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