Palestine – Between A Rock And A Hard Place
The ruthless hypocrisy of the ‘international community’ with regard to the welfare of the Palestinian people was epitomised in the events of the last week.
The European Union and the USA are simultaneously making unreasonable demands of the democratically elected Hamas government while conniving at the violence and deprivation being heaped daily on the population of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
On Friday last, the Gaza Generating Company, which powers 25 per cent of the occupied region, cut power to nearly half of Gaza’s residents after Israel closed the Nahal Oz fuel crossing.
On Sunday it was forced to shut down the last of its four generators after its fuel reserves finally ran out - extending the suffering even further. The European Union has refused to pay for the re-supply of fuel, claiming it was reviewing its already inadequate aid program but refusing to elaborate further on the reason for plunging Gaza into darkness.
The power cut is one prong of an international offensive against Hamas, and the Palestinian people in general, which appears to be intensifying. On Thursday (August 16), the US government signed a new deal with Israel to provide the apartheid state with $30 billion (£14.8/22.2 billion euro) worth of military supplies over the next 10 years. The new military aid package represents a 25 per cent increase from present levels.
The Israeli armed forces have used the US’s military hardware to lethal effect in its many wars against the people of the Arab World – thousands of their cluster bombs still litter the fields of southern Lebanon following Israel’s unsuccessful war against Hezbollah last year.
US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who signed the deal with Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Aharon Abramovitz, said, without any apparent sense of irony, that the aid was “an investment in peace” and that “peace cannot be made without strength.”
He continued: “Needless to say, given Israel’s predicament, living in a region that is very violent and unstable, its military edge is of interest to our country, and we’ve committed to that.”
The deal is subject to US congressional approval, which it is expected to attain with little or no opposition.
Bombed out vehicle in Gaza.
Also in the US, leading republican presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani has expressed his opposition to the formation of a viable Palestinian state with the slur that it would be a ‘terrorist entity’.
“It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism,” the archconservative said.
Guiliani has a long history of animosity towards the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. When he was mayor of New York, the presidential hopeful barred the now deceased Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat from any council-sponsored events marking the 50th anniversary of the formation of the UN.
While the great and the good were waxing lyrical (and acting ruthlessly) about the need for the government of the Palestinian people to jump through their diplomatic hoops, the internationally recognised Israeli government continued to rain death on some of the poorest people in the world.
On Friday (August 17) six people, including a 60-year-old woman, were killed in a series of air strikes on the Gaza Strip. 26 people were also injured in the attacks, while 100 people were later taken captive by the Israeli army in a ground incursion.
On Tuesday the killing continued – two children and six members of Hamas were reported killed in Israeli attacks on northern and central Gaza.
The term ‘between a rock and a hard place’ never seemed more appropriate. On one side, the Palestinians are subjected to the self-righteous pronouncements of ‘western’ politicians and their reviews of whether they are entitled to electricity and the other essentials of life.
On the other, they are forced to dodge the US made bombs of a government who are in contravention of dozens of international resolutions.