Israel & Gaza

#1

Anyone else see the irony in this modern day attempt at a Holocaust, bunch of fucking Israeli hypocrits.

[QUOTE= BBC today] UN food aid to about 860,000 people in the Gaza Strip will have to be suspended within days if Israel’s blockade continues, the UN has warned.
Spokesman Christopher Gunness said the UN relief agency UNWRA was running short of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators.

Israel closed Gaza’s borders last Thursday in response to rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants.

The EU says Israel is “collectively punishing” the Hamas-run territory.

Egypt has urged Israel to lift its border closure and the crisis is being discussed by the Arab League.

With fuel supplies hit by the blockade, Gaza’s only power plant, which produces 27% of the territory’s electricity needs according to a recent UN report, was shut down on Sunday night.

Gaza’s rocket threat to Israel
Profile: Gaza Strip

Israel says it is still providing power to Gaza, putting its current contribution at nearly 70%, while Egyptian power stations account for the remainder.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that while Israel does not want to provoke a humanitarian crisis, it does want to make people’s lives “uncomfortable”.

In another development, overnight Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area killed one Palestinian and injured several others. Israel said it had been targeting militants transporting rockets.

Bread and rockets

On Monday morning residents awoke to closed petrol stations and shuttered bakeries unable to bake bread - a staple food in Gaza.

Generators are supplying critical power to hospitals

Generators are being used to maintain critical power supplies to hospitals but there are fears that supplies of diesel could soon run out.

Mr Olmert insists the Israeli action is limited to cutting fuel supplies for vehicles.

“As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace,” he said.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Ary Mekell told the BBC on Monday that the energy crisis in Gaza was a “a fabrication and a stage production by Hamas”.

“There is no shortage of electricity - we provide 70% of the electricity for Gaza through electric cables and this is nothing to do with the fuel supplies,” he said.

A report by the UN humanitarian affairs agency Ocha in May 2007 estimated that Israel supplied 64% of Gaza electricity, the local power station - 27%, and Egypt - 9%.

After decades of occupation, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it still controls the territory’s borders and supplies.

Hamas - branded a terrorist organisation by the Israel, the US and the EU - has been in charge of Gaza since June, when it drove out rivals Fatah.

More than 200 rockets and mortars have hit Israel from Gaza since an Israeli operation against militants on Tuesday that left 18 Palestinians dead, the Israeli military says.

Foreign concern

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Mr Olmert to warn him of the humanitarian effects of the blockade, and urged him to “stop the Israeli aggression”.

Israel says border closures will stop if the rocket attacks end

He also raised the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel insists should remain closed.

Arab League officials gathered in Cairo for an emergency meeting but it is unclear what action it can take other than pushing for humanitarian relief.

The most significant action would be to reopen Gaza’s crossing into Egypt but this would probably prove too controversial a step for the Egyptian government, the BBC’s Ian Pannell reports. [/QUOTE]

#2

I’m vehemently opposed to what the Israelis are doing but I fail to see how it’s ironic or hypocritical. They don’t claim to have a monopoly on suffering so while what they’re doing is disgusting, it’s just as wrong as the US or Great Britain or parts of Sudan or whoever doing the same thing.

#3

This subject is the one that tests my racism the most. I found during an extended stay in Thailand(it is heavily patronised by Israelis-who have visa difficulties for other countries) that I couldn’t stand conversing with Israelis due to their world view and opinions. I’m a pretty well balanced individual mostly(although I slipped 4 or 5 times in this evening’s tfk game) and consider myself pretty well educated but I can’t help having an immense dislike for Israel. All through my life the reporting of the Palestine/Israel conflict has been difficult to appreciate properly due to biased reporting, yet her actions seem almost always to be disproportionatly aggressive. A history of being attacked might do that to a country but they surely might also recognise genocide or at least the ethnic cleansing they carry out in some parts of Israel/Palestine.
The history of the Middle East is fascinating and gruesome but I think should be mandatory reading material as it offers an insight into how many countries conduct their foreign policy, and it’s never pretty. I read most of Robert Fisk’s book the Great War for Civilization and it enthralled and disgusted me in equal measure. I would highly recommend it for anyone with a month to kill. His reporting would seem to me to be about as honest as it can be and added to my dislike of Israeli actions and policies.

#4

They do however fight to stop any other people’s purporting to have had a holocaust inflicted on them. They have led(with Turkey) a highly aggressive campaign to deny Armenians(many of them Jewish) the recognition of their holocaust. Their struggle is to be seen as the ‘most wronged’ always.

#5

Juhniallio, I bought that Fisk book about 18 months ago. I’m about 1/3 the way through (that’s nearly 350 pages) and though it’s a fascinating read it’s an extremely tough read and concentration levels need to be very high, which is a test for me. The actions of Israel have consistently sickened me for years but these latest goings on are among the worst I can remember. I agree that the reporting is incredibly biased and it’s always struck me that Israel’s response to Palestinian guerilla attacks has been unnecessarily aggressive on numerous occasions, none more so than this one.

#6

I’m not saying they’re not bastards, and I agree with pretty much everything you’ve written in the post above I just think it’s important that there’s less lazy opinions on the conflict - not saying WoW’s comment was lazy: I just don’t agree with it.

As you say yourself there’s been a serious problem with reporting of the conflict over the years and I’m conscious of saying what I believe on the subject, not just agreeing with the general anti-Israeli aggression theme for the sake of it. Though I am anti-Israeli aggression.

Anyway off to watch a fine Jewish comedy in Curb Your Enthusiasm now.

#7

Ah to be fair it was lazy, i’ll admit that myself. The irony I see, is that the Gaza refugee camp is comparable to the ghettoisation (sp?) of Warsaw for example.

Their actions just annoy me a lot. Basically the Palestinans (who are no angels themselves) are persecuted, holed up in run-down third world refugee camps, denied travel rights, have ‘peace walls’ (what a fucking joke) built on their land, their citizens imprisoned with no trial. And now, the transgressing Israeli government has decided to cut off fuel and food supplies.

#8

My dislike for Israel is increasing daily (and I’m supposed to be visiting in March) but I’d also say that any mention of the holocaust is counter-productive. So, technically are suicide bombings and rocket attacks but that’s another story. I’ve been out of touch with the M.E. since I finished studying it in 2003, currently motoring through Richard Crowley’s new book (just a collection of locals’ stories, although his piece about the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader currently living in Sutton is fascinating) and have been meaning to start the Fisk one for ages. Anyone know how much it is?

#9

Don’t think it’s too dear in paperback. Have that Crowley book to read too.

Sledgehammer: when/where are you going in Israel? I might be heading to Palestine in March: Ramallah to be precise.

#10

Late March I think, plan is to fly to Amman and see Jordan, Syria, and as much of Israel as is possible. Think the return flights to Jordan come in under the $600 mark, which is for nothing.

#11

Some of ye might know about the attack on the West Bank settlement last week that left a 13 year old Israeli boy dead and a 7 year old wounded. Well the father of the 7 year old had to be given temporary release from prison to visit the boy in hospital. Guess what he’s in prison for? Trying to blow up an Arab girls school.

How about that for a twist of fate?