“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)
So the fleeing Palestinians just walked into a trap. Now they've been banished to Egypt by their own volition. Will they be allowed to return? We'll see.
The media has played a predictable 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”.
Comments
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Very confused
25.01.2008 22:44
BTW, according to AFP, Israel just murdered/executed Mohammed Harb, the Hamas military commander for the Gaza-Egypt border town of Rafah :
It did not get a lot of airing for an event that looks like a direct and precise retaliation for the breach of the border/siege.
You should be able to fit it in your twisted conspiracy theory nevertheless.
Tired
Shocking!
25.01.2008 22:47
Anyway, I can expect DEBKA to be spouting tripe but I'm a tad disappointed in Global Research letting something that speculative loose.
Al Qaeda in North Sinai? Make me laugh, they'd have an easier time setting up a base on the moon. A vast expanse of open desert and the shallow end of a low level mountain range with no trees. They going to evade teh spy satellites by dressing up as camls? Or are they just going camp up next to the Suez or Aqaba and pretend to be Bedouins and hope no one notices?
And Al qaeda/ Egyptian Islamic Jihad don't exactly enjoy the indulgence in Egypt as they do elsewhere. So I don't know where they get this "safe haven" bollocks from.
I know Al Qadea talk the talk but it's news to me that they have any Palestinian demographic at all.
"A Western military source says the terrorists have laid the foundations of a “Palestinian Waziristan" Who was that then the Daily Mail? And by Waziristan I take you mean that the CIA are going to start funnel loads of money into militant "Islamic" nutcase groups... doesn't quite stack up when you consider they are already backing Israel.
I'm sure most Egyptians would be glad to help these people, but it's probably a headache their American-backed dictator would like not to have to deal with.
Of course none of this could at all be just that half a million people just didn't particularly fancy starving to death.
Anti-Zionist against Anti-semitism
Hmmm... + Al Quaeda
26.01.2008 16:41
Al Quaeda, like the ALF, is less an organised hierarchy and more a cause. Most Al Quaeda attacks (such as the ones in Bali, or Sudan, or most anywhere) are organised by independent cells in the name of Al Quaeda. In other words, it is largely a cause for jihadists. That whole movement is, in a twisted sense, very horizontal and much less hierarchically-built than we are led to believe. So there is no reason why Al Quaeda shouldn't manifest in Egypt. However, if the bedouin population of Sinai gets a whiff of "terrorism", there will be trouble. They had a council years back and decided collectively to reject all jihadist activities because they believe (and with some justice) that it will endanger their already-precarious position of relative autonomy in the Sinai.
As for the article: As I understand it, the message is that the IDF, in a lead-up to an invasion of Gaza (one we are all awaiting. It has been stated by the IDF that it will happen, and Annapolis was a big red herring, as is with every peace summit this country takes part in), blew up the border crossing into Egypt so that the Palestinian population will fall and there will be less people in the way (and less resistance) when the push is made.
I don't know about this. Mubarak's decision to keep the border open is VERY suspect, considering the usual Egyptian attitude to Gaza is ambivalent at best.
Emma Goldman
Not THE Emma Goldmann? ;-)
26.01.2008 17:59
AQ/EIJ (and its alliances with Algerian militants) is probably as close as you'll get to the version of AQ the US likes to peddle, but you are right, generally speaking AQ is more of an ideology than a centralised organisation.
I think we can however both agree that however you interpret it, the DEBKA article was pure fantasy.
Personally, I am going to avoid speculation, as it never amounts to anything positive or helpful. Fair enough if someone has something concrete to put on the table...
Anti-Zionist against Anti-semitism