Palestinians continuously under threat: Jerusalem and Gaza

The best one-stop shop for regularly updated information about the continual, multi-layered assaults that the Israeli government has been sustaining against the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Gaza, is undoubtedly the website of the UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in the OPTs.
From there today, you can access not only the very comprehensive “Protection of Civilians Weekly Report– the PDF of the latest edition is here— but also numerous other materials, including the more detailed (and also weekly) “Field updates on Gaza” and other resources like this very helpful map (PDF) of the area of Silwan, right near Jerusalem’s Old City where the authorities have issued demolition orders for 88 homes… or OCHA’s very handy map center.
I was in Bethlehem today. It was a horror story to get through the brutal concrete Wall as I went there from Jerusalem and back, but excellent to connect with a good friend there, nonviolence organizer Zoughbi Zoughbi, who took me to a number of really interesting and informative encounters in both Beit Laham and Beit Jala. (More, later.)
In both towns, just about all the shops were closed– except, by prior agreement, pharmacies– as the owners participated in the West Bank-wide commercial strike declared in solidarity with the threatened people of Jerusalem’s Silwan. I think the strike was observed throughout pretty much all of the West Bank. The front page of PNN right now has an interesting piece about it, which includes some very moving quotes from residents of the West Bank outside Jerusalem about the intensity of their feelings for the city and the depth of their sadness at being excluded from it.
The Fateh-dominated PLO and Hamas had both agreed to participate in calling for this strike, which perhaps can be seen as one first fruit of the reconciliation talks in Cairo.
OCHA’s latest “Protection of Civilians Weekly Report” (PDF) has a wealth of information about attacks on the rights of Palestinians in all the OPTs. On p.4 you can learn that during the whole week February 18-24 the Israelis allowed only 635 truckloads of goods in to supply the entire needs of the Strips’ 1.45 million people. The number of truckloads of goods that entered Gaza each day before Hamas won its victory in the parliamentary election of January 2006 was 750, which is the baseline defined for “normal” life since then. But the needs of Gaza’s people in the wake of the devastation caused by Israel’s military assault of December-January are certainly greater than “normal.” They desperately need cement, glass, rebar, and other basic materials required to reconstruct destroyed and damaged homes and infrastructure. They need more than 750 truckloads of goods to be entering each day… and they are in the lucky position of having friends and backers in the international community who are eager to help provide their needs. If only Israel, which is the military occupation power that controls all access points nto the Strip, would let the shipments in.
I have made a few attempts to ask humanitarian-aid people what the dreaded Israeli blacklist of foodstuffs that cannot be sent into Gaza contains. But they have stayed largely closed-lipped. The OCHA report says this:

    The Israeli criteria used for processing import requests into Gaza remain unclear. During the reporting period the Israeli authorities rejected entry to 30 metric tonnes of chickpeas, 43 pallets of macaroni, 137 pallets of wheat flour, 131 recreational kits, 68 pallets of stationary items for students, 150 school-in-a-box kits, 33 boxes of medicine, 22 freezer appliances, 3 generators, and 4 water pumps.

I think the lack of clarity referred to there is important, and most likely deliberate. The Israelis don’t want to be shamed by having their full list published; and the absence of a published list meanwhile means that any decisions made on any particular day can be capriciously taken, and will therefore keep the aid-providers and recipients in a constant state of uncertainty. This increases everyone’s frustration level! But what a couple of the aid coordinators told me was that the Israeli authorities described the bans on certain foodstuffs as being applied because these were deemed to be luxury” items. Chickpeas, macaroni, and wheat flour– luxuries?
And what twisted minds would ban recreational kits and school supplies? (Oh, I guess the same twisted minds that bombed a number of schools in the Strip and a good portion of Gaza Islamic University.)
John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have both reportedly expressed their “concern” about some of the items on the banned list.
God help the people of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank. And God help all of us whose governments are complicit in these savage and illegal acts.

36 thoughts on “Palestinians continuously under threat: Jerusalem and Gaza”

  1. A “climate of change” (Krugman) against “savage and illegal acts”(HRC)? No.
    NEW YORK, Feb. 27 — The Obama administration has said it will boycott a major U.N. conference on racism scheduled for April unless significant changes are made to the draft outcome document, which U.S. officials say unfairly singles out Israel for censure and could restrict freedom of speech. . .Samantha Power, a foreign policy adviser for the White House, briefed American Jewish organizations.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702826.html

  2. I have made a few attempts to ask humanitarian-aid people what the dreaded Israeli blacklist of foodstuffs that cannot be sent into Gaza contains. But they have stayed largely closed-lipped.
    Because they are complicit in Israel’s program of starvation for the people of Gaza.
    The Israeli criteria used for processing import requests into Gaza remain unclear. During the reporting period the Israeli authorities rejected entry to 30 metric tonnes of chickpeas, 43 pallets of macaroni, 137 pallets of wheat flour, 131 recreational kits, 68 pallets of stationary items for students, 150 school-in-a-box kits, 33 boxes of medicine, 22 freezer appliances, 3 generators, and 4 water pumps.
    I think the lack of clarity referred to there is important, and most likely deliberate.
    The examples make explicit what Israel is denying the Palestinians: food, medicine, educational materials, electrical power…
    God help the people of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank.
    Yeah.. it’s up to god now. We’ve all washed our hands of their fate.

  3. Yes, Egypt could if it were absolutely certain that its patron, the US, would allow it to. Interestingly the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access which regulates the opening of the crossings from israel into gaza was concluded only between Israel and the PA, with some help from Condi. Egypt was not a party to it. However, Mubarak’s government has been eager to keep alive the idea that Gaza is still under international law Israel’s responsibility, as occupying power. So even when the Rafah crossing was working for foot passengers only, Egypt was party to an agreement whereby Israel exercizes control over who enters and exits Gaza through Rafah– but exercized it indirectly, via video-monitors operated by an EU team sitting in the Rafah terminal. So yes, the EU was directly implicated and involved in that.

  4. Re. the meeting on racism: it’s important to read the document that Berman and the administration have been complaining so loudly about. They won’t tell you that Israel is not the only country singled out (and Israel is not singled out by name, btw), nor are the Palestinians the only oppressed population singled out (most notably, the Roma are singled out again and again and again. Why aren’t Berman et al. complaining about that?). Also, would you believe that anti-semitism is mentioned in the introduction as a special problem while anti-muslimism is not? One wouldn’t suspect that from the Propaganda. If anything, the State Department and Berman should be complaining about the lack of concern in the document re. anti-muslim bigotry.

  5. Thankyou, Helena, for providing the link
    http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_2009_02_24_english.pdf
    on UN reports that I didn’t know about at all.
    Their maps are superb, and scaled. Before this, I really had no idea just how small the Gaza Strip really is.
    I haven’t seen before, any maps of Silwan that told the full story.
    The Israelis have just unilaterally increased the ‘no-go’ area on the Palestinian side of their border from 300m to 1 km, which makes the concentration camp even smaller, and the daily killing zone much, much larger.
    see this:
    http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/of-knees-and-tranquility/
    Obviously, since the USA’s political classes are completely beholden to the Israeli Lobby, nothing much is going to happen.
    Perhaps, when the USA collapses into its own economic black hole, they’ll realise thay can’t afford to support a very tiny, but very nasty colonialist regime 7000 miles away.
    There are very many nasty and dark things happening around the world, but this is happening in full daylight.

  6. Quote: “God help the people of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank. And God help all of us whose governments are complicit in these savage and illegal acts.”
    Why not note that such actions are not occurring in a vacuum? Hamas, of course, holds an Israeli soldier outside of the purview of Red Cross scrutiny and Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel. Such are either excuses for Israel’s actions or, in fact, real reasons for Israel’s actions.
    Even if the Israelis are insincere on all counts, they have stated publicly and repeatedly that the deprivation of those in Gaza is tied directly to both Gilad Shalit – the soldier not given basic Red Cross access – and directly to the firing of rockets into Israel. Were such demands to be met by Hamas – and presumably they could be met -, Israel would have a lot of explaining to do not only to its own population but to its supporters, me included.
    The problem here is that the Hamas ideology is a central problem in the dispute. Discussing actions without direct reference to Hamas and its plans and proposals and actions is to misinterpret the dispute – whether the Israelis are acting in good faith or not. The same in reverse. To discuss the Arab side of the equation with no reference to the thought currents that push the Israeli side of the dispute is counterproductive and, in any event, uninformative.

  7. Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army
    In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldier
    confess the horror they have visited on Hebron

    By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
    Saturday, 19 April 2008

    The dark-haired 22-year-old in black T-shirt,blue jeans and red Crocs is understandably hesitant as he sits at a picnic table in the incongruous setting of a beauty spot somewhere in Israel. We know his name and if we used it he would face a criminal
    investigation and a probable prison sentence.The birds are singing as he describes in detail
    some of what he did and saw others do as an enlisted soldier in Hebron. And they are
    certainly criminal: the incidents in which Palestinian vehicles are stopped for no good
    reason, the windows smashed and the occupants beaten up for talking back – for
    saying, for example, they are on the way to hospital; the theft of tobacco from a Palestinian
    shopkeeper who is then beaten “to a pulp” when he complains; the throwing of stun grenades through
    the windows of mosques as people prayed. And worse.

    We still having N. here with his denial of injustice for Palestinians on their occupied land even comes from Israelis and by their own words from their own mouths.

  8. Salah,
    I do not deny that Israelis do bad things. My view is that both sides do bad things. My point is understand the dispute as it is, not as the morality play you see, with only one guilty side.
    And, by the way, walking into a religious school – in this case, Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva – and killing people randomly is a bad thing, Salah. Yet, it was celebrated by Palestinian Arabs as a good thing.

  9. Israel has also stated repeatedly and publicly that the deprivation of Gaza is tied to Hamas refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state, or Hamas’ refusal to end advocating a one-state solution.
    Before Shalit and before the rockets there was Israel’s publicly stated intention to punish the Palestinians for voting for a party that advocates a one-state solution by depriving them of anything more than what they consider emergency humanitarian supplies.
    Overall, the side that opposes a one-person one-vote solution of all concerned individuals is just wrong. Here that’s Israel.
    The party that would starve the other side for advocating a one-person one-vote solution is beyond wrong.
    A small portion of Israel’s 11,000 Palestinian prisoners and ending the siege gets the rockets stopped and Shalit released, as has been Hamas’ public position for years now. Or it can be done separately, end the siege stops the rockets and release a small number of prisoners releases the Hamas prisoner.
    This will not become a back and forth thing though.

  10. not as the morality play you see, with only one guilty side
    Ok I come to agree here but in same talkne you doing same thing while expressing your views in the case in regard of Holocaust Victimisim and Chosen people.
    Salah. Yet, it was celebrated by Palestinian Arabs as a good thing.
    N.
    Do you remember 2003, how Western and US TV stations all around showing live those bombes fallen on Iraq and Iraqis?
    I don’t know you personally but I fell you may did, as our neighbor from UK went on tripe to see here family in UK just before the bombing she came back telling me that she got very frustrated that on UK TV each time Tomahawk missiles launched there are breaking news and broadcast live those Tomahawks launching while people cheering that missile launch with all joy and happens…… but back on the ground inside Iraq we saw hell on earth in 1991 and more than hell in 2003 as if those bombs and weaponry just TV games playing no respect to humans lives on that land. …
    it was celebrated by US citizens and Westerners as a good thing
    So what you expected “WE” as Iraqis, what we think about you and you’re folks?
    So your allegations and words works on both side but do we all as Iraqi/Arab say all Americans Bad Gays… or all westerns Bad guys, of course not .
    So I believe you should speck politic more that hateful view in regards to Arab /Muslims and Islam religion.
    Btw, I see your comment link Hamas with Arab this just looks to me that you have things in you mind been hatful to Arab, even though most report link Hamas as Islamic front and with close ties to Iran (just of politic conveniences) so here Hams (That not means I agree or in full support to Hamas) represent Arab not Islamic world?
    Is so then you should your view fights all Muslim world not Just Arab isn’t N.?
    In the end Hamas was elected “democratically” without that you should respect people chose isn’t N.?

  11. From Democracy Now, January 14.
    “DR. MADS GILBERT: I will answer that, but I think it’s important to understand that the most devastating weapon they are currently using is actually the siege of Gaza, which has been on for eighteen months, which means a lot of starvation, lack of food, water, power supplies, medicines, napkins, anything that people need to live. So it’s one-and-a-half million people who basically is now without their absolutely necessary means for living their lives, and that is, of course, illegal.”
    ‘Napkins’, what did he mean by ‘napkins’? And if it means what it appears to mean, then about Israel nothing more needs to be said.

  12. Anonymous, I imagine Dr. Gilbert learned British-style English, in which case “napkins” is most likely what Americans would call diapers. (I have heard independently that the Israelis banned diapers.) In a hospital setting like the one he worked in in Shifa, disposable diapers and absorbency pads are an important aid to sanitation in often very infection-prone environments. He might also be referring to sanitary napkins for management of women’s menstruation. Either way, yes, it’s an outrage.
    N. Friedman, I don’t think anyone here denies that some Palestinians have done some things that have inflicted harm, including over the past six months a small number of deaths, on Israeli civilians. As I’ve written here numerous times, the death of any individual is a tragedy, regardless of ethnicity or creed. However, the harm that the duly elected government of Israel has been inflicting on the Palestinians of Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank, continuously for more than 40 years has been exponentially greater, in human terms; the level of harm being deliberately inflicted on the civilians of these areas has been escalated in recent years; it still continues today and is planned to continue. This is harm that is being deliberately inflicted on civilian populations and has the nature of collective punishment, the infliction of which on the population of occupied territories is specifically prohibited in the Fourth Geneva Convention (and is of course immoral under any moral code.)
    There is no ‘symmetry’, either in the power and status of the two sides to this conflict or in the amount of harm being suffered. It is this gross asymmetry– between a state/nation that has an army that is occupying the other nation’s lands, and that other nation that has neither a state nor a military-level army and is not occupying one iota of the other nation’s land– that international law and the activity of the international community must seek to mitigate and with all possible speed to end. By ‘end’, I mean Israel’s occupation of the WB&G must end, and the Palestinians must gain their independent state. Both sides should thereafter keep their levels of armament within limits either negotiated or imposed by the international community; and an accounting and compensation/restitution be made for all the harms of the past.

  13. In 2001, on an overnight ferry trip between two Philippine islands, I introduced myself to the only other ‘white man’ on the boat, an Israeli named Moshe, once a sniper with the IOF in both Lebanon and Hebron.
    He told me how, one evening, he was posted overlooking a public square in Hebron, and his squad saw a young boy carrying a large shopping bag full of round lumps, crossing the public open space in full view.
    He didn’t believe the boy was carrying anything harmful in such a public space, but was ordered to shoot him, regardless, which he did, with a single shot to the head.
    The bag was full of oranges. For his grandmother.
    To ‘stiffen his spine’ Moshe was detailed next day to take up his sniper’s position over the boy’s funeral.
    This guy was a toughie professional soldier, but he wept at this point, as he told me how he looked through his sniper-scope at the face of the boy’s grieving mother.
    There are thousands of such brutalised young Israeli conscripts, who’ve dropped out of Israel, and gone to places like Goa.

  14. Salah. Yet, it was celebrated by Palestinian Arabs as a good thing.
    N.
    These are celebrated Israeli kids for the war and killing of humans, wonder what israeli adult celebrated and cheering of wars…..
    Children Under Fire
    Palestinian children are back on the front lines, throwing rocks and bombs. Amnesty International asks: Who’s to blame?

    The media is awash in moral equivalence, thanks to Amnesty International’s new report: “Killing the Future: Children in the Line of Fire,” which details how children on both sides have been victims of recent Mideast violence.

  15. Richard, my sympathy for the “brutalized” Moshe and his ilk is less that zero. He could have said no. He chose to murder a child instead. He willfully murdered an innocent child. I was following orders is not a defense. He doesn’t deserve sympathy, he deserves to be put on trial for his crime.

  16. Helena,
    The issue in this dispute is not the damage done by the Israelis or by the Palestinian Arabs. The issues that matter are the political decisions made, most particularly political decisions made early on in the dispute which color how each side views the other.
    Not to dwell too much on history, but recall that the Palestinian Arab leadership, beginning in the 1930’s, adopted the policy of no compromises with religion used as a means to divide Muslims from Jews. The effectiveness of the effort to divide Arab from Jew was due, in my humble opinion, to deeply held prejudices about Jews that were exploited by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs.
    See, for example, the scholarship of Jeffrey Herf of the University of Maryland regarding the content of such broadcasts and how they were honed specifically towards exploiting prejudices about Jews, most particularly prejudices having their origins in specific Hadiths, as noted in a paper recently presented by him on the topic. During the 1930’s, the leadership, along with their allies in Germany, broadcast daily exhortations, based on specific Hadiths, that Jews are enemies of Allah and unworthy of life. Some of the things broadcast about Jews is in the Hamas Covenant.
    Unlike, from what I can discern, you, I take the Hamas Covenant seriously, most particularly because interviews of the group’s leaders – and, most particularly, the ideological leadership in the group – takes them seriously, repeating them and similar things when interviewed. Hamas, which is, at the moment, the dominant party among Palestinian Arabs, is a brick wall when it comes to creating a viable two state solution. The further it will go is a hudna – which is a non-starter for the Israelis or the West, both of whom want the dispute to be resolved, not merely for a truce.
    At this point, the noted attitude has been well understood by the Israelis who, in return, have voted in people who see no reason for ceding land to create a Palestinian Arab state. So, at present, there is no basis for any settlement on either side.
    You speak of the damage done by the Israelis over the last 40 years. There is certainly some truth to that. Some religious Jews certainly view places like Hebron as sacred and view the boundaries of Israel as sacred as well. Such loony tunes may well prevent any settlement from occurring.
    On the other hand, their view is not the position of traditional Judaism, as you certainly know. And Judaism, unlike Islam, has no teachings about Islam or Muslims – since Judaism’s texts were complete before Islam appeared on the scene. That, frankly, cannot be said about Islam, which has specific Hadith directed towards Jews and about Judaism, with Jews considered to have traits deemed eternal.
    Again, my view in this dispute is that there will be no settlement. In the end, there will be a state that is mostly Jewish with a small Arab minority or their will be an Arab state with no Jews – and, perhaps, only a small number of Christians. And, the driving force in this is religion, which is a deeply destructive force here because it attaches sacredness to who rules.

  17. And, the driving force in this is religion, which is a deeply destructive force here because it attaches sacredness to who rules.
    You are right to say that the deeply destructive force in the region is religion; it’s only not the religion you suggest. The destructive force is not Islam, but Judaism. Not Judaism as a religion, but Judaism as the defining characteristic of people who are considered by Israeli law as Jews and therefore considered potential citizens of Israel. Israel is an exclusive Jewish state, and that exclusivity is considered to be a core element of its statehood.
    In as far as Israel is a democracy (which it is certainly is for its Jewish citizens), it must, in order to survive as an exclusive Jewish state, either get rid of enough non-Jews to prevent a Jewish majority in Israel from becoming a minority, or create an Apartheids-state, in which non-Jews are segregated and excluded from political life (already partly realized in the West Bank). The third option would be to accept the impossibility of a democratic, exclusive Jewish state with a non-Jewish majority, and to give up the whole idea of an exclusive Jewish state (this is not even seen as an option by most Israeli’s).
    This is why for many Israeli’s the “Palestinians problem” first and foremost is a “demographic problem”; the problem of how to prevent the growing number of non-Jews from becoming a majority, which, after all, would mean the end of Israel as an exclusive, Jewish state. Israeli policy is, in the end, about how to prevent that from happening.
    As I say, the driving force behind all this is Judaism, not as a religion, but as the defining characteristic of Jewish citizens of Israel, and Israel’s insistence to be an exclusive Jewish state.
    The “deeply destructive force here” is not Islam.

  18. menno,
    It is true that Jews want a state for Jews, in the same way that the Germans and French want a state. That is certainly the case. But, you make too much of that. Palestinian Arabs largely want an all Arab state.
    Israel’s law allows immigration by non-Jews. However, there is automatic citizenship for people of Jewish background. France and Germany have laws of the same type, by the way, as do more than 20 nations. In the case of France, the basis is “French blood.”
    Which is to say, I think your analysis misses the point. All groups want to protect their own. That is compatible with democracy, since Germany and France are democracies. And, again, Germany and France favor those of German French background (unofficially, in the case of France, other than the country’s right of return law) and, as anyone non-German who has lived in Germany or France will tell you, that is not merely a relic. It is an essential feature of any country based on ethnicity. And, that is the case, also, in the Middle East and not just for Jews.
    In the case of Jordan, anyone, except (according to the statute) a “Jew,” can theoretically immigrate to the country. That is a lot worse than Israel’s law, which merely favors Jews while allowing immigration by non-Jews.

  19. Israel is an exclusive Jewish state
    How do you get this? Non-Jews can become naturalized Israelis, more easily than in many European countries. as in these European states (Germany, eg which allows some ethnic Turks to become naturalized but grants priority to ethnic Germans) naturalized Israelis are completely equal under the law.

  20. Im sure if Egypt wanted to let macaroni and lentils thru the Rafah checkpoint, the US wouldnt do anything about it. Why doesnt Egypt let humanitarian aid thru? It would be at worst a good PR gesture for Egypt

  21. Some religious Jews certainly view places like Hebron as sacred and view the boundaries of Israel as sacred as well.
    Where are real Israeil Boundries?
    Israeil the only state in this world have no boundries and bordres, even in the teaching books for her schooles ther are no difent boundries….
    This is just snother rant N.

    Education Minister Yuli Tamir’s instruction that all maps in new editions of Israeli textbooks show the Green Line. Tamir says we cannot demand that our Arab neighbors note the 1967 borders when our education system has erased them from textbooks and student awareness.

    “This is not a political issue, but rather an educational one,” Tamir said Tuesday. “We teach, for instance, about United Nations Resolution 242, but we don’t show students the Green Line. We cannot deny that there used to be a border that is still being debated today.” Tamir defended the decision as the only way to teach students the basis of the region’s politics.

    blockquote>Meanwhile, an organization of right-wing rabbis on Tuesday issued a Halakhic decree forbidding students from using schoolbooks featuring maps of Israel which include the pre-1967 Green Line border, Israel Radio reported.

  22. Salah,
    What do your arguments have remotely to do with what I wrote? And, Israel is not the only country with a disputed boundaries. And, the Green Line was an Armistice line, not a national boundary. It might have become a boundary if the Arab side had not refused to negotiate an end to the 1948 war.

  23. It is true that Jews want a state for Jews, in the same way that the Germans and French want a state.
    Yes, everyone wants a state for him/herself, so what am I talking about?
    The French want a state for the French, the Germans want a state for the Germans, the Christians want a state for the Christians, the Jews want a state for the Jews, and it’s likely that foxes, cats and hedgehogs want a state for themselves as well, if anyone would care to ask them. Since all want a state, and all want to protect their own, and all favor people of their own background, all states are the same, because if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck, as the saying goes, and the earth is still, whether you like it or not, as flat as a pancake.
    And, N. Friedman, if you wonder what these words have to do with what you wrote: I’m not completely sure myself, but in any case more than your words had to do with what I wrote.

  24. Menno,
    You contention was to blame Israel because Judaism is the defining characteristic of people who are considered by Israeli law as Jews and therefore considered potential citizens of Israel.
    That view, I pointed out, has no basis in fact. There are non-Jewish citizens of the state. There are non-Jewish members of the Israeli Knessent (i.e. parliament). There are non-Jewish members of the Israeli High Court. There are non-Jewish Israeli ambassadors. There have been non-Jewish members of the country’s governing cabinet.

  25. How disingenuous of you, N. Israel does not have “a disputed boundary”. Israel has, throughout its existence as a state, declined to declare its borders. Ben Gurion was not shy about his reasons for refusing to declare borders in 1948 and beyond, so why should you be?

  26. Shirin,
    Boundaries are not unitary things. So, what you write is an irrelevancy.
    The fact is that Israel has agreed upon boundaries with Egypt and with Jordan. They are set by treaty. There is a boundary, of sorts, with Lebanon but none with Syria.
    I would hope that you recall that ben Gurion has not set Israel’s policy for a very long time. And, he was not opposed to boundaries. He just was not set upon one at a time when having a set boundary made no difference anyway – since Israel’s enemies accepted Israel within no boundary.

  27. Ye more disengenuousness from you, I see, N.
    Just exactly whom, other than yourself, do you think you are fooling?

  28. What are the borders of Iran-do they include Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza? Why does Iran feel it necessary to blow up the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires?
    Long live Baluchistan, Kurdistan, Ahwastan and Greater Azerbaijan!!!!!!!!

  29. To the commenter formerly known as Michael Furry, and Constantine Gbao,
    As I am sure you know the only real evidence in the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires is that the entire matter was handled in a most suspiciously corrupt manner, and that the charges against Iran were trumped up.

  30. I am not Constatine Gbao, and I dont know who is Michael Furry. However, I find it interesting that Iran is using the Palestinian cause to divert attention from 1) Its nuclear program, and 2) Its treatment of minorities. Iran’s biggest nightmare is ethnic disintegration, and the more it plays proxy warfare in Lebanon, Syria,Iraq, Gaza, and Argentina, the more susceptible it comes to being on the receiving end of proxy warfare.
    Saudis invite fugitive wanted by Interpol for Argentina bombing
    LONDON — Saudi Arabia has invited a former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, wanted for the bombings in Argentina in the 1990s, to an Islamic conference.
    Mohsen Rezai, IRGC chief until 1995 and sought by Interpol, was invited to an Islamic conference hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. Rezai has been wanted by Argentina in connection with the 1994 suicide bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed, Middle East Newsline reported.
    In March 2007, Interpol placed Rezai on its “Red notice” list, which urges members to arrest the former IRGC chief for possible extradition to Argentina. Saudi Arabia has been a member of Interpol. A red notice, however, is not an international arrest warrant

  31. Interesting, since you seem to have a similar style and similar types of obsessions.
    As for your rubbish about Iran being the instigator in Palestine, I don’t have time for that, nor do I think it is necessary to go over it here given the high level of knowledge and understanding of the people here.
    And being “wanted” for something is not evidence of guilt. The evidence that Iran was involved in that bombing does not even qualify as thin.

  32. As for your rubbish about Iran being the instigator in Palestine, I don’t have time for that, nor do I think it is necessary to go over it here given the high level of knowledge and understanding of the people here….good try, but we all know that Iran is a major source of instability. Even the Saudis are afraid of a nuclear Iran
    If Mohsen Rezai is really innocent of any wrongdoing, why doesnt he turn himself in and let a jury determine his innocence? Many sources know that the blasts in Buenos Aires were Iranian payback for Syrian born Argentine president Carlos Menem reneging on shipping uranium to Iran

  33. Iran must stop interfering in Palestinian affairs, president Mahmud Abbas said on Wednesday after talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
    “We are sending a message to the Iranians and others – stop interfering in our affairs,” he said. “They are interfering only to deepen the rift between Palestinians.” Abbas spoke on the same day that Iran’s
    Jerusalem hopes to see the Obama administration lead efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms, that’s the key message Israel’s leadership wants to see visiting US secretary of state take home
    supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for world Muslims to join the Palestinian “resistance” against Israel at the start of a two-day summit in support of Hamas-run Gaza.
    “The only way to save Palestine is resistance,” Khamenei said in his address to open the global summit Tehran organised in aid of Gaza and the Palestinians.
    “Support and help to Palestinians is a mandatory duty of all Muslims. I now tell all Muslim brothers and sisters to join forces and break the immunity of the Zionist criminals,” Khamenei said.
    The Islamic Republic is an enthusiastic supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement that has ruled Gaza since June 2007, when it booted forces loyal to the Western-backed Abbas out of the coastal strip.

  34. Thanks, N. Friedman/Michael Furry/Constantine Gbao/Elvis Baldwell, for making that point. What many sources also “know” that the world is flat, humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth together (The Flintstones as a documentary theology), and that George W. Bush was a great President, too.
    And no we don’t “all know” that Iran is a source of instability. In fact, what many of us know is something quite different.
    Why are you wasting your time here, N. Friedman/Michael Furry/Constantine Gbao/Elvis Baldwell?

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