Besieged Gaza

The FreeGaza movement yesterday offered to help deliver aid to Gaza by sea, details posted here. No sooner had that come out than the IDF ramped up their aggression on Palestinian fishing boats taking them into custody and arresting human rights monitors. The message was simple and obvious- the Free Gaza movement have slipped by a few times, but if you threaten to significantly mitigate the blockade of Gaza we will attack. Then today tanks entered Gaza, Jewssansfrontieres observes Israel is ending the truce. The attacks on Gaza and siege have met some small resistance there has been sporadic rocket fire which in turn is used by Israel and it’s hapless yes men & women in our governments to justify their blockade and refusal to acknowledge the elected Hamas. However the battle as such is very one sided-

The latest fighting began two weeks ago and there is now a near-daily cycle of mortar attacks on southern Israeli towns and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. At least 17 Palestinians have died, and several Israelis have been wounded.

What will this new phase entail, they are replacing the commander of the Gaza garrison-

Israel is installing its new Gaza commander after a brief delay. The handover was to have taken place last week. But it was put off because fighting between Israel and Gaza militants threatened a 5-month-old truce. Violence continues. But the military announced that Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg would take over the Gaza command on Wednesday. He replaces Brig. Gen. Moshe Tamir, who has commanded the Gaza division for two years.

The truce was broken by Israel-

(Nov 5th) Israeli forces on Tuesday night attacked the Gaza Strip for the first time since June [sic], when the government agreed a ceasefire with the Islamist Hamas group that controls the territory. The raid killed six Hamas militants, including two senior field commander.

One thing most agree on is this is part of affecting upcoming talks or, more broadly as The Heathlander posits-

While Hamas has an interest in continuing the truce, the difficulty of keeping the other factions in line while retaining political credibility makes it impossible to maintain indefinitely under conditions of “virtual siege” in which the wider population sees “few dividends from the ceasefire”. Whether Israel wants the truce to continue is less clear. The ruling Kadima party will not want a sustained resumption of hostilities prior to the February elections, and in any case the government is quite content with the status quo of a besieged, isolated and quiet Gaza, which leaves it free to annexe and dismember the West Bank without fear of even minimal resistance. On the other hand, Israel is determined to prevent Hamas from establishing and taking credit for stability in Gaza, fearing that the international community – and a future Obama administration in particular – might be tempted to end the current policy of isolation and begin diplomatic engagement with it.

The IDF chief is to attend NATO talks-

The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, traveled to Brussels for two days to participate in the NATO Chiefs of Defense Conference that will take place tomorrow.

The Chief of the General Staff will address the NATO forum, and hold meetings with NATO member states Chiefs of Defense, along with NATO and EU senior officials. At the meetings, the Chief of Staff will speak about the various threats to the State of Israel, the strategic challenges in the Middle East and the rise of Global Terrorism, as well as the need for increased co-operation between Israel and NATO members in order to confront the shared threats such as global terrorism.

Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will hold meetings with his American colleague, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michel Mullen, and the two will discuss professional relations between their armies and the security situation in the Middle East. Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will then hold meetings with other chiefs of staff from countries including Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Spain, France and Poland.

During his short visit to Brussels, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will also meet senior staff of the Israeli Embassy.

The Chief of Staff will be accompanied by the Head of the International Military Cooperation Department of the Planning Directorate, the Head of the Chief of Staff Office and the Israeli Defense Attach to NATO.

All of this cannot spell good news for the people in Gaza, which remains the one great humanitarian crisis many turn a blind eye to, too complex for them, not because other crises are that much simpler but they just approach them as such and there is not a powerful lobby putting one sided views into their cultural landscape. But this UN request would be at home about Tibet, Burma, Darfur, Congo-

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told Israeli PM Ehud Olmert he is deeply concerned about humanitarian conditions in the blockaded Gaza Strip. In a telephone call, he urged Mr Olmert to ease the delivery of aid to the territory, Mr Ban’s office said.

Israel imposed the blockade on the Gaza Strip two weeks ago amid fresh violence between militants and Israeli troops. On Tuesday, the UN’s top human rights official said the restrictions deprived Palestinians of “basic human rights”.

Mr Ban’s office said he had expressed his “deep concern over the consequences of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza”. The statement said he asked for the freer movement of humanitarian supplies into Gaza and also of “concerned United Nations personnel”.

Hamas is no one’s ideal of a negotiating partner but here’s the news- we don’t live in a perfect world, so get talking. Of course to the hard line zionists not talking is simply a tactic to help their project, to continue ethnic cleansing and the colonisation of Palestine. Is this activity to improve their starting position for talks on the slight chance Obama actually does something other than exactly what the Likudniks want? (Also I am a little confused why Israel is chatting up NATO, is it the same reason they are in the Eurovision song contest, which I really don’t understand, I mean I liked Dana International, but if they compete why not the rest of the region and then why call it Eurovision?) The price of Israel as a footprint/lilly pad of Atlanticist power in the oil rich middle east is the death of Palestinians and co-option into the zionist project, are they just bringing NATO up to speed on the latest wheezes to pull that off?

Which returns me to where we began, the FreeGaza offer, here it is again-

The Free Gaza Movement today issued this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s closure of its land borders with Gaza, and Egypt’s submission to Israeli pressure to close the Rafah border is a humanitarian disaster for 1.5 million Palestinians. The United Nations announced last Thursday that inside Gaza it had run out of the food essentials to supply 750,000 desperately needy citizens. “This has become a blockade against the United Nations itself,” a spokesman said.

The Free Gaza Movement now has an inspection procedure in place in Cyprus to ensure the boat and contents comply with international regulations. In addition, we publish information about our passengers and cargo that ensures nothing and no one harmful is on board. Israel has shown itself willing to accept such assurances from us.

We are available to assist interested parties and to offer our services. Please contact one or more of the people listed on this release.

CONTACT:
Greta Berlin, France +33 49 34 24 309
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, Jerusalem +972 547 366 393
Osama Qashoo, U.K. +44 78 33 38 16 60
Paul Larudee, U.S. +1 510 236 5338

www.freegaza.org

Here is the map-

Gaza have their own sovereign coastline, the IDF patrol it and attack fishermen and stop it being used for regular shipping, Egypt are rubbish too. FreeGaza have broken the blockade, certainly a significant ship with aid would face a greater resistance from the Israeli authorities, but could they get away with piracy and seizing a ship full of verified aid before the global media’s gaze?

www.freegaza.org

PS. Update-

(IPS) – Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s complete closure of Gaza’s borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel’s Foreign Press Association, said that he personally “knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.”

Gutkin said that “while Israel has barred foreign press from entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented.” He added that he has received no “plausible or acceptable” explanation for the ban from the Israeli government.

AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able to enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck there.

A delegation of European Union parliamentarians was also prevented from entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold talks with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of Gaza by entering the coast’s territorial waters from Cyprus by boat, defying the Israeli navy.

During talks held with Hamas, the EU parliamentarians were able to get a historic commitment from the Islamic organisation to recognise Israel’s right to exist within the internationally recognised 1967 borders. Hamas further offered a long-term ceasefire in return for Israel legitimising Palestinian rights.

Israel also prevented 20 European Union consul-generals from entering Gaza on Thursday. On Sunday Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip.