ISRAEL WILL STOP "VIOLENT" AID
FLOTILLA
By Rev. Ted Pike
30 May 10
A flotilla of ten ships is bringing 10,000 tons of supplies to
the people of Gaza. Scheduled to arrive Sunday, the relief vessels
bristle with dozens of parliamentarians and public officials among
the 800 passengers from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden and Ireland.
They are determined to break Israel's oppressive sea embargo and land their supplies
at Gaza.
Israel has said that if they come to Ashdod
(south of Gaza), Israel will distribute the relief in Gaza. But these
floating good Samaritans are resolved to end the embargo and help
bring freedom the Gazans. Israel says it will use "limited" force
to keep them from doing so.
Hamas
police ahead of the arrival of an aid flotilla. (Photo by: AP)
Israel 's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says, "The aid
convoy is violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow
its sovereignty to be threatened in any way, in any place - land, air,
or sea. There is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. Despite
Hamas' war crimes against Israeli citizens and the thousands of rockets
fired at Israel's towns, Israel continues to respond in the most humane
way possible."
In 1948, terror forces of the emergent state of Israel violently
drove 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and businesses into shantytown
concentration camps in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. (See, Israel's
Founding: Miracle or Land Grab?) They did this to frustrate imminent
implementation of the United Nations’ plan
to partition Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states. Since then,
Israel's policy has been to keep the descendants of such supremely
wronged and disenfranchised refugees in poverty so they can never ascend
to the autonomy promised by the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the
United Nations more than 60 years ago.
The refugees in Gaza have been particularly defiant. They have launched
repeated intifadas. As punishment, Gaza has been under economic blockade
for the past four years. Since Israel's 2008 invasion, Israel has persevered
in keeping the people of Gaza under harsh military, economic, and human
rights restrictions.
Israel argues that if it allows Gazans to become economically prosperous
and politically ambitious, they will elevate Hamas to lead a Palestinian
micro-state within the Jewish state - one run by "terrorists" (i.e.
those who demand that Israel return the ancestral lands it stole from
their grandparents in 1948). Thus Israel continues its hard line policy
of keeping the people of Gaza existing under the misery of third-world
poverty - while it flourishes as an economic leader and high-tech innovator.
Increasingly, however, the conscience of the world is erupting against
Israel's incarceration of 1.5 million Gazans, who are inmates in the
world's largest prison. Israel 's free-speaking
newspaper, Haaretz, confirms
that Israel may be damaging itself more than the Gazans:
'Ships adorned with banners and Palestinian flags in support of
Gaza Strip residents, laden with consumer goods for a population
that has been under siege for about four years, are threatening Israel.
The Israeli government's response and its preparations to block the "peace
flotilla" give the impression that Israel, not Gaza, is under
a brutal siege. Israel is finding it increasingly difficult to
explain the rationale behind the blockade to the rest of the world….
Moreover, the suffering that Israel was causing 1.5 million people
for this purpose is not only inhuman, but extremely detrimental
to Israel's status around the world….Israeli goods are being
boycotted while world public opinion no longer accepts the siege.
A number of people, including diplomats and public figures, taking
part in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, clearly shows that. Israel
argues that there is no hunger in Gaza and that vital products
enter the Strip regularly. Israel even said it was prepared to
deliver the boat's content to the Gaza Strip…. If so, this
indicates that Israel is not opposed to the aid itself, but to
the demonstration of support for Gaza's people. However, this show
of support could have been prevented from the outset had Israel
lifted the pointless blockade and allowed Gazans to live normal
lives.' ("A Blockade on Israel," May 28, 2010)
Polls in Israel show continued overwhelming support for the blockade
of Gaza. The flotilla is a rebuke to the callousness of Israel and
its citizens. The very fact that such a multi-national effort is necessary
and the government of Israel portrays this mercy mission as "violent" should
tell us something about the heartlessness of a regime which the American
government —and
most American Christians—dutifully support.
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog organization.
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