Hamas doesn’t want a separate Gaza
Many Western observers, politicians and journalists considered the recent breach of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt a victory for the Hamas movement. Some viewed it as the beginning of the end of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people. The statement by Luisa Morgantini, the vice president of the European Parliament, was an example of this. The breach in the wall and the thousands of Palestinians crossing the border, she said, “are all true acts of resistance and an affirmation of the freedom of that people.”
The purpose of crossing the frontier was not to embarrass Egypt, challenge its sovereignty or threaten its security. It was a message to the forces of the Israeli occupation and the international community that the pressure to bring down the government of Premier Ismail Haniyya by starving the people of Gaza to death will not succeed and will not break the steadfastness and determination of the Palestinian people or end their legitimate resistance. [complete article]
Officials: Gaza op will bring int’l troops
Israel is considering a large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip during which it would present an ultimatum to the international community for the deployment of a multinational force as the only condition under which it would withdraw, defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.
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“We are talking about the Second Lebanon War model,” a defense official said. “To go to war and tell the world that if they want a cease-fire and for us to leave then they will need to send a force to replace us.” [complete article]
For some strange reason, Egypt and the Egyptian guards at the Rafah crossing and the wall beyond it have been endowed with a moral neutrality entirely disconnected from the effect of the wall.
Palestinians have no real friends anywhere, but for the last 60 years repressive Arab governments have been able to use Israel as a bogeyman to distract their immiserated populations from corruption at every level. Egypt is a case in point, with a tiny elite enjoying all the good things of life, while the desperately poor majority transfers all its frustration onto the scapegoat, Israel.
All the walls around Palestine are morally equivalent, and the Palestinians have no friends on the other side of any of them.