there seem to be several posters who are under the impression that the single reason for the blockade of Gaza is to prevent Hamas from shooting rockets at Israel. while this is certainly a component of the blockade, this is far from the sole reason, or even the biggest reason. the main reason for the blockade, as has been stated, is the collective punishment of the people of Gaza -- some 40% of whom are under the age of 15 -- for electing Hamas. if this were not the reason, why, then, does Israel block exports from Gaza? why the ban on, you know, cilantro?
I'm sorry Irvine but I must disagree with you on this point.
First of all, Hamas was "elected" to power mainly because they killed anyone else who dared run against them and the Palestinian people didn't have a free choice of who to vote for. When you're standing in a polling station with a gun at your head (either literally or figurativly(sp?) it certainly can't be called a free election.
Also, if they were elected freely, then why did they feel the need to wage war against their own muslim brothers from the Fatah - including mass executions and throwing them off rooftops - until the entire area came under their exclusive control?
Israel's naval blockade and border restrictions didn't happen out of the blue, and it certainly wasn't meant as a "collective punishment" against the Palestinians as a whole. However, after Hamas seized power, we realized that our arch enemy, an enemy that has sworn to destroy us, controls an area which puts itself in a position to directly threaten us (as they've shown over and over again by their shelling of Sderot and other cities - including mine).
I assure you that Israel didn't wake up one morning and decide to "imprison" 1.5 million people just because we didn't like who they elected - that's proposterous. On the other hand, we couldn't ignore the fact that a bloodthirsty terrorist group is sitting on our southern border just waiting for the chance to wipe us out by suicide bombers and rockets smuggled in from Iran via the Rafah border crossing and by sea. Hence the naval blockade and the assistance from the Egyptians in monitoring and destroying the tunnels in the Sinai (as I mentioned in an earlier post). The blockade and border restrictions, as well as the construction of the security fence, is our only means of ensuring that Hamas is cut off from the materials they need to build the weapons used against us.
As for the legality of the naval blockade - we are at war with Hamas who controls Gaza, therefore Gaza is considered an area of hostility which gives Israel the right under international law to impose a naval blockade to prevent the passage of ships carrying weapons or materials without being checked first by Israel - and it also gives us the right under international law to stop the ships in international waters. We clearly didn't violate the sovereinty of any nation and we did exactly what we were entitled to.
i think most people find this intellectually and morally unacceptable as any sort of political strategy, not to mention that it's simply a bad strategy for Israel's security. it may well be true that these flotillas were designed to provoke precisely the incident we have just seen unfold -- "what luck!" they probably exclaimed in Iran, and in Egypt, "we're so happy to see the Palestinians suffer, and that's why we impose our own embargo, and now Israel looks bad when we're just as bad!" -- and the Israelis gave them just what they asked for.
Irvine - we can't base our action or non-action on how good it will look in the newspapers or on TV. We were well aware that the eyes of everyone were upon this flotilla but we couldn't take that into account because this is our lives we're talking about not a photo-op. It is because we were aware of the massive coverage that the IDF took their own camera crew to film exactly what happened in order to refute any arguments that we stormed the ship and opened fire indiscriminately - and this is clearly shown in all of the footage.
Regardless of what the world thought, we had absolutely no choice but to stop the ships from violating our legally-imposed blockade. You've probably seen the clips of the soldiers calling to the captain to turn around and getting a negative response....a response which prompted the takeover.
and, for the US, it reduces our credibility when justifying things like drone attacks as being in the best interests of the world when it appears as if we're supporting a policy that actively seeks to punish 1.5m Muslims living in a shattered strip of land.
The fact that 1.5 million people are living in a shattered strip of land is not disputed. Hamas has made their lives a living hell - using them as human shields and preventing them from receiving the aid that they so desparately need (as proven by their refusal to let the aid from the first flotilla into Gaza).
The only ones punishing the Palestinians are Hamas and Islamic Jihad who put their war against us before the suffering of their own people.
I can also assure you that as soon as Hamas is routed from Gaza (and the world), and a true Palestinian leadership arises that really and truly wants peace with Israel, only then will the Palestinians truly be free to establish their own state with us as friendly and cooperative neighbors.
But I'm afraid that until that day comes, or until Hamas and Islamic Jihad put down their arms, then the blockade must stand - our survival depends on it.
