What exactly is the blockade of Gaza?

[BridgeTheGap]

In recent days, coverage of the attack on the aid flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip has focused on the lack of availability of certain humanitarian goods. This fact sheet is a reference tool based on data collected by international aid agencies and human rights groups on the impact of the siege on the population of Gaza.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/03/what_exactly_is_the_blockade_of_gaza

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Did you see where Israel is lifting its ban on sodas and snacks?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37588494/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

JERUSALEM - Israel has allowed some formerly banned food items into the Gaza Strip after widespread international criticism of its three-year-old blockade, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.

Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh said Israel has lifted the ban on soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, chips, cookies and sweets. He said some products have already entered Gaza.

[groovedaddy]

2. As long as they're getting Doritos and Coke, everything should be okay. n/t

[ColesCountyDem]

3. Yeah, I'm sure the lack of those was really hurting them. n/t

[azurnoir]

5. yeah almost as bad as those folks

on food stamps being allowed to buy them huh?

[ColesCountyDem]

11. I wouldn't know.

You seem to be implying something about me. Spit it out and quit dancing around it.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. Soda and shaving cream might be used to fuel rockets.

[lumpy]

4. It just isn't food that is limited to the Palestinians.

Access to clean water wrecked, sewage disposal wrecked, economy wrecked, hospital services wrecked, economy wrecked etc. This is an agonizing slow death for Gaza unless Israel pulls in it's horns and gives these people a chance to restore a livable life for the Palestinians.
This damage by Israel is because of the so-called 'war' between Israel and Gaza. The US sure and hell didn't do the same to Japan and Germany after WW2, quite the opposite.

[shira]

6. Parts of Gaza rarely seen, or parts people don't wish to see.

http://israelseen.com/2010/05/27/free-gaza-fancy-restaurants-olympic-size-swim-pools-what-the-media-won%E2%80%99t-report-about-gaza/

Israel has no control over what Hamas chooses to spend its resources on.

If Hamas chooses weapons, luxury restaurants, and olympic swimming pools over building homes, hospitals and getting the economy going (aside from the tunnel industry which benefits them) then that's Hamas' fault, not Israel's.

[Recursion]

8. Umm... those are pre-2008 photos

Seriously, are you guys even trying anymore?

[shira]

13. Almost all are recent photos. In fact, if you want something more recent that you find questionable

....let me know and I'll try digging something up for you.

Now that you realize things aren't quite as bad as advertised in Gaza (still loving all the Gaza = Concentration camp analogies) why not ask yourself the reason why the good of Gaza is not also portrayed along with the bad?

Can you admit a lot about Gaza is blown way out of proportion....and then give a reason as to why that is?

[Recursion]

16. Dig away

I'd love to see how you claim these are post-2008.

[shira]

17. Which do you believe are 2 years old? One, some, or all of them? Be specific please.

Is it just the one with Abbas in the Gaza restaurant?

[Recursion]

18. Sigh... This is silly

There were four photos in that "article".

One was a pool. As far as I know there is currently a swimming pool built by UNICEF (I think? Some UN agency). So, yes, you're right, some of the kids get to swim. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

One was the Roots hotel/restaurant, and quotes the Lonely Planet Guidebook, which has changed its tune since 2008, eg: http://hotels.lonelyplanet.com/the-palestinian-territories/gaza-city-r1979430/

The Roots' own website (http://www.theroots.ps) hasn't been updated since 2008. It has no events listed and doesn't seem to allow booking. If you could date the picture to post-2008 that might say something, but as it is this has all the looks of a colo'd site that has been dormant for 2 years.

The other 2 were markets. By all accounts, there are days when the markets have enough food. Sometimes. So I'm not sure what information you say these photos tell us?

[shira]

19. Israel's foreign office recently sent an invite to foreign press to go eat at the Roots Club

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=176595

Do you think they'd actually send an invite to foreign press for a place that doesn' exist anymore?

As to the rest of the pics, consider this from Israel:
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israelpovertychildrenyomkippur4831210.html

Why not blame that on the PLO or Hamas?

Now consider why Israel must be blamed (and Hamas goes blameless) for anything wrong within Gaza.

[whosinpower]

21. Do you honestly think it is a legitimate invitation?

Would these be the same foreign journalists who were jailed and then sent back to their own respective countries? Don't you find it incredibly ODD that they would recommend a "club" that somehow prospered under the despicable rule of Hamas??? Is it not strange that this story circulated all over the world at or after May 27,2010?

As for your second story - why not blame the same person that the article blames - Netanyahu. Now consider why you suggest that Hamas or the PLO should be blamed and not Netanyahu - or he should go blameless for everything.....

[lumpy]

9. Everything anti-Palestinians present is pure propaganda.

I prefer to believe what humanitarian organizations have to say about conditions in Gaza.

[Recursion]

10. They're pictures from before the IDF blew the hell out of the strip

That same photo series has Abbas there, who hasn't been to the strip since Hamas took over. I'm so sick of people not even trying to make their propaganda plausible.

[EFerrari]

12. I only started reading this forum closely since the attack on the flotilla.

It is awash with the ugliest anti-Palestinian propaganda I have ever seen anywhere.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. Yes. That's why I've got over a dozen posters on ignore.

I get literally sickened by things I read here.

[LTX]

20. This must be satire

The titles of just the top current threads in the forum:

What exactly is the blockade of Gaza?
Israel shakes down China
Israeli Gen. threatens to drown Erdogan
The Images Israel Didn’t Want Seen: Video and Photographs from the Gaza-Bound Aid Flotilla
Blacklisting Helen Thomas: "she does not deserve to be pilloried and blacklisted"
Andrew Sullivan: Was Israel a Mistake?
New Video Smuggled Out from Mavi Marmara of Israel’s Deadly Assault

The vast majority of the threads and comments in this forum are, to use the favored euphemism, "criticism of Israel."

[Recursion]

7. The concrete ban REALLY pisses me off... "They might build bunkers"

Israel has spent decades talking about the universality of the right to self-defense, but they keep these guys (on whom they have been raining missiles) from building them. Sigh.

[Dick Dastardly]

22. Dont you mean Hamas has been raining missiles on Israel???

In any case having a right to self defense does not mean your enemy is obliged to help, facilitate or even refrain from stopping it. It never has meant that in the history of world conflicts except when it comes to Israel. There are many standards that only apply in regard to Israel that range from absurd to out right moronic.