Tens of thousands of Palestinians burst through the walls of Gaza into Egypt yesterday, amid wailing about the nastiness of life there. Agreeing that the Palestinians are uncomfortable – yes, uncomfortable, not starving or freezing to death, but uncomfortable – we have questions: why and how can it be fixed?
It isn’t the crowding, despite disinformation about Gaza being the most densely populated place on the planet. Singapore (6,639/km2) and Hong Kong (6,407/km2) are more densely populated than Gaza (4,118/km2) and Monaco (23,660/km2) is tops. New York City (25,846/km2) beats Gaza City (8,800/km2) hands down.
It isn’t the lack of money. The State Department noted in June 2007 that the United States was putting an additional $40 million into UNRWA emergency relief for the territories, after the $50 million we contributed earlier in the year. Note that this was AFTER the Palestinian Civil War and the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. This follows $84.5 million in 2006. International donors recently pledged $7.7 BILLION over three years to the Palestinians, of which Fatah sources said 40 percent would be spent in Gaza. This follows $1.2 BILLION spent on the territories in 2006. [Check previous JINSA Reports about the level of ISRAELI aid to Gaza right up to this very day.]
It may have something to so with poverty. Money (see above) has very little to do with poverty, but UNRWA and intergenerational refugee status certainly do. The deliberate warehousing of Palestinians for nearly 60 years has left 795,000 people in Gaza classed as “refugees” – 70 percent of the total population!
This, then, clearly has something to do with refusing to accept the reality of Israel and an ongoing belief in the myth of a “right of return.” [As a test, compare and contrast the successes in resettling Arab refugees of 1947-50 with Jewish refugees, both European and Middle Eastern in the mid-20th Century, and with all WWII refugees and with Vietnamese/Laotian/Cambodians of the 1970s and 1980s. Draw conclusions.]
But mostly, it has to do with the fact that the people of Gaza elected Hamas on a platform of armed attacks against Israel and Hamas has delivered as promised.
Remember that our State Department pronounced the 2006 Palestinian election “fair and democratic” expressions of “the will of the Palestinian people.” Remember that in reality, Palestinian voters were given a “choice” between corrupt secular terrorists and corrupt religious terrorists. Both parties were – and remain – committed to policies that would de-establish the State of Israel whether by politics (Fatah) or by violence (Hamas).
The firing of Kassam rockets into Israel began under Fatah and continues with greater volume, range and accuracy under Hamas – aided immeasurably by the smuggling from Egypt. (If they can bring military equipment and money into Gaza from Egypt, why can’t they bring milk for the children?) In 2006, more than 1,100 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel; in 2007 the number was more than 2,000. The total is more than 4,000 since Israel left Gaza. And just since 1 January, the number is more than 420, over 200 of which came in a span of four days last week.
The situation in Gaza today is the direct result of armed aggression emanating from Gaza against the Israeli people, itself a direct result of the failure of the Arab world and then the Palestinians to accept the permanence and legitimacy of the State of Israel in the region.
Tomorrow: What to do about Gaza.
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