Saturday, May 29, 2010
[The following, by Medusa, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]
Under different circumstances, the notion of sailing across the seas to bring aid to a beleaguered people would be laudable. However, in this latest Gaza Aid convoy we see a bunch of misguided, publicity-seeking foreclosed adolescents who merely wish to make a grand gesture by highlighting the alleged plight of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israelis.
(We have heard this before, haven't we? That the people of Gaza are "starving" and lack medical and other supplies, but look at this - note the food and sweets on the market stalls - and this).
Most of Gaza is growing and thriving but CiF and these useful idiots are apparently oblivious to the fact that Hamas is following the example of the Nazis in WWII. The Nazis built a show camp at Theresienstadt (the so-called "model ghetto"), in which Jews lived apparently contentedly and well-fed, because their jailers wished to give the lie to accusations of brutalisation and genocide. Hamas however is deliberately doing the direct opposite: instead of maintaining a model of good living for these Palestinians who elected them into power, Hamas prolongs their misery and parades it to foreign visitors and deliberately encourages them to believe that the rest of Gaza is a wasteland too and that this is all the fault of Israel. Unfortunately, most of the visitors are very easily fooled.
We don't yet know what the flotilla's "aid" consists of but the IDF says that it will all be searched and only items which cannot be made into weapons against Israel will be handed over to the United Nations for distribution to those who need it (which means, of course, that the recipients will have to pay Hamas for it).
We do know, however, that CiF, The Guardian and the western media will make much of this "plucky" little convoy. You will not hear anything negative about it from them and particularly not the following which is little short of shameful:
Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas in a cross-border raid on 25 June 2006 and has been held incommunicado by them ever since. He was only nineteen years old at the time of his capture. Hamas refused all requests from the Israeli government and pleas from his family for news of him, or to allow visits from the Red Cross as was his right under international law. So far as other governments are concerned, he does not exist. For a long time his family did not know whether he was alive but after much pressure Hamas released a video of him in October 2009, three years after he was captured.
Nevertheless, in true Hamas fashion - Hamas may miss many opportunities to make peace with Israel but nary a one to display their barbarity - they made Shalit the laughing stock of a show before a gleeful audience of thousands in Gaza on 14th December 2008 as part of their 21st anniversary celebrations.
What, you may ask, links the captivity of Gilad Shalit to the "humanitarian aid" Gaza convoy? Eight boatloads of aid are en route to Gaza, we are told, chock-full of much-needed supplies. Gilad's father had asked the convoy leaders to deliver a letter and parcel and to intercede with Hamas for their son's freedom, in return for which the Shalit family would appeal to the Israeli government to let the convey through. The convoy leaders refused. (See also here). They refused to take one parcel and one letter from the Shalit family to their captive son!
Adolescent hostility and idiocy and lack of awareness of how they are perceived by others? Yes, of course.
Utter lack of humanity or even the dregs of the milk of human kindness? Most definitely.
Well then, if the conditions are as good in Gaza as this article indicates, there shouldn't be any concern for whether Galid Shalit is comfortable and being well treated since obviously he is spending his captivity in an oasis by the sea and he should be thankful to be in such an excellent place.
Bosh!
1. If he's still alive—Gaza'a despotic rulers still have not allowed the International Red Cross to visit him—Gilad Shalit remains a prisoner and is being held incommunicado. He is denied very basic human rights, the rights that prisoners of war are entitled to. Comparing his inhuman treatment to hanging out at a seaside resort is ridiculous.
2. The fact Gaza's living standards are higher, on average, than they are in some Arab countries or that the rulers live in the lap of luxury doesn't mean that life is easy there for everyone. There's no reason to assume that Gilad Shalit is enjoying life in a resort or dining with his captors bosses at the Roots Club. The homeless people sleeping in the rough since Hamas destroyed their has destroyed to build a mosque probably would not say that life is good.
As is the case in Abu Mazen's Fatahland, the people in power in Hamastan are living very well indeed, but in both cases people on the outs or low-down in the social pecking order are treated like dirt. And in both cases, their oppressors are Palestinian Arabs, not Israel.
"He is denied very basic human rights, the rights that prisoners of war are entitled to."
Ah yes, the rights of the Geneva Convention? Last check, Israel wasn't paying too much attention to that or many other international laws, so how can anyone complain if poor Gilad Shalit isn't being treated in a better manner than his very own captives.
Glad we agree though that Gilad Shalit is certainly more comfortable than thousands and thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, whether he is dead or alive.
We agree about practically nothing. No one knows how comfortable or uncomfortable Gilad Shalit is, or whether he's better or worse off than Gazan Arabs.
As to the nonsensical claim that Israel does violates international law, that all depends on what your definition of law is. You're undoubtedly referring to numerous condemnations by the UN General Assembly. They're not law. The British Mandate and UN Charter are law. You can argue that UN Security Council resolutions such as 242 have some legal value. The Camp David Accords and Israel's treaty with the PLO, namely the Olso Accords. Israel has been fastidious in respecting its obligations under international law.
The PLO, the PNA created by the treaty signed on the white house lawn and constituent bodies of the PLO such as Fatah and Hamas have yet to honor their most basic undertakings in the Oslo Accords. They have not prepared the Palestinian Arabs for peace, stopped the culture of hate, demonization of Jews and incitement to violence. They have not changed their textbooks or their charters to recognize the two-state solution Oslo was supposed to lead to.
Are you actually saying that Gilad Shalit is holding anyone captive? If you're referring to Arab terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails, they had due process of law, their day in court, and they are allowed visitors. That's much worse than how Gilad is being treated in lawless Hamastan.
Instead they walked away from the best deal they could ever hope to get—Bubba was desperate to have a legacy other than a stained, blue dress so he twisted Ehud Barak's arm pretty hard—without even making a counter-offer. That's when Arafat launched the Oslo Terror War, what some call the Second Intifada.
Speaking of blatant disregard of international law, Iran and Syria seem to have no problem blatantly flouting the the NPT they signed or arming Hezballah. And Hezbollah has totally ignored UNSCR 1701 which prohibits them from rearming and establishing military bases and infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, which they have totally overrun, in many cases displacing the former occupants, Lebanese Christians.