World Jewry felt the sting of condemnation and abandonment recently when the U.S. State Dept, U.N. heads and Human Rights commissioners all made statements that Israel’s response to the 3,500 rockets into their country was shocking, apalling, disgraceful and criminal. The Israeli position was being reiterated over and over again “what is Israel to do in the face of deliberately placed human shields?” Radio host and Fox news commentator,Geraldo Rivera, who reminds us constantly of his Jewishness keeps reacting to the propaganda video of Palestinian children being killed while still not answering the question of Israel’s options. Our ‘dear’ former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton gives context to the reality of civilians near rocket launching sites, explaining that Gaza is a very small place! And of course concomitant with that ridiculous analysis is the implied message that Hamas is fighting a necessary war. Invariably the discussion takes us back to the matter of “occupation” and Israel’s “blockade” of Gaza (which Egypt would also be guilty of) - much heralded talking points of the Left.
What these ‘Progressives’ and Liberals don’t want or are unable to address is why there ever was a limited blockade to begin with. When Ariel Sharon pulled all settlements out of Gaza in 2005 there was no blockade whatsoever. His only intention was for peace and prosperity with its new, entirely Arab neighbor, Gaza. Water, electricity, sewage and telecommunication facilities were left in place. Beautiful edifices in the form of synagogues were left in Gaza along with thousands of greenhouses for Gaza’s benefit. Sharon wanted to establish an industrial zone which Gaza and Egypt along with other cooperative efforts.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority created an employment zone along the “seam-line” which stretched between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. This industrial zone eventually employed about 5,000 workers in businesses half of which were owned by Palestinians. These manufacturing plants, producing a myriad of things from plastics to car parts were part of a larger economic partnership with Gaza, called the Gaza Industrial Estate and was expected to provide up to 50,000 jobs. All this went on despite conflicts between Arabs and Israelis still going on from the onset of the 2nd intifada from 2000.
However it didn’t take long for all of this hope to be extinguished because all of the businesses and manufacturing plants that were in place were physically attacked by Palestinians and the Gaza Industrial Estate was forced to shut down. Terrorists from Hamas and Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the destruction. The Haaretz newspaper quotes a Palestinian factory owner at the time as saying “it’s simply stupid. Whoever ordered the bombing must have known that 30,000 mouths depend on our employment here. After all, this hurts us [the Palestinians] much more than it does the Israelis.”
Israel’s Synagogues which could have been converted to Mosques along with tens of thousands of greenhouses which were left for Gaza’s prosperity along with other projects that individual Jewish settlers had left all could have provided sustenance for close to 5,000 Gazan families but all were destroyed by Gaza terrorists. Before the Palestinian uprising of the year of 2000, 100,000 Palestinians worked in Israel and traffic flowed freely from Gaza on Israeli roads providing the export of thousands of tons of agricultural products out of Gaza to countries nearby.
In 2007 circumstances got even worse. Hamas and Fatah battled each other for control of Gaza with Hamas emerging as the victor. Both forces engaged in unspeakable atrocities involved in the killing of captives from the other side and as now, fired at each other near civilian populations. Eventually an Israeli military position on the Border was attacked by Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martys Brigade. It was these circumstances which forced Israel and Egypt also to institute the blockade against Hamas. However in 2008 Gaza breached the blockade and Hamas brought in Russian and Iranian rockets which were capable of a much larger range. In 2008 the rocket attacks rose precipitously to about a few hundred a month.
All of this must be explained by Israeli leaders and those speaking on Israel’s behalf. It is not good enough for Israeli spokespeople to reiterate the same things about rockets being stored and fired near civilian installations. The American media are a bunch of fools who take the propaganda fodder that Hamas feeds them in the form of video of dead babies without being allowed to see the stockpiles of rockets by hospitals, schools and mosques.
Too many Americans view the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as a tribal one. “It’s been going on for thousands of years” is the analysis of the ignorant and the apathetic (let alone the anti-semites). “Violence” is how they describe the war as if by waged by 2 deranged participants. Israel should be known as a modern, enlightened and peace loving country and it is our job as Jews and Americans who care, to disseminate that message and to role model to the world that truly righteous people care about everyone who is peace loving as well. In this vane I feel it is imperative for us to lend our support to all of the Christians and other religious people such as Yazidis who are being oppressed and murdered by savage terrorist groups. Obama’s response was too late and thousands of Yazidis didn’t need to die because the world is sleeping. Rabbis and the Jewish community should have lobbied the President along with the American Yazidis in Nebraska. We need to stand in solidarity with oppressed minorities not only to form a stronger coalition but because if righteous people don’t stand up for each other who else will?
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