After the news hit Israel that commandoes stormed the aid flotillas and seized control, Israeli civilians threw impromptu celebrations. They waved Israeli flags and honked their car horns. Later, official parades and demonstrations by grade school kids filled the streets, extolling the heroism of the commandoes who stopped relief aid from entering Gaza.
We sound just like Israel. Henry Siegman, in Haaretz, says he called a lifelong friend in Israel after the flotilla attack. He wanted to know the mood of the country. Knowing that his friend was an Israeli right-winger, Siegman says he was still unprepared for his response. The friend said, "in a voice trembling with emotion," that the world's condemnation of Israel was just like the days of Hitler. Siegman was shocked because he, like most of the world, recognizes the tremendous evil and injustice being perpetrated by Israel. To those inside Israel, however-like those inside the American pro-Zionist camp-the truth seems nowhere to exist!
"A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians," Siegman writes, seeming astonished. "Fully 80% of Gaza's population lives on the edge of malnutrition, depending on international charities for their daily nourishment. According to the UN and World Health authorities, Gaza's children suffer from dramatically increased morbidity that will affect and shorten the lives of many of them. This obscenity is a consequence of a deliberate and carefully calculated Israeli policy aimed at de-developing Gaza by destroying not only its economy but its physical and social infrastructure while sealing it hermitically from the outside world."
Israel reoccupied Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 war and has remained in power there ever since. The UK Mirror calls it "one of the most desperate places on earth." Lack of medical supplies and training keep Gazans in crisis. The Mirror's June news story tells of a woman whose newborn died because she couldn't reach the Israeli hospital-one hour away. "Gazans must pay extortionate rates to buy essential items like lightbulbs, kettles and tea, which are smuggled from Egypt at extortionate prices. Around 300 tunnels have been dug from Egypt into Gaza to do this." Egypt is currently building a steel underground wall to prevent even this exploitative relief.
Americans moan about "The Great Recession" with national unemployment at less than 10 percent. Gazans would shake their heads at us. Their unemployment rate is at least 45 percent."Hundreds of Gazans have not been able to rebuild homes destroyed in the invasion as they cannot obtain the building materials, and children are forced to attend school in shifts. Farmers are unable to plough their lands and fishermen are restricted to a tiny area now empty of fish. And much of Gaza's sewage is pumped into the sea because sanitation facilities are poor."
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Harmony Daws is a staff writer and researcher for the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.
http://www.rense.com/general91/gaza.htm
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