Reflecting on the Crisis in Gaza
by Heidi Basch
If you've been following the news reported from Israel in the past two weeks, aside from the now-released Winograd Report determining the culpability for the Israeli Defense Forces’ failure in the Second Lebanon War of Summer 2006, the biggest story is the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
This week, Israel finally went through with its threat to drastically reduce fuel supplies in response to ongoing rocket attacks on Sderot, sending most of Gaza into an electricity emergency in which hospitals had to close down most wards save for intensive care.
Again, coming to the rescue of the people, Hamas blasted several holes in the border wall separating Gaza and Egypt, allowing a reported 500,000 Gazans to pour into Egypt in search of basic items, like food, drinking water, and cigarettes (for resale).
A border was blasted, and partially obliterated between the country of Egypt and the Gaza Strip. How interesting.
Mark Palmer, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary when Communism collapsed, wrote a book in 2005, Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators. In his book, and in his speaking appearance to my colleagues at the New England College in the Winter of 2006, Palmer claimed that to overthrow any regime, any dictator, or simply to cause the change desired, half a million people need to hit the streets and maximize the media's coverage of the event.
A group of human beings of that size simply can't go unnoticed or unaddressed if the world is watching.
Considering the aftermath of the blast of the Egypt-Gaza border wall, I'm thinking his hypothesis is exciting but hardly accurate. In Gaza, I'm pretty sure not a whole heck of a lot has changed.
Today, Israel's Supreme Court rejected an appeal made by the Israeli peace movement to lift restrictions on Gaza that are causing undue harm to civilians. And, moreover, the Court declared that according to the evidence presented, Israel is acting only on behalf of its defense from a militant force in Gaza that is purposefully targeting innocent Israelis, and that Israel may continue to cut fuel supplies as it sees needed so as to eliminate this threat to security.
What else? Israel isn't going to fix the blasted wall because, officially, it no longer occupies Gaza, but it appears that the Egyptians aren't in any particular rush to patch the holes. President Hosni Mubarak knows that if he hurts the Palestinians or makes a move that could upset the opposition forces in his own country led by the Muslim Brotherhood, he may be faced by more than a half a million citizens only too ready to kick him out of his post by force. In this case, possibly Mr. Palmer's formula may prove successful. It hasn't happened yet (emphasis on the yet), so we can't make any conclusions at this point in time.
Returning to the topic of the Gazans and their success in gathering Mr. Palmer’s critical mass number for change, in fact, slowly, they will no longer be able to visit the promised land of water and food, Egypt. The Egyptian government is forcing the small towns near the border to shut their shops and demanding that owners not resupply to meet the needs of the day-travelers from the Strip.
Fascinating, that the Palestinian historical narrative will one day recall this event as something of a miraculous incident in which the fighters of Hamas managed to overcome the obstacles to survival, allowing the people of Palestine to be saved from starvation, as they fled into the land of Egypt-- as opposed to from the land of Egypt.
Meanwhile, Israel's worst nightmare is coming true as tens upon tens of Palestinians are going from Gaza to Egypt and back with weapons that they usually have to transport in underground tunnels. How convenient.
Just Saturday, Egyptian forces intercepted 20 Palestinian men trying to enter Israel through the Sinai. They were carrying explosive devices for use in suicide bombings.
Still, I'm wondering if Hamas set a precedent this week for all the struggling peoples of the world. If you've got the explosives, you can explode your way into a better life, or at least some relief for the time being. Is world order or the semblance of it that we have today really so precarious?
Could I do something like that? Get the explosive power to enable 500,000 people or more somewhere to acquire the basic needs that I need only a few Israeli shekels and my two legs to walk me to the store to get?
Winograd Report http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html?th&emc=th
500,000 Gazans http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1201465090913
Israel’s Supreme Court
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/middleeast/31gaza.html?ref=world
Muslim Brotherhood
http://i-cias.com/e.o/mus_br_egypt.htm
20 Palestinian Men
http://www.infolive.tv/en/infolive.tv-17035-israelnews-egyptian-security-forces-nab-20-armed-palestinians-explosives-sinai
