The Gaza Blockade

 

On Monday, Israel outraged the world community by attacking, boarding and murdering nine peace activists aboard a ship that was headed for Gaza in hopes of breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Israeli commandos rappelled down to an aid flotilla sailing to thwart a Gaza blockade on Monday, clashing with pro-Palestinian activists on the lead ship in a botched raid killing nine. Even Israel's allies are having a difficult time with these actions. 

Israel intercepted the six ships carrying some 10,000 tons of aid for the isolated territory of Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel for three years, with Egypt's cooperation. The Israeli government urged the flotilla not to try to breach the blockade before the ships set sail from waters off Cyprus on Sunday and offered to take some aid in for them.

To be clear, the blockade of Gaza hurts innocents - A U.N. official said last week that the formal economy in Gaza has “collapsed,” 60 percent of households there were short on food. The Guardian notes that according to UN statistics, “around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water.”

The blockade also cuts off almost 1.5 million Palestinians from the rest of the world, hampering access to health care and education. I'm not sure how you justify that but that's what's being done.

In my lifetime I've viewed everything about the state of Israel through the prism of the Holocaust, and constant Palestinian attacks on the state of Israel, always giving Israel the benefit of the doubt. A state has the right to defend itself. That has changed somewhat recently and I've begun to see Israel as much an enemy of peace as groups like Hammas. With these unconscionable actions they have entered into the territory of state sponsored terrorism and their explanations and rationalizations that they didn't expect the resistance to their attack to be so fierce are absurd.

Army helicopters hover over you while commandos lower themselves onto the boat, is to be greeted how? With Cheney's candy and flowers? If they're clever they'll simply admit they were wrong and try and right the wrong by bringing in the aid and paying immediate recompense to the victims. So far though, it appears as if they are going to try and justify this by saying the invading soldiers were merely protecting themselves. Something they wouldn't have had to do if the hadn't boarded in such an aggressive manner in the first place.