Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Avi Trengo thinks so: Another wasted crisis - Israel fails to utilize flotilla crisis in order to finally disengage from Gaza
The Israeli public increasingly recognizes that our interest is to disengage from Gaza, rather than control it. Five years after the disengagement, only the radical margins want to see some kind of link to the hostile territory: The far Right dreams of returning to Gush Katif, while the Left hopes to see Mahmoud Abbas sign a piece of paper that would end the Qassam attacks.
However, the Israeli government finds itself entangled in an imbroglio of contradictory interests: The combination of political interests, economic interests, and pressure that the public remains unaware of. Some of this information is published in the Arab press, however.
For example, Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hussam Zaki told newspaper al-Hayat that Israeli Minister Katz's statements on severing the transportation connection to Gaza are "completely unacceptable and expose Israel's negative intentions on the matter."
"The Official Israeli thinking aims to rid itself of the responsibility for the Gaza Strip and impose it on Egypt," he said. "We fully object to this." Meanwhile, Egypt's prime minister noted that the establishment of an independent entity in Gaza "will put an end to the Palestinian people's legitimate demands of Israel."...
Get it? Keeping Gaza engaged with Israel (dependent) is a way of keeping the pressure on. It's a way of using the (supposed) misery of the Gaza Arabs as another bludgeon against the "Zionists." So could Israel really simply block Gaza off -- close the crossings completely, stop transferring shekels, stick the whole thing on Egypt's shoulders? Sounds nice in theory? Is it practical?
Probably not. Egypt doesn't want it. The infrastructure is built for Gaza to get a large part of its electricity from Israel. The economy does rely on the shekel for solvency. And the international "community" (such as it is) would scream to high heaven, as well as a significant portion of the Israeli public. Nice idea. Doubt it would work.
posted in wrong thread
What I don't get is why Israel take upon itself the blame for this:
Israeli spokespeople make no mention of a well-known fact in the Arab world: Gaza is the world’s largest prison, but not because of Israel – but rather, because of the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow free exit via the Rafah Crossing. The crossing indeed opens for the sick and for students, yet the Egyptians continue to impose limits on the general Gaza population for fear that the border will be breached again.