Ha'aretz is reporting that Secretary of State Clinton has issued a warning to Israel over delaying and preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Clinton promises "that the matter will be central to [her] planned visit to Israel next Tuesday," and envoy George Mitchell might address the issue as early as tomorrow.
What has Israel been refusing to let into Gaza? John Kerry got a first hand look last week on his visit. Again, Ha'aretz:
When Senator John Kerry visited the Strip, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid – only rice shipments."
Kerry asked Barak about the logic behind this restriction, and only after the senior U.S. official's intervention did the defense minister allow the pasta into the Strip. The U.S. senator updated colleagues at the Senate and other senior officials in Washington of the details of his visit.
Do these signs point to a changing US policy? Kerry, Clinton and the Obama Administration do seem ready to hold Israel a bit more accountable than past administrations. Reps. Baird and Ellison returned from Gaza last week calling for a change to US policy as well. Israel seems concerned by the possibility. The Jerusalem Post reports that that the Israeli Defense Ministry is concerned that the US will cut military aid to Israel to pressure Israel on settlement construction.
This is an unfolding story, but we might get an initial sign of the administration's agenda when Obama releases the 2010 budget tomorrow. Stay tuned.
It's sad that cajoling Israel to recognize pasta as humanitarian aid is progress. At least it serves as a wake-up call to any Americans tasked with dealing with them that Israeli government officials don't see the world the way we do.
Well stated, Colin.
Dealing with Israel is like dealing with a nation of lawyers. When you think you have an agreement there is a stipulation that undermines all progress and allows them to continue whatever heinous behavior they were involved in prior to any such agreement.
Is that different than, or similar to "a nation of priests"?
Only an advanced culture has the bureaucratic development to withhold pasta shipments because of a definition about acceptable food stuffs.
""Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid – only rice shipments."
Those wily Israelis imported with Russian-paid for scientific degrees know there's more way than one to skin a Palestinian cat. See if you can pick out the logic behind banning pasta, allowing in only rice
to implement the Israeli PR initiative, while simultaneously draining energy from the Palestinians, and making their day more boring, less cross-nutritional (rice & pasta are both part of any nutritional diet):
Pasta has a low to moderate glycemic index (30-55) that results in a slow, steady release of energy in your body.
Pasta made with semolina is made from cracked wheat and not finely ground flour so it would be likely to have a low to moderate glycemic index. Furthermore, pasta is unique in its physical make up. The reason for its slow digestion and steady release of energy is "the physical entrapment of ungelatinized starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein molecules in the pasta dough." You don’t need to understand that to get the good news that pasta can be good for your energy. (Can't have that!)
( If you overcook pasta it gets soft and swollen and you have fully "gelatinized" those starch granules and turned pasta into an energy drainer.)
Almost all kinds of pasta have a lower glycemic index than most varieties of rice – even brown rice (a glycemic index over 70 is typical because almost complete "gelatinization" of rice starch takes place during cooking). And pasta has more protein than rice or potatoes. Overall semolina pasta is a good energy food – a serving is just 1/2 cup and keep variety in your diet by not eating pasta any more that once every four days.
Jim Byers is right: dealing with Israel is indeed like dealing with a nation of lawyers–lawyers who know they have no credibility so they fall back on legalisms. Something Avr. Burg said in an interview yesterday seems appropriate here:
"…when you use the Holocaust as a total example to compare everything against, by the end of the day you annihilate so many things. You say to yourself, Gaza? Well, it was not nice, but it wasn't the gas chambers, either. This is the logic: Because nothing is the Holocaust, everything is permitted."
What is starvation of the Gazans compared to the gas chambers? Withholding a shipment of pasta does not measure up.
This is what most infuriates me about Holocaust mongering–that the Showa is somehow so different from "merely" starving, slaughtering, torturing, imprisoning, etc., etc., that those things don't count, indeed, that they are more like "kindness"–evidence that Israel is being easy on the Palestinians because, after all, Jews have a tradition of social justice and are "a light unto the world."
I'm beginning to lose whatever objectivity I once had on this issue–a bad sign for someone who teaches this history to young people.
It would be interesting to see the legal basis/definition of Israel's definition of "humanitarian aid". How do do the laws concerning Israel and those for Palestine look like? What basic international documents did Israel sign in this context … What would be helpful in the long run is to find an online database in English for Israeli law.
"Only an advanced culture has the bureaucratic development to withhold pasta shipments because of a definition about acceptable food stuffs."
Godd point, Tommy. I wonder if Israelis would consider ketchup a vegetable?
Rice takes much longer to cook than pasta, as well. Making rice demands more of the already-scarce electricity or gas.
Is the demand for rice still ahead of cultivation? I don't eat much rice, but wasn't there a shortage with inflated prices recently? Is rice usually more expensive than pasta? My guess is that the Israelis were being assholes as usual.
There is no centrally kept list of allowed items – the rules are made as they go along, and changed at whim. This is Israeli policy – to have no policy and creating the conditions that nothing can be planned for or relied on. The idea is that this disorients enemy and disrupts their daily live.
In other words, Eva, they are just being assholes as usual.
It would be interesting to see how long Gaza would last under the conditions of total war called for in the Hamas Charter. What tree would play the role of the Gharkad tree for the Gazans?
Or maybe whoever has control over the blockade also has a controlling interest in the sale of rice.
Yes, Eurosabra, let's talk about what HAMAS might do in the never-never, not about what Israel is doing right now.
Turn your eyes away, you didn't see it, you didn't hear it, it didn't happen, it will all be cleaned up by tomorrow.
Sale? Hamas steals UN aid to distribute it to its supporters, for fear some Fateh adherents would get it.
You don't quite get the idea that Gaza receives what it does because the war is cheap, containable, and manageable. Israel would rather carrot-and-stick the population towards some political solution, but doesn't know quite what. It DID use police-style tactics in 1970, but the situation has changed. The first gas-tipped rocket on Tel Aviv ENDS Gaza. Hamas was unable to resist the temptation of kidnap tunnels and longer-range rockets in the past, which is an unpleasant precedent.
Since you simply want to erase Israel, you are not a credible interlocutor anyway.
"Sell? Hamas steals UN aid to distribute it to its supporters, for fear some Fateh adherents would get it."
Have you considered that God might want Hamas to have the aid supplies? In that case, it's not stealing at all. I'm sure that Hamas would make better use of the pasta than Fatah would.
but doesn't know quite what.
Israel could return the Gazan territory it has taken. Gaza was much bigger in 1948. That would alleviate some of the stress on the population. Israel should also stop any blockade of Gaza, which will also alleviate much stress caused by lack of food and medical supplies. Returning land and letting another people have access to food and medicine is beyond Israeli innovative thinking, though, because they think it means erasure.
FROM EVA SMAGACZ: "There is no centrally kept list of allowed items – the rules are made as they go along, and changed at whim. This is Israeli policy – to have no policy and creating the conditions that nothing can be planned for or relied on."
ME: Isn't this policy taken right out of Franz Kafka's renowned fictional works?
Gaza was bigger, Todd? Gaza was a nation with boundaries? Are you being an asshole when you suggest such, or are you just an asshole, regardless of what you suggest?
israel has tried variations on withdrawal, variations on free passage. The rockets have been constant enough that most Israelis are fairly certain that they will continue no matter what. Hence conflict management, and containment.
Gaza also had a stable Jewish population in 1948, and from roughly the 70s to 2005. Something tells me the Palestinians want to go back to the post-Egyptian-invasion status quo of 1948, not the status quo ante.
"Gaza used to be bigger." Meaning that the Egyptian early gains of the '48 war, Nitzanim and Yad Mordechai, should pass back into the hands of Gazans. Acquisition of territory by force by Arabs is okay, right.
Eurosabra: "The first gas-tipped rocket on Tel Aviv ENDS Gaza."
That may be. But at the same time half of Tel Aviv would decamp for Europe, Brooklyn, Florida or Los Angeles, and that would be the end of Israel too.
Eurosbra,
israel has tried variations on withdrawal, variations on free passage. The rockets have been constant enough that most Israelis are fairly certain that they will continue no matter what. Hence conflict management, and containment.
This is manifestly not true. During the ceasefire of 2008, practically no rockets were fired at all (and those that were fired are thought to have been fired by Fatah, this to discredit Hamas.) But fact is, when Hamas agreed to stop firing rockets in exchange for lifting the seige, Hamas stuck to its end of the bargain. Israel did not.
See the following link: link to en.wikipedia.org
It is a graph of rockets fired into Israel by the month. I dug this up in about 20 seconds. You could have too. But you didn't. The only conclusion to be drawn here is that you could not care less about the truth.
Does your credibility matter to you?
Does anyone know what was the rationale for excluding pasta, other than it wasn't on the approved list?
The fact that Kerry's people would even have the gumption to complain about a pasta embargo is amazing to me.
Eurosabra: "The first gas-tipped rocket on Tel Aviv ENDS Gaza."
That may be true, but it would also end Israel too, as half of Tel Aviv would immediately decamp for Europe, Brooklyn, Florida and Los Angeles.
"Gaza was bigger, Todd? Gaza was a nation with boundaries? Are you being an asshole when you suggest such, or are you just an asshole, regardless of what you suggest?"
Chris, you'll have to take that up with Tommy.
Look at a map from 1948.
chris berel's point is that you have to be "a nation, with boundaries." Otherwise, you're fair game. That there were human beings who had been there for centuries, who had established communities and lived peacefully amongst themselves (before the Zionist project began) is no matter. There was no official "country" called Palestine or "Gaza", so the whole thing can just be annihilated to make way for the Jewish state. This is not unique to the Zionists, of course: it is typical colonization tactics.
Here's a good map:
Palestinian Loss Of Land 1946-2000
blocked from site after last post black bag
Eurosabra, police style tactics (at least what I recall of current US police style tactics) would be a blessing on the Palestinians. Stop threatening to kill them all if we don't shut up.
Do it! Kill us, too. Sometimes I wonder if that isn't where Israel is determined to go: world domination. Why stop at the sea?
Yeah, HAMAS has to use tunnels and is content to use ineffective rockets, which shows a different kind of 'intention' than that of Israel, which 'inadvertently' and oh, sooo sadly, must deal with the intense pain of having caused, unfortunately, massive collateral damage – 1,440 people, a third of whom were children, died in how many days? Whereas in eight years something like 28 Israelis have died from the opposition's rockets. Meanwhile, Israel racks up mortality statistics like stock market counters, waiting for demographics to balance out in their favor.
Everytime you show up, my computer gets f****d, Eurosabra, which shows what type of a ringmaster you'd like to be. Microsoft#!# and Open Source, proud defenders of information freedom, save the day, everytime! I have a message for you and your buddies, from the free people of the world: Don't Tread On Me!
I'd like to see a vibrant, productive state where Israel is now, one that includes all it's people in the entitlement to life, liberty and the opportunity to earn a living and sleep peacefully at night. If you require that "Israel" be erased in order for that to happen, then so be it.
Sorry that my shoe left it imprint on your face, Marge. I'll try to walk softer next time.
By the way, I'd like to see a vibrant, productive state anywhere near where Israel is now, one that includes all it's people in the entitlement to life, liberty and the opportunity to earn a living and sleep peacefully at night.
So far, there doesn't appear to be a single neighbor of Israel where that is reality.
By the way, I'd like to see a vibrant, productive state anywhere near where Israel is now, one that includes all it's people in the entitlement to life, liberty and the opportunity to earn a living and sleep peacefully at night.
Maybe Israel can be the first. It can cease insisting on being a Jewish state that privileges its Jewish citizens over non-Jews, and become a truly secular state based on American/Western values (at least how they were at one time, before we became so Zionized).
It can stop provoking its neighbors with wanton acts of aggression. It can declare that it no longer seeks to expand its borders, in fact it can DECLARE its borders. It can declare its nukes before the international community, sign the non-proliferation treaty, and agree to allow inspections.
There is so much Israel can do to a beacon of light to the entire area. Will it? Is Israel interested in peace, or more war?
Sorry but Israel can not stop dong something that it already is not doing. By the way, have you stopped beating your wife?
Israel is interested in peace with security, not suicide. If the Arab nations, under your leadership, wish to commit suicide, it is no business of mine.
Thank you Dan Kelly.
I have always said the US missed a great opportunity after 9/11 to demonstrate to the world the Christian value of forgiveness. Instead the US resorted to the ancient standard of retaliation based on the phantom belief their nation was threatened existentially, and even used the 9/11 attacks to invade a country that had nothing to do with them. One thing should be made clear about both reactions, neither would have been possible if not for America's position of strength, which took precedence over its facade of being Christian.
"Sorry but Israel can not stop dong something that it already is not doing.
Israel is interested in peace with security, not suicide. If the Arab nations, under your leadership, wish to commit suicide, it is no business of mine."
Chris, I've been to Israel, and for nine months, I watched IAF jets fly north into Lebanon, and never once saw an enemy Jet or missile come south–this was a time of peace.
I spoke to UN soldiers from several countries, and none had good words to say about the IDF. The people I spoke to at least had some respect for the Lebanese army and militias, but viewed the IDF as rogues with no respect for anyone.
I was told by Israelis that katyushas are fired south into Israel, and that terorists are constantly trying to infiltrate, but it's hardly tit-for-tat, is it? I don't really compare a katyusha or a hang-gliding commando armed with an AK-47 to tanks and F-16s, do you? I guess I'd take hizbollah over the falangists, but that hardly makes Lebanon and offensive threat.
I understand what side you are on, but don't demand that I like being forced to support or fund Israel, or watch fellow Americans being sent to fight for Israel's interests. And don't ask me to justify Israel or Israel's actions.
The world isn't a perfect place, and the U.S. has major problems of its own that have absolutely nothing to do with Israel. It's about time for Israel to sink or swim on its own. BTW, I'm rooting for the other side.
"You don't quite get the idea that Gaza receives what it does because the war is cheap, containable, and manageable"–Eurosabra
Israel's war on the natives is not cheap to Israel's financial backers, the average gentile USA citizen, foreclosed, tons of credit card debt, looking for a job or worried about keeping the one they have.
@ chris berel
"Israel is interested in peace with security, not suicide. "
Right, that's what a thief always thinks.
Yes, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fateh, and al-Qaeda in Gaza launched rockets when Hamas did not. Nice cease-fire. Also, some Israelis are convinced by the step-up to Grads during the last cease-fire that Hamas will use any negotiated peace to prepare the next war.
Proportionality of force refers to whether the force used is calibrated to end the threat, or totally excessive, not proportionality of results. The fact is that rockets and missiles have militarized what was from 1970-2001 primarily a low-level insurgency, and now the level of destruction approaches that of the type of inter-state long-distance rocket war Hamas is waging. See Iran-Iraq 1980-88 for how that works in the end-game. Like the war in Lebanon, the plan is for deterrance/containment, effective localized strikes, and withdrawal. There were rockets in Bint Jbeil and guerillas in Bint Jbeil, so Bint Jbeil was erased when the guerillas attacked the Israeli troops advancing to destroy the rockets. There were rockets on the outskirts of Ait al-Shaab, and they were bombed on the outskirts of Ait-al-Shaab, which stands (largely) undisturbed to this day. It's not my fault if you can't tell the difference, but it's clear that in your calculus only Israel is denied the right not to be struck by rockets, or strike back.
I can't do anything about your fears of Jewish world domination, except to point out that you are an anti-Semitic fantasist like Streicher. Incidentally, the most imperialist Israelis were the Semitic-fascist Canaanites, who were going to haul their "Arab brothers" back from Islam into the "Semitic realm", creating an assimilationist Hebrew Empire to replace the Arabo-Islamic one. The greatest Israeli push for something like the United Arab Republic (which killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenites, 1956-67) was an explicitly archaic exercise in Semitic brotherhood, like the UAR. Like the "Greater Syria" of the SSNP, it remained a pipe-dream, but has killed far fewer people than the SSNP. Given the fallout of the Israeli intervention in Lebanon, most Israeli strategic thinkers have renounced the idea of re-making the Middle East. The 1950s were bad for EVERYBODY. Again, not my fault that you don't know the history, or that even in Egypt and Syria something resembling sanity has prevailed.
Also, with all the talk about "Israeli war criminals" in Europe, even the "north-end beautiful souls" in Tel Aviv have come to understand that they are "dirty Jews" who will be denied refuge in the rest of the world, should they attempt to flee. And most Israelis, whatever their ethnicity or religion, DO have relatives who were refugees within living memory. The Middle East is not kind to its peoples. So the rich "like this, like that" valley girls of north Tel Aviv are likely to stand under the missiles (as in '91, as in '06) along with the poor Persians of HaTikvah.
Lebanon continues the war with Israel it began in 1949, with Israeli withdrawal to the Blue Line International Border certified by the UN in 2000, and Lebanon continuing to claim the Har Dov/Sheba'a Farms area, which Israel considers part of the Israeli Golan, Syria having renounced its claim over the area it administered from '47-'67 in favor of Lebanon. Thus Lebanon is pursuing a territorial claim and a formally-declared and continuing war against Israel, while Israel has withdrawn from Lebanese territory, as certified by the UN.
The problem with Israel as a secular state is the rise of explicitly Islamist political parties and movements like Ra'am-Ta'al and the Islamic Movement, Northern and Southern Branches, and the solidifying of communal claims to property behind the Islamic foundations, or Awaqaf. Balad's plan for collective autonomy and minority rights by the Arab minority (which is at least linguistic/cultural and not religious separatism, unlike the IM) also hinders the plan for a secular state of "one citizen, one vote" with each citizen as an individual in a dialogue with the State. One concession that COULD be made is separation of the ILA and JNF, turning JNF-held land into a Waqf like any other, and opening state lands to all Israelis equally on paper as well as (as already happens) de facto, and Supreme Court decisions like Ka'adan v. Qatzir seem to be doing this anyway. At least Arab housing discrimination claims would probably prevail immediately, with current case law.
Again, discriminatory Israeli growth and zoning provisions are a cynical abuse of power, and already opposed quite effectively by many NGOs. The "unrecognized villages" notwithstanding, governments are not obliged to provide services to citizens absolutely wherever the citizens wish, things like water, power, and medical clinics can be centralized for greater efficiency and economies of scale. (Although the cynicism of providing services to small Jewish settlements but not small Bedouin villages should probably be done away with.)
Hail Eurohasbara, for his meek criticisms of Israel make him a more effective apologist for Zionism.
"Yes, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fateh, and al-Qaeda in Gaza launched rockets when Hamas did not. Nice cease-fire."
You concede that Hamas rocket attacks stopped, and that rocket attacks overall dropped dramatically. You also know Israel flagrantly violated this cease-fire last November, and then the rockets started again. Following so far?
"Also, some Israelis are convinced by the step-up to Grads during the last cease-fire that Hamas will use any negotiated peace to prepare the next war."
Putting aside the question of what some Israelis are convinced of, Israel did in fact use the negotiated peace to prepare for the next war. For instance, the attack that killed dozens of civilian police in the first day of the assault was debated and planned months earlier.