The Gaza Blockade, a very important aspect of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, was started 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 also onto the Gaza’s isolation. International leaders are questioning reasons for continuing the Gaza Blockade in 2010. Some critics call it inhumane oppression. Those in support say the blockade is essential to prevent rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli soil.
Israeli raid investigation wanted by UN
There was the United Nations, European leaders and others that harshly criticized Israel after its commandos stormed six ships in international waters. About 700 activists were trying to break the Gaza Blockade by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid. It was reported by Voice of The US that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the violence aboard the Turkish ship could have been 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 having an investigation put into the Israeli raid that resulted within 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 opposes any independent investigation of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The Associated Press reports that Israel also rejects claims that Gaza is in 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 said, “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 by losing
The attack on the Free Gaza Flotilla is shaping up as the latest public relations coup for all of the militant organizations dedicated to antagonizing Israel. In 2006 Hezbollah which is a gun-toting, grenade-throwing Islamist political organization, scored a victory over Israel merely by surviving an onslaught it sought to provoke in southern Lebanon that devastated the countryside. Hamas, which typically terrorizes Israel with rocket attacks from Gaza, seems to escape international rebuke for that misbehavior. Meanwhile, Israel finds itself in lose-lose situations when it claims to be just defending itself. Netanyahu has warned that if the blockade ends, hundreds of ships will bring in thousands of missiles from Iran to be aimed at Israel.
Gifts given to enemies by Israel
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 in the Middle East may have to be reset to some kind of 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. Israel is the loser. 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. Hamas can operate from a position of strength, ironically, because of Israel.
