies were running out and urged an end to the embargo on shipment of needed materials. Israeli tanker trucks were already pumping needed fuel into Gaza.

A group of Israel Arabs gathered at the Erezx border crossing to urge an end to the blockade and found themselves engaged in violent arguments with right wing Israel extremists. A possible outcome of the continuing crisis in Gaza is to radicalize Israel Arab youth who may well identify with the people of Gaza. It is the view of this blog that silence is not golden. There is need for all parties, including Hamas, to become engaged in dialogue. This dialogue should also include members of the Arab League who have a stake ensuring that peace exists in the Gaza area.

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  • ginger

    Cakewalk Resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

    Everybody knows the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is at the core of problems in the middle east – the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group knows this, Jimmy Carter knows it, Pat Buchanon, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, Ron Paul, Hagel, Feingold all know it and as a matter of fact everybody knows it. It is simply uncontested by any sane person that resolution of this conflict is at the very heart of peace in the middle east and the wars America is currently fighting and will be fighting in the coming months.

    Guess what? – the solution was just sitting there in front of our faces all along and it’s a cakewalk – what America needs to do first is to exert tremendous and overwhelming political pressure on Israel – America needs to LEAD the international effort to put this UN-violating country back in it’s pre-67 box as demanded by the UN time and again rather than time and again VETOING that very pressure from the international community. Sure – conforming to these UN Sec Council Resolution 242, 194, 338, the Geneva Conventions, and International Law will be a pinch for Israel and just exactly what the Israel Lobby, AIPAC, and the neocons don’t want to happen – so what?

    So what’s stopping us putting this pressure on Israel? – could the Israelis, her Israel Lobby, and her Neocons be stopping this pressure which is actually the critical solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict that we all desperately need and that everybody knows underlies successful solution of our ‘war against terror’ ? Why yes – this appears to be the precise problem – Israel and her Israel Lobby are fighting AGAINST just such a solution of our needs. Why Israel and her Israel Lobby are preventing this solution in the middle east is because they want something else…

    What Israel, her Israel Lobby, and her neocons desire is to successfully manipulate America to permit and support Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine (which takes care of her internal enemies, the Palestinians) while manipulating America to illegally attack any nation Israel and her Israel Lobby sends us to attack (which takes care of her external enemies). So far this has worked succesfully to the extent that the Israelis have for decade after decade continued to occupy the Palestinian territories and they have had America attack Iraq for them and will have us attacking Iran for them in the next few months – thus taking care of two of Israel’s biggest external enemies for her

    What workable plans do Israel and her Israel Lobby have for the Palestinians and peace in Palestine? The Likud/Netanyahu extremist Israelis running Israel have put the dead Palestinians in a jar of formaldehyde on the shelf – preserved dead forever (as Dov Weisglas of Ariel Sharon’s staff so disgustingly stated).

    So amazingly enough this whole time we were just letting Israel, her Israel Lobby, and the neocons stand in the way of resolving the very issue that everybody knows is at the root of our involvement in the middle east – the very issue that everybody knows needs to be resolved and here these guys are preventing it from being solved. Boy! No wonder it’s been so apparently insoluble! Talk about being part of the problem instead of part of the solution – these guys are experts at that! These guys have the solution to peace in the middle east in a jar of formaldeyde on their shelf! And that jar sits next to the jar of fomaldehyde containing UN Sec Co resolutions 242, 194, 338, the Geneva Conventions, and International Laws Israeli is currently violating, and the 4000 Americans who have died for Israel in Iraq

    Isn’t that funny! Our whole problem all along is that we were just letting Israel and her Lobby and her manipulation of our congress and her manipulation of our UN veto power create a string of UN vetos that are most disgraceful chronicle of gaming the UN in it’s history. It’s a chronicle of how a AIPAC-manipulated US was getting in it’s own way of actually honestly brokering a resolution to this conflict. And it turned out it was not insoluble afterall! It probably never was! It wasn’t really hard either, when we finally just started working smart and forcing Israel to conform to the international obligations she has so blatantly violated for all these years

    I’m waiting for our first presidential candidate to start pressurizing the Israelis and keep turning up the pressure more and more and finally to call for sanctions against Israel until she conforms with the UN Sec Co Resolutions demanding she return to pre ’67. That is what any serious American presidential candidate and eventual president would do. But what if AIPAC and the Israel Lobby will destroy you if you do? Well hadn’t we better destroy the Israel Lobby, AIPAC, and the Necons then? Why wouldn’t we?

    So we just dial up the sanctions on Israel, stop the $5 billion in yearly aid that Israelis demand in euros if we must, and I don’t even think we would need UN authorized military action to kick the Israelis back behind ’67. It will be a cakewalk solving this – it was just that we needed to put the exact pressure on the Israelis necessary to solve the problem! The Lobby was having us put no pressure at all on the very thing that needed pressure to be resolved – the Lobby was having us do exactly what it would take to keep the Palestinian-Israeli problem at the heart of everybodys problems in the middle east. The Israel Lobby wanted no pressure to be put on the Israelis at all and here we are pressuring the hell out of them and solving the problem of Middle East peace.

    Once we do this and stop Israel in Palestine we will find a miracle begin to occur – a war of terror that many did not understand was being waged will have stopped – for what we will have stopped is the ‘war of terror for Israel’ the neocons and the Israel Lobby have been having us fight. Oh wait – let me say it again – there stopped being a war of terror because the US stopped carrying out our war of terror for Israel – like when we attacked Iraq for Israel. And the effects will almost be instantaneous – we won’t have to send our boys to terrorize Iran for Israel in a few months

    As for the Israel Lobby, AIPAC, and the Neocons who have prevented the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is in our national interest to actually solve once and for all? I say the neocons have suggested their own perfect solution – we put the neocons and the Israel Lobby in formaldehyde and we put it up on a shelf and teach generations of Americans what crimes, disasters, and holocaust they have wrought upon the world, America, and the Palestinians

  • http://www.theimpudentobserver.com Fred Stopsky

    An amazing comment. A list of what is wrong with Israel and not a single word about the incompetent Palestinian and Arab leaders. Let’s look at the record:
    1. Israel accepted the UN partition plan. They were then invaded by Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
    2. Israel negotiated with Sadat and reached an agreement.
    3. Israel accepted the Clinton compromise proposals which Arafat turned down.
    Has Israel’s behavior been brutal on occasions? Yes it has. It made terrible mistakes in seizing West Bank areas. But, you completely ignore Palestinian suicide attacks, the Kassam rockets, the blundering leadership which has no sense on how to negotiate anything other than chaos.

    Anyone who believes the US attacked Iraq for Israel has absolutely no understanding of the Bush administration. Actually, Israel authorities urged Bush NOT to attack Iraq. The idiots wanted America to attack Iran! You apparently have never read an objective historical work on the history of the Palestinian-Israel conflict. A visit to the library might help.

  • Brandeis Alumnus ’84

    “A visit to the library might help” is unbecomingly derogatory of you, no? Ginger seems to be trying to make some sense out of world events, and Ginger’s viewpoint sounds quite plausible to me; I can certainly forgive the tone taken as it is a frustrating subject for some.

    Anyway, would you deny that the Bush administration had something to do with the following announcement from Reuters? “Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war who was forced to resign from the World Bank because of an ethics scandal, will chair a U.S. advisory panel on arms control, the State Department said on Thursday.” (Pleeeease don’t say that Wolfowitz doesn’t reflect Israeli interests.) Also, picking Wolfowitz to negotiate with Iran on arms control is meant simply to ensure relations between the US and Iran deteriorate, likely into war, which is what Israel wants, as you say.

    Yes, the Bush Administration also wants a protected oil pipeline to the Caspian, (going directly through Syria to Israel is too difficult at the moment) and for now, it is convenient for the US and Israel to maintain relations as their leaders have similar plans for achieving their goals. What I’m not certain about is, when their interests ultimately diverge, whether Israel will win, as it has done in Germany, or if another Stalin will rear his head in the US to make purges in the government, media, educational system, judicial system, etc. Compromise tends not to work for very long at that level.

  • http://www.theimpudentobserver.com Fred Stopsky

    Mr. Wolfowitz is a Republican who is Jewish. Do you assume Ted Kennedy has ties with the government of Ireland because he has been a nonstop supporter of every view of the Irish?
    I do not believe Mr. Wolfowitz is in any way connected with any negotiations with Iran about arms control for the simple reason no such discussions are taking place. Now, if you are referring to nuclear development, the International Atomic Energy Agency of the UN is responsible for negotiating with Iran and it has absolutely no connection with Wolfowitz.
    I have no idea what you mean by “Israel will win, as it has done in Germany.” Huh! Win what?
    If you really believe a “Stalin”(a rather strange choice) will “rear his head in the US” then I can only strongly recommend a trip to the library and study of American history. This nation has NEVER experienced any attempt by the military to assume control of the government. We currently have a political campaign which, most probably, will result in ouster of the Republican led government. What exactly do they teach about history at Brandeis? I guess I spent my time at the wrong place– the history department at Columbia University.