Now that would be change I can believe in
Issandr El AmraniThe lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and permission for Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip freely through Israeli border crossings. These are the unequivocal demands that President Barack Obama is expected to make during his meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the White House in two weeks.
If anyone thought that lifting the economic blockade of the Gaza Strip would satisfy the Americans, it is now clear to them that is only the beginning. Reliable sources who have been apprised of the preparations that the White House is making for the meeting between Obama and Netanyahu revealed that the demands are much more significant. While Obama voiced his satisfaction with the relief measures that Israel announced, he believes that the situation in which more than a million and a half inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are living is intolerable.
The American president is particularly angry that the inhabitants are not free to leave the Gaza Strip. He sees that as a kind of “collective punishment.” Political sources say that Netanyahu, who has chosen not to change the situation with the Gaza Strip, now finds himself under a great deal of international pressure and must act under pressure from the United States.
Obama also intends to examine the issue of extending the construction freeze with Netanyahu. It may be assumed that Netanyahu will make a continuation of the construction freeze conditional upon going over to direct talks with Abu Mazen.
Reader Comments (10)
This is typical of the Israeli press. Stories like this are not speculation so much as they are incitement. Most Americans would be shocked if Obama broke with the rest of Democrats on Gaza. And after Gaza, Goldstone, and letting Israel do its own investigation of the flotilla attack, Israelis too should be able to clearly see that Obama is not going to ask for anything that takes them out of their comfort zone.
What stops Palestinians from traveling freely through Egypt?
Nothing.
Oren has done this quite a bit with his accomplices in the press. He makes a statement about a "crisis" or a "rift" and people start going crazy. It won't be long before AIPAC, the ADL, Conference of Presidents, and the entire House and Senate send letters to BO expressing deep concern over the direction of U.S.-Israel relations. All in a day's work for the Ambassador.
"What stops Palestinians from traveling freely through Egypt? Nothing."
Factually incorrect. The Egyptian government stops them. Won't let them through the borders. If they sneak through, won't let them travel legally outside of Egypt and pushes them back into Gaza or locks them up or tortures them or any number of other nasty options. Why? (1) Because the Egyptian government doesn't want to piss off the American government who pays them over a billion dollars a year in hush money to do whatever Israel wants. Including maintaining the siege of Gaza. (2) Because the non-elected Egyptian dictatorship is scared of the precedent that an elected government - with close ties to the only even marginally viable opposition in Egypt - in Gaza sets. The Egyptian dictatorship doesn't want their own people getting ideas about actually being able to have a democracy, so they do everything they can to try and undermine the government in Gaza that was elected and then survived a US and Israeli attempted Fatah coup.
Bullshit. Obama will make no such demand. But if he did? Yes, that could mean the start of actual change we need. Only, it's pointless to hope he'll do something that he won't do. Nothing in his record indicates any possibility at all that Obama will take such a stand. We need to stop wrapping our minds around empty dreams of Obama the Secret Peacemaker.
Non-Arab Arab
So, let me get it.
Egypt (a fellow arab and muslim) doesn't allow Palestinians in , for whatever reason. but Israel (the enemy) should?
If that's not ironic, I don't know what is.
Hey bonehead 'i' - Egypt is run by a petty dictator subservient to racist Israelis and US congressmen. People in Egypt overwhelmingly want to help the Palestinians, but the government prodded by guns and bribes from Washington supported by putzes like you won't let them. As for the Israelis, the place they are squatters in is called Palestine and the Israelis have no say in whether or not the Palestinians have the right to go in and out of their own country as they please. I would suggest Israelis start getting that principle through their thick skulls if they want to have a long-term future in Palestine. I for one hope that once they give up their racism they do, but they are the ones who have to decide if they'll listen to racist morons like you or to basic human decency.
"i", also consider what you might say if someone made the argument about Jews in the 1930s that so many Israelis make about Palestinians today - why can't "their" people in America take them all in? Why should the middle east accommodate "them" when "they" control so many other countries in the world and have "friends" in the US and GBR? Hell, why didn't America and GBR just take all the German Jews?
(Of course it's more complicated than that and there is nationalism involved - as it is for the Palestinians - get it?)
Non-Arab Arab
I asked a question.
Personal attacks and hateful and racist Israel-bashing do not qualify as an answer.
The level of your argument is far from impressive.
The nonsense about not opening rafa crossing is a bald faced lie or maybe ignorance.
Get it through your head . Nobody in Israel or the us would mind if Rafa is open.
The israelis and the Americand know that the egyptians will handle Hamas and the Palestinians with their usual Brutality.
since they are Arabs, nobody is going to say anything or care.
Israel wants the egyptians to take responsibility of Gaza. that would be the ideal solution.
It is Egypt who refuses to take responsibility.
SP
I'm afraid I don't understand your analogy. can you elaborate?
Yo "i" you're a bonehead, that's a fact, deal with it. Bashing Israel is the opposite of racism, supporting Israel is the real racism. It is a racist state. If you support it, you're a racist. You're a racist. And a bonehead.
Denying Cairo's subservience to Washington and Tel Aviv is handy for you I'm sure, but grounded in fantasy and your bonehead racist belief that all Arabs are the same. Sure the gun Zionists wouldn't mind if they could dump the problems they've created in Gaza on Egypt, but the Egyptian dictator and the Tel Aviv goons both want any real resistance and any real democracy in the Middle East squashed as they know it means the end of their brutal regimes. As for the Gazans, they are mostly from the parts of Palestine occupied by the gun Zionists in 1948. They will be returning home, whether you like it or not, it is the 'responsibility' of no one but the gun Zionists to stop denying them that right on pain of death, imprisonment, and/or torture as they have done for over half a century now.