Tuesday, November 27, 2007
An interesting tid-bit from a Time Magazine article on Gaza, dated 1968: Rootless in Gaza
...For the first time in 20 years, the Gazans are allowed to travel outside the Strip. With Israeli encouragement, more than 30,000 of them have gone to seek jobs in Jordan or the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Arabs charge that the Israelis are allowing them to leave for political rather than humane motives, since every departing Arab is one potential terrorist fewer to deal with and one mouth fewer to feed. But the rate of the Arab exodus by bus and hired taxi has dropped off lately as word has spread that few jobs are available in Jordan...
And this:
...the Israelis seem more intent on holding onto the Gaza Strip than any other part of their conquered territory, except Jerusalem. They are slowly integrating this arid area into Israel, and impressing on the Arabs the permanence of their presence. The reason: Worthless in every other respect, the Gaza Strip is important to Israel's security, since it probes like a finger into Israeli territory. Egyptian troops massed there before the outbreak of the war, and the Strip had long been a base for Arab terrorist raids...
And yet they gave it up.
