(Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)
Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 24 June 2010
"Ever since Israel's murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May, there have been increasing calls from many parties on Israel to end its siege of Gaza. This is strange as well as deceitful, for the siege is not Israel's alone....
It is clear now that the siege has failed, first and foremost because the brave people in Gaza decided to adjust to its harshest effects and to endure with dignity and courage the collective punishment intended to strangle them into submission and despair. They never acquiesced to trading their national dignity and rights for a few more goods -- even ones desperately needed....
Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah leader and head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, who was reported to have pleaded with US President Barack Obama not to let Israel end the siege and thus hand Hamas an easy victory, is also now calling for lifting the blockade. But when pressed, Abbas is always careful to condition his demand on "reconciliation" between Hamas, which has survived numerous Abbas-backed coup attempts since it won the 2006 elections, and his Fatah which -- with international support -- usurped control of the Palestinian Authority apparatus after it lost the election.
The "reconciliation" that Abbas wants is to return to the status quo before Hamas foiled the last coup attempt in June 2007. In other words, Abbas wants for himself an easy victory -- to return his forces to control Gaza and its borders -- which he could not achieve through conspiracies and armed adventures....."
"Ever since Israel's murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May, there have been increasing calls from many parties on Israel to end its siege of Gaza. This is strange as well as deceitful, for the siege is not Israel's alone....
It is clear now that the siege has failed, first and foremost because the brave people in Gaza decided to adjust to its harshest effects and to endure with dignity and courage the collective punishment intended to strangle them into submission and despair. They never acquiesced to trading their national dignity and rights for a few more goods -- even ones desperately needed....
Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah leader and head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, who was reported to have pleaded with US President Barack Obama not to let Israel end the siege and thus hand Hamas an easy victory, is also now calling for lifting the blockade. But when pressed, Abbas is always careful to condition his demand on "reconciliation" between Hamas, which has survived numerous Abbas-backed coup attempts since it won the 2006 elections, and his Fatah which -- with international support -- usurped control of the Palestinian Authority apparatus after it lost the election.
The "reconciliation" that Abbas wants is to return to the status quo before Hamas foiled the last coup attempt in June 2007. In other words, Abbas wants for himself an easy victory -- to return his forces to control Gaza and its borders -- which he could not achieve through conspiracies and armed adventures....."
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