Escape from Gaza or Voluntary Transfer?
By Mike Whitney
24/01/08 "ICH" -- -- 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.
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