The Gaza Blockade, a very significant aspect of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, was began about 3 years ago by Israel and Egypt to contain Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza. The Israeli raid on the Free Gaza Flotilla last week has refocused international attention on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and Gaza’s isolation. International leaders are questioning reasons for continuing the Gaza Blockade in 2010. It is called inhumane oppression by some critics. Those in support say the blockade is essential to prevent rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli soil.
Source for this article: Gaza blockade 2010 by Free Gaza Flotilla a PR victory for Hamas
Wanted by UN is Israeli rain investigation
The United Nations, European leaders and others harshly criticized Israel after its commandos stormed six ships in international waters. Around 700 activists were trying to break the Gaza Blockade by bringing in about 10,000 tons of aid. According to Voice of The US, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the violence aboard the Turkish ship could are avoided if Israel had heeded earlier calls to lift the Gaza Blockade, which has prevented essential goods from reaching Gaza’s 1.5 million residents. Ban said he is considering an investigation to the Israeli raid that resulted in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists.
Gaza Blockade defended by Israel
Israel says it allows a lot more than enough food, medicine and supplies into Gaza and suggests that there be no independent investigation of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. As outlined by the Associated Press, Israel also rejects claims that Gaza is within the midst of a humanitarian crisis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to his nation that the aim of the flotilla was to break the blockade, not to bring aid to Gaza. ”This was not the ‘Love Boat’,” Netanyahu explained, “It was a hate boat.” Israel says its soldiers were acting in self-defense because passengers attacked them when the commandos rappelled onto the ship from helicopters.
Hamas wins just by losing
The attack on the Free Gaza Flotilla is seeming to be the latest public relations coup for militant organizations dedicated to antagonizing Israel. In 2006 Hezbollah scored a huge victory over Israel merely by surviving an onslaught it sought to provoke in southern Lebanon that devastated the countryside. Hamas, which regularly terrorizes Israel with rocket attacks from Gaza, seems to escape international rebuke for that misbehavior. Meantime, Israel finds itself in lose-lose situations when it claims to be defending itself. Netanyahu has warned that if the blockade ends, hundreds of ships will bring in thousands of missiles that come from Iran to be aimed at Israel.
Israel gives enemies gifts
The situation created by the Gaza Blockade and also by the Free Gaza Flotilla creates a geopolitical Rubik’s Cube for the United States. America’s relationships within the Middle East may have to be reset to a shifting balance of power that now sees Turkey — a non-Arab country who gained massive Middle East street cred by sanctioning the blockade — as the linchpin. The clear loser in the game is Israel. Hamas is the only winner. As outlined by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the U.S., Egypt and even the Palestinian Authority had been betting on the weakening and eventual demise of Hamas. But now, it is possible for Hamas to operate from a position of strength, ironically, because of Israel.
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