Israel can't seem to do anything right these days. We can easily argue the decision to send commandos to stop the Turkish ships from reaching Gaza. Is a naval blockade of Gaza legally justifiable? As far as Israel is concerned, they exist in a state of war with Hamas, who still refuses to recognize the existence of Israel and denounce violence. The US placed a naval blockade around Cuba and threatened to sink any Russian ship trying to break the blockade. We mined Hanoi harbor and place a naval blockade against North Vietnam. Preventing supplies from reaching the enemy is a legitimate act of war, so in that sense Israel is justified in stopping those ships.
Unfortunately, however, right does not always mean correct, especially when it comes to Israel. Israel guaranteed that the supplies, once examined, would reach Gaza. Could the ships have been searched at sea, and if no weapons were found, be allowed to dock in Gaza? The world would still not be satisfied. Unless Israel stops the blockade and allows Hamas the freedom to rearm, then Israel will be condemned.
The liberals of the world, who once championed Israel during the Sixties, have now turned against her. Not allowing Chomsky into the West Bank just gave them more ammunition. My question to them, (and I once considered myself part of the liberal agenda), is: what is your ultimate solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem? Obviously, the first step for Israel is to stop the blockade of Gaza, remove troops from the West Bank, and allow all Palestinians refugees to return to their homes in Israel. In other words, have Israel commit suicide. Why are you incapable of only seeing one side of the issue--Palestinian suffering? Why are you unwilling or incapable of understanding that much of the suffering of the Palestinian people was brought upon them by their own leadership who saw the destruction of Israel as the only solution? Have you forgotten the terrorist attacks that took thousands of innocent lives?
I do not want to come across as someone who blindly supports every action by Israel. I am not an Israeli. I do not have the right to tell Israel how to run their affairs. I can support the existence of Israel without agreeing with it. I do not endorse Likud or its policies. I believe that a two state solution is the only way to achieve peace (if that is at all possible). I am hopeful that more progressive thinkers like Salam Fayad can have an impact on Palestinian society. Israel's actions only make it more obvious that a solution is absolutely necessary before there is another explosion which will cause even more deaths.
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Economic sanctions tend to fail as a foreign policy tool-- trust me, I debated this topic about once a week for several months.
ReplyDeleteThe examples you gave were temporary acts designed to stop specific arms shipments. Israel's sustained comprehensive embargo is probably more comparable to the UN security council's Iraq misadventure. Saddam inflated the casualty counts, but the UN eventually conceded the sanctions killed about 200,000 civilians, possibly as many as half a million. Many UN employees resigned in protest. These deaths were despite the exemption on humanitarian goods like food and medicine; they didn't get to the average Iraqi because 1. Saddam had an interest in keeping them from them and blaming the resulting suffering on the US and 2. The average Iraqi didn't have the money to buy food due to the embargo on other goods.
The same situation is basically going on in Gaza; there's a 40% unemployment rate, plus, the average Gazan familly has a much higher percentage of younger kids to support who arn't even included in that rate-- 50% of the population is under age 14. Less than 1 out of 3 people is working, but that's if the unemployment rate takes women into account, and I'm not even sure it does.
Granted, the international community has learned from the Iraq fiasco, and Israel's done a better job with the humanitarian exemption-- not only has Israel allowed food through, but it's actually provided a lot of that food, and made sure to deliver it even during war time. Still, there are problems, like the blockade on cement. While cement is allowed through for supervized building projects, that still doesn't allow for sustained economic growth. Quite frankly, the best way to help the Gazan people might be to bombard the strip with birth control, although liberals would call that a genocidal population control plot.
Even though Israel's actions aren't out of the norm, it's still worth re-thinking the wisdom of economic warfare in general.
ZT,
ReplyDeleteIn response to your comment,
"Israel's sustained comprehensive embargo is probably more comparable to the UN security council's Iraq misadventure....Even though Israel's actions aren't out of the norm, it's still worth re-thinking the wisdom of economic warfare in general."
I find it curious that you use the words "economic warfare."
The Israeli blockade is dissimilar to the embargo of Iraq; the Palestinian people are not suffering from a lack of nutritious foods, or medical supplies. They suffer because of a lack of basic economic, social, religious, and political freedoms.
Israel is not engaged in economic warfare. Gazans are as much victims of a welfare state as they are Islamic radicalism. Like many of the failed countries in Africa, Gazans receive everything they have from foreign governments, including Israel.
Hamas controls Gaza, and they do not allow economic development. Economic development entails working with the Israelis, like Fatah is doing with great success. This is contrary to Hamas's fundamental beliefs that Jews are subhuman. The international community encourages Hamas and Gaza to resist any economic involvement, because it provides everything they need. As long as Hamas forbids economic development, the international community will reward it. If Gaza became the next Dubai, the world would halt much of the aid. They are punished for success, and rewarded for terrorism and failure.
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"Economic sanctions tend to fail as a foreign policy tool-- trust me, I debated this topic about once a week for several months."
I don't know if this is meant to be sarcastic, so I may be way off on this, but that may be the nerdiest, least compelling statement of all time.
-Noah Glyn