Geoffrey Aronson writes at Foreign Policy:
Prime Minister David Cameron during his recent visit to Turkey warned that the Gaza Strip “cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.” Britain, however, along with the rest of the European community, and of course, Washington, are ambivalent guardians of the self-described prison camp run by Israel, with Egyptian assistance. The prisoners, of course, want their freedom. And so too it seems does Israel’s right-wing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has emerged as an unlikely proponent of ending Israel’s status as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip.
Cameron’s prison camp description gave voice among critics to uncomfortable associations with some of the worst excesses of Nazi Germany. Some apologists for Gaza’s strangulation have, certainly unintentionally, evoked similar associations. The shameful press attention paid to the appearance of a new shopping mall in Gaza and the fine fare on offer at one of the Strip’s restaurants by those anxious to give lie to the pain and suffering caused by the siege is a particularly evocative case in point. The efforts by Gaza’s besieged population to create a semblance of normality, like the orchestra of the Warsaw ghetto, is a lasting testament to the triumph of the best instincts of human spirit over those who would crush it. Did the reaffirmation of humanity by Jews staring into the abyss negate the gruesome, bestial reality of the ghetto? And so it is with Gaza.
The casualties of the “freedom flotilla” sailing out of Turkey highlighted the malign neglect of the international diplomatic community in this engineered calamity and roused Washington to demand welcome, if minor, changes in the draconian border regime. These less than half measures, however, do not offer even the hint of an end to the regime of collective punishment that Gazans are being forced to endure.
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Two states when pigs fly …we will still be talking about this thru another term, another president, another 4 years, another congress, on and on…forever….unless.
There will always be another election as a reason to cater to the Jewish lobby and Israel.
A small suggestion in this election fund raising season for whoever might see this….do not give campaign donations to the “parties”. Send a check directly to those politicans who have stood up for something you agree with. I haven’t given a penny to ‘the party” in 7 years… I send checks ‘directly’ to certain politicans like Jim Moran, Betty McCollum and a few others who have been attacked on the Israel issue for simply trying to be fair and represent the US interest….and a letter that says ‘exactly’ why I am sending this money.
Does it make a huge difference? No, not yet. But it does let them know there is support out here for their position, that some of us are paying attention, and are serious enough about it to put our money and vote where our mouth is on the Israel issue.
Israel doesn’t want a settlement of any kind. This much is obvious. A settlement will stop them from continuing their endless grab of Palestinian land and their ethnic cleansing of their precious “Jewish State.” That’s why there hasn’t been any “two state solution.” Not because of recalcitrance on the part of the Palestinians.
Lieberman’s idea of isolating Gaza as a separate entity is another step in the ethnic cleansing process, by further dividing and isolating the Palestinian people. It’s simply disgusting.