The Gaza Blockade was started about three 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 Gaza’s isolation. There are international leaders questioning reasons for continuing the blockade. It is called inhumane oppression by some critics. 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. Around 700 activists were trying to break the Gaza Blockade by bringing in about 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 are 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 an investigation to the Israeli raid that resulted in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists.
Gaza Blockade defended by Israel
Israel says that 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. It was reported by the Associated Press that Israel also rejects claims that Gaza is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. In an address to his nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the aim of the flotilla was to break the blockade, not to bring any aid to Gaza. “This was not the ‘Love Boat’,” Netanyahu said, “It was a hate boat.” Israel explains that its soldiers were acting in self-defense because passengers attacked them when the commandos rappelled onto the ship from helicopters.
Hamas wins just by losing
The attack on the Free Gaza Flotilla is shaping up as the latest public relations coup for 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 regularly terrorizes Israel with rocket attacks from Gaza, seems to escape international rebuke for that misbehavior. Within the meantime, Israel finds itself in lose-lose situations when it claims to be 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 that was actually created by the Gaza Blockade and also 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. The clear loser within the game is Israel. Hamas wins. It was reported by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the U.S., Egypt and even the Palestinian Authority had been betting on the weakening and eventual demise of Hamas. But now, it is possible for Hamas to operate from a position of strength, ironically, because of Israel.
