Here is an update from Code Pink on the international delegations trying to get into Gaza. Phil's delegation has not yet tried to get in.
CAIRO – May 22 – As more
than 160 Americans and
other citizens from around the world begin arriving in Cairo with the
intent to cross into Gaza, the operators of Egyptian bus services say
they been prohibited by the Egyptian government from transporting them
to the border. The groups, made up of four delegations on the Egyptian
side and one on the Israeli side, are part of a CODEPINK Women for Peace campaign to bring humanitarian supplies and build playgrounds for the children of Gaza.
"We had chartered a private bus company to take us from Cairo to
Al-Arish, the closest town to the Rafah crossing into Gaza," explained
Sandra Ruch, who is leading a delegation of Canadians on the
humanitarian mission. "However, the operators tell us now that the
government has prohibited them from taking us anywhere near the border.
They obviously believe this tactic will keep us away, but we are
determined. The Gazans are completely isolated and struggling to
survive. We cannot abandon them."
The 10-member Canadian delegation is scheduled to be followed by a
14-member group from New York and a contingent of 40 students. The
largest of the CODEPINK delegations, numbering about 80, is scheduled
to set off for the border on May 29 – just days ahead of President
Barack Obama's landmark speech to the Arab world, planned for Cairo on
June 4. The CODEPINK delegations are invited to the Gaza Strip by the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The delegations plan to enter Gaza to focus attention on the need to
lift the 21-month blockade and to deliver medical supplies, toys and
sports equipment to the children there, who make up more than half of
Gaza's population. The groups are also bringing supplies for
playgrounds, since many of the schools and playgrounds were bombed
during Israel's invasion earlier this year, which killed more than
1,400, displaced more than 50,000 people and destroyed approximately
4,000 homes.
"The majority of Gazans are under 18, and many of the youth are
traumatized and depressed," said delegation coordinator Pam Rasmussen.
"Thousands are now living in rubble or cramped tents, while mourning
the deaths of loved ones and struggling to support their families
despite an unemployment rate in excess of 50 percent. It's important
for us to go there to show that the international community cares about
their plight."
The CODEPINK delegations are not alone. Three British medics began a
hunger strike at the Egyptian border crossing on May 21 to protest
being refused entry into Gaza to establish a cardiac surgery unit at
al-Shifa Hospital, which currently has no such facility, and to help
train medical students and junior doctors there. The British medics
have been denied access to the Palestinian territory at the Rafah
crossing since the beginning of May.
CODEPINK delegations say they are determined to get to the border and cross into Gaza.
"We call on the Egyptian government to facilitate our travel to Gaza,
not create obstacles," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK.
"President Obama is coming to Egypt on June 4 to speak to the Arab
world. He claims he wants to stand for peace and justice. We need to
start by lifting the blockade of Gaza."
One would think that the Egyptian government would be glad to be able to help their brothers in Gaza. We keep hearing "All Muslims Are Brothers" and "All Arabs Love On Another"….or so they keep saying.
Meant to say "All Arabs Love One Another".
I think we can assume this decision is made in Washington.
I'm glad Phil is reporting on the Egyptian government's own dysfunctional, American-financed role in the I-P conflict that has become such a black hole of American lifeblood thanks to the Israel lobby, corrupt Washington, and social engineering Statists of both Right and Left. The West needs to know: political Islam and political Judaism are both very similar entities, and neither deserves American welfare (which we can no longer afford to give, anyway.) In many respects, the two "polarities" are actually on a political continuum, similar to the Nazis and the Communists. True, America collaborated with the mass-murderous Stalinist Communists in order to defeat the Nazis, but it never embraced Stalinism or Communism, and eventually warred against it once the Nazis had been defeated. Political Judaism continuously demands America embrace Zionism when in fact it is now time for an American Cold War against both Political Judaism and Political Islam. Freeze them both out; they’re birds of a feather.
All Muslims are brothers and sisters you fucking Nazi. I wish the Pharaho Mubarak would rule over your asses once more and get off the backs of Egyptians. Right now, Mubarak the Pharaho is more of a brother to you fucking Nazis than to his people. God, when is Mubarak going to drop dead?
IFFFF you get into Gaza, make sure to look up a friend of mine, Gilad Shalit. He was kidnapped three years ago and has been held captive in Gaza by Palestinean terrorists in violation of Geneva Conventions and common human rights understandings and deprived of ICRCRC (International Commitee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent) visits. I am sure that the various "human rights" activists you hang out with are all working diligently to ensure humane treatment for Gilad and for his speedy and safe release. You ARE doing this for Human Rights, aren't you?
The Islamic Ikhwan vows to overthrow the Egyptian govt, Hamas is financed by Iran and armed by the Ikhwan smuggling arms through tunnels into Gaza, Hamas slaughters PLO Fatah members in Gaza and… Ed, somehow, manages to blame it all on the USA and Israel. Brilliant analysis, there! Very convincing!
I don't think that Israeli or American pressure would be sufficient to compel Egyptian compliance with a policy that they fundamentally disagree with. More likely, there is a strong independant reason that the Egyptian government is in conflict with Hamas. its not a new conflict.
Mubarak kisses Zionist ass. If a Zionist said bend over, he would. and you know it. It's no secret why Egypt gets US aid, to keep suppressing the Palestinians and not threaten Israel. Israel would never pressure Egypt to open up the borders. That was the agreement between them, to close the borders as much as possible.
Gilad is dead so you can take out your prayer shawl and mourn his death.
The Mubarak dictatorship is yet another gift for which we Egyptians can thank America's zionist policy-makers, and the all-too-generous American taxpayers. The Mubarak crime family has been ruthlessly destroying Egypt for 28 years (38 years if we count Henry Kissinger's "good friend" Anwar el-Sadat), amassing an obscene fortune for themselves and accomplishing through "peace" what the zionists failed to do through war. Mubarak's absolute subservience to Israel and the zionists is deeply shameful and infuriating to most Egyptians — it's hard to describe the genuine pain of millions of ordinary people as Egypt's American-backed dictatorship sells off the country's precious gas to the Israeli war criminals at far below market price, guts the country's industrial, agricultural and professional bases, transforms the nation's police into armed thugs who routinely torture, steal from and even kill those they are sworn to protect, or proudly destroys tunnels that are Gaza's only lifeline, or collaborates with the zionists' barbaric siege. People here are close to the boiling point, and the regime knows it. That's why Obama will never be exposed to any but the most meticulously screened and bought and paid-for Egyptians. Otherwise he and the sock-puppet Mubarak would be pelted with shoes and cries for the human rights and democracy America always promises, but never, ever delivers. Oh, and thanks, too, to the American media, which portrays the problem as "political Islam", when "political Islam" has been deliberately nurtured by our enemies in order to channel people's frustration into something that can be used to further dehumanize and victimize them.
bar, Mubarak doesn't get paid and rewarded by the U.S. and Israel to be a brother to the Palestinians. But the people in Egypt, for the most part, stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. I'm surprised you don't know that bar, considering that Israel is working so feverishly to maintain the Mubarak family grip on Egypt. Why is it that "the only democracy in the region" is working hard to keep things that way, while at the same time bitching and moaning about being the "only democracy in the region"?
"The Islamic Ikhwan vows to overthrow the Egyptian govt" Did you have a problem with the U.S. illegally invading Iraq to secure regime change there? No difference between Mubarak and Saddam if you ask the political prisoners that were tortured in Egypt. "Hamas is financed by Iran and armed by the Ikhwan smuggling arms through tunnels into Gaza" Hamas has received some money from Iran, in the past they have used those funds to pay the salaries of civil servants like police officers and teachers which Fatah refuses to pay for because of their political affiliations. Considering that the Israelis and Americans have imposed a siege of holocaust proportions against the Palestinian people in Gaza, I don't think you have the right to bitch and moan about who funds them now. "Hamas slaughters PLO Fatah members in Gaza and" Oh you mean the collaborators that went out and identified precisely to the Israelis where Hamas "hideouts" were so that Israel could then bomb those areas and kill dozens of civilians as well? From some people's perspective killing those collaborators was justified because it ended up saving the lives of many innocent Palestinian civilians. And I sincerely doubt you care about Fatah, you didn't care about Fatah when Arafat was holed up in the muqata and when Abbas was being humiliated (and still is, daily) at the Israelis who act like he is invisible 95% of the time.
Great comment, Ines.
I have no sympathy for collaborators. If Hamas, or any other ruling entity, has sufficient evidence to convict, in whatever judicial system they have, even if it is of a low standard, an individual of collaboration, then I think execution is warranted. The starvation blockade continues unabated. Israel is still making war on these people. They are fighting for their existence. Assisting the enemy during time of war is a death penalty offense in America, and I will not hold them to a higher standard.
Making trouble for Obama while he is in Egypt by trying to bring aid to Palestinian children in Gaza is a great opportunity to expose the injustice and oppression the US subsidizes in all the nations involved.
You are correct, seham; the same old hypocrisy that left Israel as the last nation still supporting apartheid S Africa–always look to Israel's deeds, not its creeds, which are always just PR to assure Israel's endless theft of US taxpayer dollars by the US congressional whores on both sides of the political party aisle.
The Palestinian groups are freedom fighters in their own land, not part of any Islamic Brotherhood per se. The Egyptian regime is a USA-Israeli proxy, bought and sold every year at 2/3rds the annual direct dole to Israel but of course not without that string attached. Fatah is an American-Israeli proxy, which the Palestinians recognize as such, just as the Iranians recognized the Shah back in the day. First things first, Jake. Etiology is not your forte.
And, while in Israel, make sure you look up the 11,000 Palestinian arabs in there little cells, subject to endless detention and torture–unlike Shalit, they were not IDF soldiers when caught penetrating the border most morally.
He knows. He's just being a putz.
Yes, the strong independent reason is Uncle Sam's annual dole to Egypt, configured at 2/3 of the annual dole to Israel; this makes the combined dole an economic force to be reckoned with if one seeks to end the current status quo–no sign yet Obama intends to cut off that blank check to Israel (along with endless special memo deals) or the check to Egypt's current regime–with the mentioned thick string attached .
Look at the MIddle East. What do you see? A bunch of puppet Arab regimes who could care less about their own people, and a Jewish regime who only cares about 80% of its citizens. This describes a vast plantation and its not hard to see who are the Uncle Toms. Time for the USA to grow up, get with its highest values–in the long run, it's in Uncle Sam's best interest, and that of the Middle East Street. I'm saying, otherwise, in the long run, Uncle Sam will deserve what it gets, including be-heading. Of course, Wall Street has already been doing that, with no end in sight.
Right after you. Why do you ask? A muslim who will not do your will is no muslim?
No, they don't. They could care less about Palesitnians.
We did. They are happy not to be suffering under the thumb of Hamas.
Who exactly is "They"?
Your answer says everything we need to know. You are a fanatical Jew. You are ruining the USA's highest ideals, which are a guide to the rest of humanity. Your light to the world is Hitler's. Just wearing the opposite stripe.
Noah Feldman tries to legitimize Zionism/Politicize by supporting the development of Islamic states. (See Beyond Jihad.) In his scenario acceptance of Islamic states would be paralleled by acceptance of the Jewish state, but the religiously based Islamic state and the ethnic fundamentalist or more correctly ethnic monist Jewish state differ fundamentally from each other. The Islamic State in theory strives to serve God, but the Jewish State tries to serve the Jewish Race. The Ottoman State until it collapsed functioned reasonably decently.The Jewish State is already despicable.
Egypt is bought and paid for by your tax dollars. They are threatened with losing their little booty should they not do what Israel tells them to do. Of course, not every Egyptian agreed to sell their soul, so some are helping the people of gaza as best they can – but only on an individual basis. Others must be bribed – typical in Egypt, as in much of the rest of the Arab world . I believe that muslim brotherhood is a reaction against oppression by the powers-that-be rather than any nefarious alliance with hamas etc. Actually, similar to the way hamas is but a reaction by the Palestinians to increasing repression by the israelis. For those who have absolutely nothing, religion can often provide the only defense against corruption – of both body and soul. The more grievous the repression, the more radical the religion. Martin Luther was a preacher as was Desmond Tutu, as was – in his own way – Ghandi. They were not extreme – or radical – because the oppression was not as radical. In many ways, what israel is trying to do is worse than England ever tried to do in India, or the South African whites did to the blacks, or the US whites did to US blacks. There is a difference between discrimination and/or marginalization of a population – and outright elimination, which is what israel is trying to do in Gaza – by any means – and as fast or as slow – as the world finds acceptable. And in that they demand that the Egyptians cooperate, thus corrupting Egypt with the mark of Cain. Reminds me of the many ways the neoconuts took the democrats with them down to the road that led to atrocities and war crimes in Iraq (over 1M dead! – far worse than Saddam ever did) and torture and bankrupting the entire country. This way, they now get the same cover Egypt provides israel. Funny how willing people and elected officials are to cover for malfeasance and evil deeds. And how quickly they rush to claim credit for anything good that happens anywhere. On this memorial day, it may be a good opportunity to mourn the victims of the past 8 years – those who did not ever get to go to back to their own homes in anything like flag draped coffin. Sad that so many american soldiers had to die to keep and expand an empire, sadder still most don't realize that's what they are and were doing. I do feel bad for the dead and wounded american soldiers. But no less and no more than for our government's victims especially those who did not die in a hail of glory but as a nameless victim of a drone attack. But it's also a day to celebrate the few who tried and continue to try to prevent atrocities – be they by the hands of americans, israelis or sri lankans. And in so doing they help preserve the souls of the many more who would like to do the right thing but can do not much more than read the right blogs. Good luck to Phil on his endeavor (though I have a sinking feeling about him getting into gaza. The israelis know he is effective. Can't have that, can we?).
The Zionist regime does not really care about its Jewish citizens. It cares about the Jewish race as defined within Zionist ideology. In Freeman, American Naiveté, Israel Lobby I wrote: The USA is the slave of Zionist "Big Lies" that call "Israel a thriving democracy in the heart of a region dominated by autocracies" and that claim that the State of Israel shares American values.
In Freeman, American Naiveté, Israel Lobby I wrote:
Unfortunately, I did not explain extremist organic nationalism. In this ideology only the race counts. Individuals are merely cells in the organic body of the nation. They may be sloughed off as needed. While the hyperwealthy Jewish Zionist political economic oligarchs serve their own interests and the interests of the Jewish people as they and their intelligentsia interpret them, individual Jews really don't count for much at all. In the Jabotinskian scheme Jews outside of the intelligentsia and plutocracy are rewarded with symbols that give and reinforce a positive ethnic consciousness.
Jewish Zionists do not have the same set of morals and ethics as most normal people do. It's always 'what's good for the Jews'. Selfishness/narcissism/etc.
Jewish Zionists worship the Holocaust. That is their religion. And of course, they do not see Palestinians and the goyim in general as human, but rather obstructions (unless they are good for the Jews). Scum of the Earth.
Religious Jewish Zionists maintain they are serving God by serving Israel. Is Zionism charlatanism? Is it a pretense? Is it a scam? Probably, but who's to know what's in any man's heart. Besides, all religion is a matter of perspective. Therefore, no religion should be subsidized by the State — which itself should not be allowed to enter into the arena of moral instruction. (And that includes Statist-worshipping Communism/Left-liberalism.) I say, let the State carry out its civil functions and a strictly defined national defense function, and not much else. The marketplace of ideas can decide the rest. Unfortunately, those who lack confidence in their religion (political Islam), or are too exclusive to proselytize (political Judaism), demand the State subsidize their own religious ideology, including its shortcomings. To hell with that. If that’s how Jews and Muslims want to live, knock yourselves out. Just don’t ask me or anyone else to subsidize your way of life. Let God provide your welfare. Maybe he'll bless you, maybe he won't. If he doesn't, don't come with your hand out to me.
@ the link, Joachim writes: "American and Zionist values are simply completely contradictory in many serious ways, and when someone claims that America and Israel share the same values, many Americans and non-Americans become very uncomfortable." I second that. And I'm sure you would agree if someone were to claim that America and Political Islam share the same values, the same discomfort would apply. I think the West should allow Islamic proselytizing (which it already does) and Islam should allow Christian proselytizing (which it generally doesn't) and if the Jews are too stuck up to proselytize, well, that's their suicidal choice. The best way to solve the "clash of civilizations" is in the marketplace of ideas, with no Statists putting their thumbs on the scales, or trying to take the scales away altogether in favor of their own State-centered moral system.
It is certain that everyones morals outclass Strahl. Except maybe Hitler.
Most of the Palestinian groups are little more than terrorists using human shields. First things first, Rachel. Veracity is not your forte.
You're guessing that the US or Israel are the prime motivation for Egypt's policies.
You think there's another motivation? Do tell us what it is, without if possible invoking the usual deus ex machina of innate nonwhite depravity.
You're implying there is an alternate prime motivation. Enlighten us, Witless.
If the Palestinians and Arab nations put down their guns tomorrow, there would be instant peace in the Middle East. If the Israelis put down their guns tomorrow, every Jew (right and left wing alike) would be butchered. This is just the way it is. Israel has to do what it has to do to survive in a hostile region.