I know it's been a few days since the Gaza pullout, but it takes me a bit to digest things. The ANSWER diaries today galvanized me a bit. Immediately after the Israeli pullout, Palestinians
celebrated:
Fireworks lit up the pre-dawn sky, Palestinian gunmen fired in the air in celebration and crowds set a synagogue ablaze in the abandoned Morag settlement. In another synagogue, gunmen climbed on the roof and waved flags of militant groups, including Hamas, shouting, "God is great."
"It is only the first step to more liberation ... tomorrow we liberate all of Palestine," Gaza resident Mohammed Khamish Habboush shouted into a mosque loudspeaker.
More after the break . . .
Palestinian leaders then called for Israel to withdraw its troops from the Gaza border crossings, saying that Israel had made Gaza into a huge
prison camp.
"The Gaza Strip is one large prison..." (Mahmoud Abbas, News agencies, 12 September 2005).
"Israel's pullout from Gaza must include the full opening of all crossing points and freedom of movement...." (Marwan Muasher, Deputy Prime Minister, Jordan (Associated Press, 12 September 2005)).
Well, Israel heeded their call. Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza/Egypt border, calling on the PA to move in and secure the border with its own security forces.
Well, guess what. It seems like the Palestinian officials were right: it was a prison camp. When the Israelis withdrew a lot of the criminals got out:
Palestinian Authority security officials disclosed Saturday that at least 100,000 people had crossed the Gaza-Egypt border in both directions since the IDF left the Philadeplhi Corridor last Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported. The officials admitted that, in addition to large amounts of weapons, the infiltrators smuggled into the Gaza Strip tons of drugs, including hashish, cocaine and marijuana. On Friday, the PA announced that it had seized two tons of drugs near Rafah.
The PA is working to restore some sort of order, but it looks like it's
tough going:
The reinforcements did not deter attempts at crossing the border, with security forces firing in the air Saturday morning to keep back dozens of Gazans trying to cross into Egypt, witnesses said. One man was wounded in the hand by shrapnel, hospital doctors reported.
Palestinians threw stones at police along the frontier, the witnesses said, adding that police threw stones back.
I'm wondering where the money for "tons" of drugs is coming from. I thought these people were the poorest of the poor in the region, refugees. Who's got the money to front for "tons" of drugs and who are the customers? Corrupt arms dealers, funneling their arms donations from abroad into the drug trade?
Now Hamas is parading its weapons through Gaza, drumming up support for more armed attacks on Israel. Yesterday, a truck full of Hamas rockets blew up, killing 15 and wounding at least 80. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have gone back to firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.
If this violence continues to increase, Sharon's experiment will be a failure and they'll replace him with Netanyahu. That will just continue the disaster. But that's the whole idea, it seems.
I think this gives a little perspective to the ANSWER pro-Palestinian rally today.