Israel’s Experimental Pressure Backfires

[bemildred]

JERUSALEM — When Hamas blew large holes in Gaza’s border with Egypt, allowing thousands of Palestinians a chance to stock up on medicines, food and consumer goods, it also blew a large hole in the Israeli policy, backed by Washington, of squeezing the population of Gaza in the hope that they would turn actively against Hamas.

As Israeli leaders pushed Egypt to close the border and fumbled for an effective response, the apparent Hamas success put Egypt into a bind and further undermined the chances that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Fatah faction could succeed in negotiating a peace treaty — let alone by the time President Bush leaves office.

Early efforts by Egypt on Friday to reseal the border failed when Hamas broke through more areas of the border wall with bulldozers, and Palestinians continued to move easily into Egypt on Saturday, sometimes with cars and trucks.

The confrontational tactics of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of Egypt’s opposition and banned Muslim Brotherhood, also presented a difficult quandary for President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The plight of the Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, is a deeply emotional issue for Egyptians and other Arabs, an issue often promoted and sometimes manipulated by Arab leaders and Arabic satellite channels like Al Jazeera.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html?ex=1359090000&en=56cf272dc30b785f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. Look at the videos ... they're voting w/their feet. I don't care what

spin you put on it. More are leaving than coming back.

[Tom Joad]

3. yep, leaving Israeli genocidal tactics.

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. On the West Bank? Oh wait ... it's Gazans ... where Hamas rules..

Honestly, if you can't get past the tribal issues and see that Palestinians are divided on this issue ... you got problems that have nothing to do with reality.

[Scurrilous]

6. "More are leaving than coming back."

Really?

Where did you read this?

[Tom Joad]

2. and hundreds of thousands of Gazans trampled on US/Israeli policy

leaving it lifeless and its stinkin carcass laying on the border between Egypt and Gaza.
Like the zombies in the movies, it may yet reanimate, and do more harm to the people of Gaza and Palestine, and destroy any hope of peace in the region, but make no mistake that at least for now Israel/US policy has been dealt a serious blow.

Has someone a wooden stake?

[Fredda Weinberg]

5. Your support for violence says it all. n/t

[notadmblnd]

7. Wait.. I'm confused. Where did he advocate violence?

Walling people up, denying them basic human services like fuel to heat their homes, food and medicine is not a violent act? Seems to mee the Israeli government uses the same tactics that were used against the Jewish people in Warsaw during WWII. How are those actions not violent and how do you justify being ok with this?