Top Ten reasons for Lifting the Blockade of Gaza

[Ban Hammer 12,876]

this is such garbage and you know it if you've been following this at all.

an army as large as israel's (funded by the USA) cant defeat these people because they have right on their side. thats what you do, fight back when attacked, no matter how big the enemy.

so if they can't be beaten, they must be right?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I agree if their leaders cease being terrorists end the blockade till that happens the pain of the innocent palistinians is self inflicted.

[The_Dude 1,142]

this is such garbage and you know it if you've been following this at all.

an army as large as israel's (funded by the USA) cant defeat these people because they have right on their side. thats what you do, fight back when attacked, no matter how big the enemy.

Thats quite a statement. If Isarael really wanted to fight a war against Palestine, they could wipe them off the face of the earth 100 times over. The israeli army isn't just well funded, they are well trained in a litany of specialties. This would all be relavent if they were fighting a traditional war.

[nab 74]

so if they can't be beaten, they must be right?

no, meaning they will fight to the death against unfairness and after them more will come. there will never be complete defeat. when people know they are right they will fight.

[The_Dude 1,142]

no, meaning they will fight to the death against unfairness and after them more will come. there will never be complete defeat. when people know they are right they will fight.

So you're supporting the extremist point of view that there needs to be some sort of be all, end all war, last man standing gets to live there? That's bullsh!t. Israel should just relinquish administrative powers to the UN, build their wall, and go back to living their lives.

[Ban Hammer 12,876]

no, meaning they will fight to the death against unfairness and after them more will come. there will never be complete defeat. when people know they are right they will fight.

my rule list must be different, because when a person is dead, that's a good indicator they lost.

[nab 74]

Thats quite a statement. If Isarael really wanted to fight a war against Palestine, they could wipe them off the face of the earth 100 times over. The israeli army isn't just well funded, they are well trained in a litany of specialties. This would all be relavent if they were fighting a traditional war.

correct. it is not a traditional war.

So you're supporting the extremist point of view that there needs to be some sort of be all, end all war, last man standing gets to live there? That's bullsh!t. Israel should just relinquish administrative powers to the UN, build their wall, and go back to living their lives.

where the F*are you reading that?

[The_Dude 1,142]

where the F*are you reading that?

It seemed quite clearly implied here.

this is such garbage and you know it if you've been following this at all.

an army as large as israel's (funded by the USA) cant defeat these people because they have right on their side. thats what you do, fight back when attacked, no matter how big the enemy.

Btw, thats not garbage. Nobody is going to deal with Palestine seriously until they get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah from their ranks.

[lostinblue 1,989]

What happened to the 100s of millions of dollars that Arafat embezzled? Any success in getting some of that money back to feed the children？

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The situation is Gaza is a travesty.

Did your "trustworthy friend" also tell you that Hamas steals food intended for its citizens, or refuses to accept aid for its citizens altogether?

"In a statement, UNRWA said 10 truckloads of flour and rice that had been delivered into Gaza on Thursday were taken away by trucks affiliated with the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. Earlier this week, Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents."

""Hamas policemen stormed into an aid warehouse in Gaza City Tuesday evening and confiscated 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels ready for distribution to 500 families," said UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness on Wednesday.

"They were armed, they seized this, they took it by force," Gunness said, terming the incident absolutely unacceptable."

reported here, 2009: http://www.haaretz.com/news/un-hamas-meet-to-discuss-stolen-gaza-aid-1.269602

Also, Egypt blockades Gaza too.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Harpa Timsah

[nab 74]

The situation is Gaza is a travesty.

Did your "trustworthy friend" also tell you that Hamas steals food intended for its citizens, or refuses to accept aid for its citizens altogether?

"In a statement, UNRWA said 10 truckloads of flour and rice that had been delivered into Gaza on Thursday were taken away by trucks affiliated with the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. Earlier this week, Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents."

""Hamas policemen stormed into an aid warehouse in Gaza City Tuesday evening and confiscated 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels ready for distribution to 500 families," said UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness on Wednesday.

"They were armed, they seized this, they took it by force," Gunness said, terming the incident absolutely unacceptable."

reported here, 2009: http://www.haaretz.c...za-aid-1.269602

Also, Egypt blockades Gaza too.

on your website (haaretz.com from about 1.5yrs ago) there is conflict of info :

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would continue to distribute aid from its existing supplies in Gaza, but that stocks were running thin.

"There is enough aid for days, not weeks," he said. Complicating the situation, he said the agency has not been able to import plastic bags used for food distribution, and that existing supplies will run out early next week.

yet they explained the reason for these aid supplies being stored where they should not be as:

Hamas supports UNRWA's work, but believes that some of the agency's employees were giving aid to groups attached to rival political parties. "We as Hamas refuse all use of the people's needs for political ends," he said. "He called on UNRWA to put an end to using aid for political means, and to distribute it to all the needy equally." UN officials said the aid was kept in a local storage facility because the organization's regular warehouses were full.

spreading misinformation doesnt change reality.

there is much aid supplies sitting and waiting to be distributed (from what little is getting in there in the first place!), and it still is not getting distributed. that is bad enough but when it is being hidden from the people it was meant for or given to the enemy then i dont blame them for getting fed up and taking it.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Let me get this straight, Hamas are not jackholes?

[Pooky 3,365]

on your website (haaretz.com from about 1.5yrs ago) there is conflict of info :

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency would continue to distribute aid from its existing supplies in Gaza, but that stocks were running thin.

"There is enough aid for days, not weeks," he said. Complicating the situation, he said the agency has not been able to import plastic bags used for food distribution, and that existing supplies will run out early next week.

yet they explained the reason for these aid supplies being stored where they should not be as:

Hamas supports UNRWA's work, but believes that some of the agency's employees were giving aid to groups attached to rival political parties. "We as Hamas refuse all use of the people's needs for political ends," he said. "He called on UNRWA to put an end to using aid for political means, and to distribute it to all the needy equally." UN officials said the aid was kept in a local storage facility because the organization's regular warehouses were full.

spreading misinformation doesnt change reality.

there is much aid supplies sitting and waiting to be distributed (from what little is getting in there in the first place!), and it still is not getting distributed. that is bad enough but when it is being hidden from the people it was meant for or given to the enemy then i dont blame them for getting fed up and taking it.

So you believe what you want to believe and all else is misinformation?

Try again once you reconnect with actual reality and not the one-sided version you seem to adhere to.

[scandal 951]

an army as large as israel's (funded by the USA) cant defeat these people because they have right on their side. thats what you do, fight back when attacked, no matter how big the enemy.

I think there is truth in what you say. The Palestinian people do have a certain right on their side. I believe they do have a right to self-determination, to their own national government within contiguous borders, to sovereignty, to the national aspirations of an independent people, to being an equal participant among the community of nations. I have no problem stating these things or believing that the Palestinian people should be granted these things. I also think that many Israelis agree with these things and would support these things in a comprehensive settlement that guaranteed the legitimate rights of all stakeholders.

I also think it's in Israel's best interests as a moral nation concerned with humanitarian values to ease the blockade of Gaza. I think that a blockade restricting food, medicine and the basics of civilian life are a very bad idea -- for Israel as well as for Gazans. In Israel, I have voted for and continue to support political parties on the Left who are in favor of easing the blockade and the restrictions on Palestinians in the territories.

Let me ask you though, how about you? Do you believe in the inherent and eternal right of Israelis to a state of their own in the historical homeland of the Jewish people? Do you support Israel's right to self determination within contiguous defensible borders? To sovereignty, to being the refuge of the Jewish people after 2000 years of Diaspora, and to being an equal participant among the community of nations?

If you do, then I believe people like you and me are the way forward. We are the sort of people who can look past the differences and look towards the necessary compromises and common ground on the hard issues: the settlements, East Jerusalem, the right of return, the final border demarcations. I think that compromise can be achieved if there are people on both sides who want it.

I know fully well that there are those in Israel who have stopped searching for it or believing in it, but I also know that they remain a minority and they voice their opposition through a political process and not through terror attacks. If a credible and defensible land-for-peace two-state solution is presented to Israelis, I have no doubt it will be supported.

I also know that there are courageous Palestinians still seeking a solution, and that there are many who reject the very notion of any form of Israel in any piece of the land, anywhere anyhow. These latter will be satisfied with nothing less than a Palestinian nation in the original British Mandate territory with no remnant of Israel left. Many in that camp actively support Hamas and voted for Hamas in the 2006 election which led it to power in Gaza. Many support, abet terror attacks against Israeli civilians, and some actively participate in such attacks. What I am still waiting for, and have been since Camp David, and since Oslo, is a sign that the Palestinian people at large, a clear and obvious majority of them, understand and accept that Israel is a permanent presence in the region, a legitimate presence. Then and only then are we going to find a way forward. Do you accept Israel's legitimate right of self determination in its historic homeland? It's really a very simple yes or no question, yet it's surprising how supporters of the Palestinian cause who demand recognition of their own seem very cagey when asked to give it to Israel.

Let me ask you a question that I never get a satisfactory answer to whenever I pose it to those who strongly support a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and accuse Israel of being the force that prevents it. You do realize that the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem were under Arab control for 19 years 1948-1967, right? The West Bank under Jordanian control, Gaza under Egyptian control. Why was a Palestinian state not established then in precisely the territories that today Israel is accused of preventing their self-determination? How do you reconcile your view that if only Israel conceded to a Palestinian state in the territories it would exist, yet for 19 years when the power to create that state was in Arab hands, they failed to do so?

I would be glad to hear your views on that, here are mine.

At any point during those 19 years, an independent state of Palestine could have been established, and there would be nothing Israel could have said or done about it. There was ONE and only ONE reason that did not occur: every Arab in the region, Palestinian and otherwise, saw Israel (in its pre-67 borders) as anathema, as a temporary aberration, to be expunged as they tried to do in 1948, in 1967, and in 1973. The goal then was explicitly and overtly to have a nation of Palestine from the Sea to the River, not a two-state solution. The stated goal today of the moderates is a two-state solution, that's fine. But the extremists of today who do not recognize Israel's right to exist and call for its destruction are actually saying what ALL Arabs were saying up until Anwar Sadat broke with them in 1977 and came to Jerusalem. Israelis want to believe that this time you're singing a different tune, but unfortunately we've heard the same one way too many times now.

Convince me that this time is different, and I'll gladly believe.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Both are a pain in the #######. The Palestinians have a bunch of rocket launching religious wing nuts shaking down their own people when their not too busy firing rockets into Israel and killing civilians..., and on the other side you have Israel who harbors criminal Jewish Bolshevik genocidal murdering butchers from Russia and Eastern Europe, not to mention Jewish Russian mafia white slave traders.