Israel confiscated seven oxygen machines en route to hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza based on the claim that there was a chance the generators attached to the machines would not be used for medical purposes, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Saturday. Haaretz
Now that should get those Palestinians in an agreeable mood, choke off their oxygen. but the attack on Gazans, and Palestinians in general, doesn't stop there. Their water supply has been continually under attack, to the point where 95% of Gazan water is unfit for human consumption
there is ample evidence that this "easing" of the military siege of Gaza, is a massive Public Relations pitch by Israel, and the people of Gaza will not notice a difference.
As Israel this week declared the "easing" of the four-year blockade of Gaza, an official explained the new guiding principle: "Civilian goods for civilian people." The severe and apparently arbitrary restrictions on foodstuffs entering the enclave -- coriander bad, cinnamon good -- will finally end, we are told. Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants will have all the coriander they want.
This "adjustment," as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed it, is aimed solely at damage limitation. With Israel responsible for killing nine civilians aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla three weeks ago, the world has finally begun to wonder what purpose the siege serves. Did those nine really need to die to stop coriander, chocolate and children's toys from reaching Gaza? And, as Israel awaits other flotillas, will more need to be executed to enforce the policy?
Faced with this unwelcome scrutiny, Israel -- as well as the United States and the European states that have been complicit in the siege -- desperately wants to deflect attention away from demands for the blockade to be lifted entirely. Instead it prefers to argue that the more liberal blockade for Gaza will distinguish effectively between necessary "security" measures and an unfair "civilian" blockade. Israel has cast itself as the surgeon who, faced with Siamese twins, is mastering the miraculous operation needed to decouple them.- Jonathan Cook, worth reading in its entirety.
The crime of Israel's military siege is not just that chocolate and coriander was not allowed into to Gaza. Part of this criminal scheme was the amount of aid that has been allowed into to Gaza, which is way under what is needed for 1.5 million inhabitants. It was planned scarcity. Beyond that, Israel refuses to allow Gaza to become self-sufficient, and rebuild its industry.
Despite all that, there are those who make the almost laughable claim that "Netanyahu caved into demands from Obama, and 'eased the blockade" and that Israel is being "dictated to by Obama" See this for example. The Right in this country is accusing Obama of hurting Israel's security.
The fact is,however, Israeli policy has no better ally than Mr. Obama. Obama simply says that some of these policies are "unsustainable", nothing about demands that they must end (or in the case of illegal Israeli settlements, be reversed). In the meantime, Israel continues to deny the people of Gaza oxygen tanks donated by a Norwegian charity. Is it any wonder that millions of people around the world supported the Gaza flotillas and their effort to break the blockade with direct support of Gaza? Otherwise, how can we expect many life-saving equipment to make it to Gazan hospitals?
Sen. Chuck Schumer has stated that he favors the "strangulation" of Gaza. I have every reason to believe that he was speaking of supporting President Obama's current policy of quiet support for Israeli policy in Gaza.