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"
-- -- Forget
everything you've read about the “Great Escape” from
Gaza
. It's all rubbish. The whole farce was cooked up in an
Israeli think tank as way to rid Palestine of its
indigenous people. Here's an excerpt from the Israeli
newspaper Arutz Sheva which explains the real motive
behind the incident:
“MK (Israeli Knesset member) Aryeh Eldad is hailing the
Arab exodus to
Egypt
as proof that voluntary transfer is indeed an option.”
“The Israeli left continues to claim that there is no
such thing as voluntary transfer, and simply ignores
reality,” Eldad said. (Arutz Sheva)
Voluntary transfer.
Bingo.
So the fleeing Palestinians just fell into a trap. Now
they've been banished to
Egypt
by their own volition. We'll have to wait and see how
many are allowed to return.
The media has played its traditional role in the
Gaza
fiasco, trying to make it look like
Hamas'
"terrorist masterminds" struck a major blow against
Israel
. It's just a way of diverting attention from
Israel
's role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Here's the
way
Ha'aretz summed it up:
“Hamas
chalked up a real coup. Not only did the organization
demonstrate once again that it is a disciplined,
determined entity, and an opponent that is exponentially
more sophisticated than the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
Israel
,
Egypt
and the
Palestinian Authority are now
forced to find a new joint border control arrangement,
one that will probably depend on the good graces of
Hamas....The
Hamas
action yesterday was anything but spontaneous. It was
another stage in the campaign that began in
Gaza
's night of darkness on Sunday. As Gaza was plunged into
widely televised blackness, Palestinian children armed
with candles were brought out on a protest march and
organized into prime-time demonstrations in support of
the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the
Muslim Brotherhood.” (“
Gaza
border breach shows
Israel
Hamas
is in charge,
Ha'aretz)
Nonsense.
Israel
is not the victim any more than Palestinian children are
"armed" with candles. The candles are a symbol of hope;
something that is sadly lacking under Israeli rule. The
truth is that
Israel was getting battered in the
media for cutting off food, water, energy and medical
supplies to 1.5 million civilians (some of whom died in
the hospital when the power was turned off on their
respirators) so they looked for a way to do an
about-face without appearing weak.
Ha'aretz would like us to believe
that our sympathy for starving women and children is the
result of the propaganda we've seen in the "Palestinian-owned”
media.
What a laugh; the “Palestinian-owned” media.
Hamas
poses no threat to
Israel
and it controls nothing; certainly not the border.
They've even suspended all suicide attacks since they
won democratic elections a year and a half ago. But that
is not enough for
Israel
whose goal is to extinguish any trace of Arab solidarity
or Palestinian nationalism. Nearly all of the 4,000
articles now appearing on
Google News follow this same absurd
narrative about 'clever terrorists' who've out-foxed
Israel
and liberated their people. It's just another way of
concealing the criminal brutality of the 60 year long
occupation. In truth,
Hamas
probably had nothing to do with the destruction of the
wall. It's just part of
Israel
's plans to exile more Palestinians.
According to the article in Arutz Sheva, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak decided to follow orders from
Hamas'
chief Khaled Mashall and “ignore Israeli calls to close
the border. Mashaal seemed to indicate that
Hamas
was asserting sovereignty over northern Sinai, calling
upon the Arab world to take advantage of the Islamist
group's new stronghold to provide aid directly without
Israeli interference.”
Now, that's a stretch. In other words, US puppet
Hosni
Mubarak—-who gets $2 billion a year
in aid from the United States ---has suddenly decided to
take orders from the head of a group that is on the
State Dept's list of terrorist organizations so that he
can fulfill his obligations as a “loyal Arab”?
Ridiculous.
Besides,
Hamas
has no interest in northern Sinai or any other
territorial ambitions. Its only purpose is to resist
Israeli occupation.
So far an estimated 350,000 residents of
Gaza
have fled across the border since Wednesday. The
Egyptian police have done nothing to stop them from
entering the country. "A significant number have
remained in
Egypt
...traveling south to Egyptian population centers.”
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on 1-24-08 that:
“Israeli officials proposed that
Egypt
take over responsibility for sustaining the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media quoted members of the Olmert government as
saying Thursday that, after Palestinians overran the
Gaza-Egypt border, there was an opportunity to demand
that
Cairo
take care of the needs of the coastal territory.
"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the
other side, we lose responsibility for it. So we want to
disengage from it," Deputy Defense Minister
Matan
Vilnai told Army Radio. "We are
responsible as long as there is no alternative." (JTA)
Are we expected to believe that in the last 24 hours
Israel
decided willy-nilly to relinquish control over parts of
the Gaza Strip?
Israel
has devoted a considerable amount of time to building
settlements in a way that removes any possibility of
creating a contiguous Palestinian state. It is highly
unlikely that their plans for
Gaza
are taken any less seriously. In fact, we are probably
seeing a manifestation of those plans right now via the
expulsion of 350,000 Palestinians.
The
Jerusalem Post's Yaakov Katz
clarifies how the destruction of the border wall serves
Israel
's long-term policy objectives:
“Without even knowing it,
Egypt
helped Israel on Wednesday to complete the disengagement
from the
Gaza
Strip. Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak said he opened the crossing for Gazans since
they were "starving due to the Israeli siege," what he
did proved to the world that his country is perfectly
capable of caring for the Palestinians when it comes to
food and medical care.
Wednesday's events and particularly Mubarak's decision
to open a floodgate into his country for hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians, demonstrated that there are
alternatives to
Israel
when it comes to being
Gaza
's provider. " ( Jerusalem Post)
That says it all, doesn't it? The Palestinians are
regarded as a mere nuisance and a drain on Israeli
resources. Now that the wall has conveniently been
knocked down, the problem appears to be solved.
Hamas
had nothing to do with blowing up the wall. And if they
did, they were just unwitting accomplices in
Israel
's masterplan to drive more Palestinians off the land
and to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the
ones that remain.
This is just another grim chapter in Bush's “New Middle
East”. |
