So why does Israel prevent Gaza exports?

[Direckshun]

Though I disagree with it, I can understand why Israel would block imports to Gaza. Israel must watch out for its own safety, but there's no question in my mind that these measures which are designed to be preventative are carried out in ways that are clearly punitive to the Palestinian people in the wake of their election of Hamas.

But blocking exports from Gaza?

The article at the very end posits a couple different reasons for this, one of which is that this is punitive, to punish the Palestinian people for their sins against Israel and their embrace of Hamas. And while that may play into it, I think the article's other explanation is easier to consider: allowing Gaza to participate economically with its neighbors would at least nominally enrich it, as trade always does. It will increase its ties with its neighbors, and allow the Gazans to effectively function a little more as an autonomous state.

All of which would only aid Palestinians in their striving for their own state.

So, clearly this must be stopped.

Please, tell me how I'm how wrong/supportive of Hamas/anti-Semitic I am in thinking preventing Gazan exports is yet more evidence of the Likud's total indifference to the two-state solution.

And please tell me how Israel isn't inching closer to full-on apartheid of the Palestinian people.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ockade/265565/

The Mainstream Media's Biased Coverage of the Gaza Blockade
By Robert Wright
Nov 25 2012, 10:34 PM ET

There's reason to hope that the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will lead to an easing of Israel's suffocating economic blockade of Gaza. The ceasefire text said that "opening the crossings and facilitating the movements of people and transfer of goods... shall be dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire." But, more than 100 hours later, we're still waiting for word of actual progress.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering where to turn for background information about the blockade, I have this guidance: stay as far away from mainstream media as possible.

Sadly typical of the way the MSM covers the issue is a recent New York Times piece about the ceasefire by David Kirkpatrick and Jodi Rudoren (both of whom have done excellent work on other issues in the region). The piece described the blockade as "Israel's tight restrictions on the border crossings into Gaza under a seven-year-old embargo imposed to thwart Hamas from arming itself."

Putting it this way is a real time saver, not just because it fits into a single short sentence, but because, if you're too busy to actually write that sentence, the Israeli government's press office would be happy to do it for you. But this description of the blockade raises a question:

If the essential purpose of the blockade were indeed to "thwart Hamas from arming itself," wouldn't restrictions on imports into Gaza suffice? (And even then the import restrictions wouldn't have to be as draconian as they were when imposed, or even as tight as they are now, after some loosening.) What I'd like to see an enterprising MSM reporter ask is: How do Israel's severe restrictions on Gazan exports keep arms from getting to Hamas?

Kirkpatrick and Rudoren, later in their piece, do elaborate a bit on Israel's motivation for imposing the blockade. But not enough. After raising the prospect that Egypt may open the Rafah crossing into Gaza, they write that "Israel enforces its embargo on the other sides of Gaza, fearing that it would face an influx of refugees or end up with responsibility for the impoverished enclave."

Fearing "an influx of refugees" doesn't explain why Israel won't let Gazans put whatever goods they want to export on a ship and send them across the Mediterranean to Europe or Africa. Nor, really, does this fear explain the other side of the export restrictions--not letting Gaza export much of anything to Israel or the West Bank. Making sure that exports were confined to goods, and didn't include people, would be readily doable. Israelis know a thing or two about how to set up an effective checkpoint.

The closest Kirkpatrick and Rudoren get to a plausible reason for the export restrictions is in positing an Israeli fear of winding up "with responsibility for the impoverished enclave." But even here they're not putting nearly a fine enough point on it. Here's the fine-point version:

Recall that a very plausible motivation for Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was to address "the demographic problem"--the fact that the number of Palestinians in the occupied territory, plus the number in Israel proper, was beginning to approach the number of Israeli Jews. That meant that if Israel's aggressive settlement program eventually led to Israel's absorption of the occupied territories, Israel wouldn't remain a Jewish state unless it were an apartheid state--i.e., unless it continued to deny Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories the right to vote. But once you remove Gaza from the equation, and define it as outside of the occupied territory, the math changes (though Gazans contend their territory is still, for practical purposes, occupied, since Israel controls the ports and airspace and the Israeli border and enters Gaza at will to kill Gazans). In this scenario--the divide and conquer scenario--the last thing Israel wants to do now is permit the sort of organic economic ties between Gaza and the West Bank that would make it easier to think of their Palestinian inhabitants as a single people.

There's one other possible motivation for Israel's severe restrictions on commerce involving Gaza: collective punishment. Maybe Israeli leaders want to keep all of Gaza impoverished as payback for the sins of Hamas. Maybe they even think that this impoverishment will lead Gazans to reject Hamas. If so, I have bad news: If Gazans reject Hamas, it will be in favor of Islamic Jihad or even more radical elements, in keeping with the general principle that imposing unjust suffering on people empowers extremists.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

So no charter, no mission statement, no speeches about Greater Israel?

What do I care about what Likud's public relations department is saying or not saying?

Actions, brother. Actions.

Originally Posted by patteeu

Netanyahu wants a secure peace for Israel. He'd take a two-state solution in a heartbeat if there were any realistic chance that it could create a lasting peace. With Hamas in charge in Gaza, clearly with the support of a large segment of the palestinian people, and with no legitimate partner for peace to be found even among the less radical (but still non-moderate) segments of the palestinian political establishment, how can you expect Netanyahu make all the concessions?

I don't expect Netanyahu to make all the concessions.

I expect him to make the major ones necessary to make a two-state solution possible.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

They weren't living up to their end of the deal prior to Hamas' ascent to power. Not even close.

Have you ever considered the possibility that Israel was living up to their end of the deal but the palestinians weren't taking advantage of it? Remember those greenhouses I mentioned? The palestinians didn't use them to grow produce for export, they destroyed them.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Donger

Okay.

Well, I'm glad that you acknowledge that the reason the Israelis haven't met the agreement number of truck crossing because of Hamas' actions. It isn't really surprising considering that Hamas doesn't want peace with Israel, as you also acknowledge.

It would have been intellectually honest of you to mention those acts of aggression by Hamas when you posted that meanie graph, BTW.

"Economic warfare" indeed...

It is economic warfare. And the door-knockings of apartheid.

Again, these attacks occur because of oppression. They don't occur in a vaccuum.

Allow trade to flow with reasonable regulations to procure safety, and the attacks on these passes will fall.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Have you ever considered the possibility that Israel was living up to their end of the deal but the palestinians weren't taking advantage of it?

Right. The Palestinians didn't want commerce.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Can't export your business if your ability to do that is being strangled by the people in power.

Explain yourself.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

What do I care about what Likud's public relations department is saying or not saying?

Actions, brother. Actions.



I don't expect Netanyahu to make all the concessions.

I expect him to make the major ones necessary to make a two-state solution possible.

When he finds a legitimate partner for peace, perhaps he will. Until then, the ball seems to be in the palestinians' court.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Explain yourself.

Check the OP.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

When he finds a legitimate partner for peace, perhaps he will. Until then, the ball seems to be in the palestinians' court.

Diplomacy doesn't work like a sport. It's not tennis.

Israel created this mess by ****ing with an ethnic minority who had no real means to resist their force or their ability to essentially impoverish their existence, as they continuously, preemptively steal land from them.

Surprise, surprise, Palestine radicalizes. As if the entirety of human history couldn't have predicted that.

None of the moves the Likud have made under Netanyahu are positive for a two-state solution.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Diplomacy doesn't work like a sport. It's not tennis.

It was an apt analogy.

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Israel created this mess by ****ing with an ethnic minority who had no real means to resist their force or their ability to essentially impoverish their existence, as they continuously, preemptively steal land from them.

Surprise, surprise, Palestine radicalizes. As if the entirety of human history couldn't have predicted that.

None of the moves the Likud have made under Netanyahu are positive for a two-state solution.

The region's Arabs created this mess by trying to do a late term abortion on Israel. Then those same Arabs had the ability to grant the palestinians a state that included all of the pre-1967 territory but refused to do so. Then those same Arabs lost the pre-1967 territory by continuing to threaten Israel's security. That's quite the revisionist history you have there. What's your take on whether or not the holocaust really happened?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

It is economic warfare. And the door-knockings of apartheid.

Again, these attacks occur because of oppression. They don't occur in a vaccuum.

Allow trade to flow with reasonable regulations to procure safety, and the attacks on these passes will fall.

The attacks that shut down the Karni crossing happened because Hamas is a terrorist organization and chose to attack it. It is yet another example of Israel good will being killed by Hamas and the Palestinians who support them.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Allow trade to flow with reasonable regulations to procure safety, and the attacks on these passes will fall.

Wait, I missed this part. Israel DID allow flow of trade and Hamas chose to attack the crossing. Israel then understandably closed Karni.

You DO realize that, right?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I don't expect Netanyahu to make all the concessions.

I may have asked before, and if so, I apologize. But, what concessions do you want "the Palestinians" and Hamas to make?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Explain yourself.

Direckshun is upset that Israel had the gall to close one of the major crossings from Gaza to Israel in response to Hamas attacks on the crossing and them tunneling underneath it with the apparent goal of filling it with explosives and blowing it up (like terrorists do).

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by patteeu

The region's Arabs created this mess by trying to do a late term abortion on Israel. Then those same Arabs had the ability to grant the palestinians a state that included all of the pre-1967 territory but refused to do so. Then those same Arabs lost the pre-1967 territory by continuing to threaten Israel's security.

I don't deny that Palestine has blood on its hands, and has shit on the peace process from time to time. But Israel has, as well.

Your inability to accept that is why you are a Republican, and I am not.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Donger

The attacks that shut down the Karni crossing happened because Hamas is a terrorist organization and chose to attack it.

Hamas chose to attack it because Israel wasn't living up to their end of the bargain, and it was further impoverishing Palestinians who grew to despise it.

Terror doesn't occur for no reason.