In Case You Forgot

An update on the consequences of Israel's siege on Gaza:


The Gazan people are living without adequate supplies of food, clean water, medicine, and basic human rights and freedoms. What I have found most noteworthy, and most heartbreaking, is that the collective punishment Israel utilizes to prevent terrorist attacks only fosters a hatred of Israel that makes terrorist attacks more likely. An entire generation of children suffers right now because of Israel, and they are too young to understand the particulars. As adults, they will only remember that their childhoods were characterized by cold and hunger because of this mythical beast "Israel" and they will be all the more vulnerable to indoctrination by those who seek to use them as weapons.

From the video:

The people are generally frustrated here and they think that this policy of collective punishment is cold, it's wrongful, it's sad, and it's more harmful for the Israelis than beneficial, because it makes a kind of hatred growing with the new generation...we Palestinians, we need freedom. We fight only for freedom, we don't fight for any other thing.

Second Voyage for Siege Breakers

In a new development of the breaking of the Gaza siege the Free Gaza Movement announces another trip to Gaza that departed from Lanarca, Cyprus on Thursday at 10am local time.

A list of the passengers and crew has been released and it includes one Palestinian lawmaker and one Israeli lawmaker, an Italian opera singer, a writer from Al Jazeera, and several medical doctors, among others.

When the last boat full of humanitarians arrived in Gaza, they were criticized for not bringing in more material goods, but reminded the world that the first trip was largely symbolic and immediately announced that more trips would bring more goods. It looks like they are keeping their promise- this trip has brought six cubic meters of medical supplies and doctors to administer much needed treatment.

The arrival of humanitarian volunteers in Gaza has provided means of assistance other than material, the most important of which has been the aid workers' accompaniment of Gazan fishing boats. The Israeli military does not normally allow the boats far enough from shore to catch adequate numbers of fish, but with an international presence on the boats, the IDF is reluctant to fire. However, even with international volunteers present, force has been used to keep the boats closer to shore.

Economics as it Applies to Human Life

This AP article says five more people have been killed in "tunnel collapses" while smuggling "contraband" into Gaza.

First, those "tunnel collapses" were caused by explosions. Second, the "contraband" was, in this case, fuel.

AP writer Ibrahim Barzak writes:

The five were bringing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an explosion collapsed the tunnel, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been cleared for publication.

Two bodies were located shortly after the explosion Tuesday and the rest were removed early Wednesday. Three smugglers survived and emerged on the Egyptian side, where police arrested them, an Egyptian security official said. The three told police they were smuggling fuel.

Gazans blame the Egyptians for blowing up the tunnels but the Egyptians deny it. Everybody is under a lot of pressure here. The Egyptians are being pressured by Israel to stop the flow of weapons to Hamas through these tunnels and by the Arab world to stop doing what Israel says. The Israeli people are pressuring their government to prevent the resumption of daily missile attacks by Hamas. And Gazans are being pressured by their pesky children for a daily supply of food.

Daily I tell you.

Since the start of the year, 45 people have died in tunnel collapses and, in one of life's cruel ironies, a similar number of people have died as a result of the shortage of goods the tunnel operators were trying to solve. This loss of human life in the prevention of the loss of human life is a bit like our consumption of oil or mass produced food. The energy output exceeds the gain.

Siege-Breakers Take Heat Off Smugglers

The buzz about those those seige-breakers I wrote about is getting louder. Probably because they actually succeeded in breaking the siege and arriving in Gaza.

The event was very poorly publicized when the ships first set sail from their original location in Greece, but with each stop on each island closer to Gaza, they received more publicity. During the last leg of their trip, Israel sent word that they would be allowed to pass through to Gaza because Israeli intelligence had determined that they were not a security threat.

Today, two days after they docked in Gaza, the human rights organizers in charge of the event plan to join a Gazan fishing expedition to provide cover for the fisherman, who are not allowed far enough off the coast to catch adequate numbers of fish to support their families and their economy.

While breaking the siege has a lot of symbolic importance, the practical benefit for the people of Gaza is minimal. The two ships, the SS Liberty and the SS Free Gaza, while carrying 45 human rights activists, did not bring much in the way of necessary material items to a people who are short on almost everything, from food to soap.

Ynet says:

A Gaza activist told Ynet Saturday that local residents were disappointed by the small quantities of food brought in by two boats carrying international leftist activists.

"Many people thought these boats will make a significant contribution to break the siege, not only politically but also in terms of brining in goods, equipment, food, and medicine," he said. "However, once it turned out these boats contain too little food and mostly activists…some people left the beach disappointed."

Perhaps it would be more efficient to support the smuggler network already operating roughly 100 tunnels under Gaza. It is this network that has been responsible for such feats as providing Gazan mothers with baby formula and sexy underwear and delivering drugged lions in sacks for Gaza's zoo.

But of course, these are not the only items being smuggled through the tunnels. And the confirmation of their existence puts to bed previous questions I had about how al-Qaida is providing weapons to Hamas.

Further Information on the Siege Breakers

In my last post, I wrote about some humanitarians that are planning to break the siege on Gaza by sailing from Cyprus. News reports at that time were unclear on the details of the plan, but new information has come to light.

Press TV journalist Yvonne Ridley is set to be on the mysterious nameless ship that leaves from Cyprus on August 4th.

However, there is still a huge shroud of secrecy over our whole operation which reminds me of the old World War II saying my mother used to tell me if I talked too much. "Loose lips sink ships," she would say.

In truth, even if I wanted to, I could not give you the exact location of our sailing vessel so, dear reader, you will have to be patient like me. When the time is ready, you will be among the first to know where she is anchored.

Ridley reports that the voyage will be live-broadcast on the Free Gaza website, here.

More to come.