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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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