So much for the Wikileaks conspiracy theory
You will recall that there are people out there who believe that Israel is behind the Wikileaks document dump because Israel has thus far escaped pretty much unscathed. This story might disprove that theory. The story - admittedly an evaluation by an American embassy employee of what he claims he is being told by Israel - says that Israel has tried to keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse." "As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to (U.S. embassy economic officers) on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge," one of the cables read.Given the 8,000 rockets that have been fired at Israel from Gaza, I don't see anything wrong with that strategy. Of course, unfortunately, we have not followed it, and weren't following it when the Mavi Marmara incident took place either.
Israel wanted the coastal territory's economy "functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis", according to the Nov. 3, 2008 cable.
In a speech in January 2008, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to spell out that policy, which has since been eased in the wake of an international outcry over a deadly Israeli raid last May on a Turkish aid ship trying to break the blockade.
"We will not harm the supply of food for children, medicine for those who need it and fuel for institutions that save lives," Olmert said at the time.
"But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards (at southern Israel)," he added.
Labels: Gaza plenty, Kassam, Wikileaks
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:15 AM
2 Comments:
The West pressured Israel to toss Hamas, against its better judgment, a lifeline. The Hamas regime will be able to stay in power for decades, persecute and kill its opponents and wage jihad against Israel.
But the fierce moral urgency to do something about Israel's half-hearted blockade of Gaza was more important than ousting a regime that blocks the very peace the West would like to see emerge in that part of the world.
What could go wrong indeed
Israeli politicians across the board for beter or worse are risk averse to the effort and consequences required to retake Gaza and proscribe Hamas--the military mission minimized pre-pullout.
imo, yeah, Western diplomacy by inertia will continue to work with these oligarchical tyrannies (with mass bases to whatever degree) as they pop up. Europe did all it could to avoid confronting National Socialist imperialism, and then collapsed. Who knows what the US would have done even after Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 of its day, if Hitler hadn't gone ahead and declared war against the US on his own.
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