Report: Israel ready to relax Gaza blockade?
posted at 10:33 pm on June 3, 2010 by Allahpundit
That was fast. As Krauthammer says in his op-ed tomorrow, “the whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense.” They’re not allowed to occupy Lebanon or Gaza to keep weapons out of their enemies’ hands; they’re not allowed to wage war against Hezbollah or Hamas even after they withdraw; and now they’re not allowed to cut off Hamas’s supply routes even while providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The only “legitimate” option is surrender. Lesson learned: Provocations work.
While still insisting that its blockade of Gaza is essential to its security, the Israeli government is now shifting its position, “exploring new ways” of allowing goods to reach the coastal enclave, an Israeli official said Thursday…
Israel’s Channel 2 television news reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had proposed to Tony Blair, the international envoy of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers, that an international naval force inspect future aid ships bound for Gaza.
Judging by how well international ground forces did in Lebanon to keep weapons out of Hezbollah’s hands, Hamas should have a gigantic arsenal in, oh, three years or so. That’s assuming the Times’s report on Bibi’s plan is correct, though. According to the Jerusalem Post, he might have something different in mind:
The navy is gearing up for the possible interception over the weekend of the MV Rachel Corrie protest ship, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday he was considering letting more goods into Gaza…
But under pressure from the US, Netanyahu is now willing to reconsider his policy of closing the Gaza land passages to all but humanitarian supplies…
The cargo path to Gaza would remain the same. Ships would not be allowed to dock in Gaza and would instead be diverted, as they are now, to Ashdod.
There, the cargo would be inspected and then sent to Gaza by land, as is presently done. The new policy, if approved, would increase the variety and amount of goods.
No international force, in other words, but merely a relaxation of some of the rules that currently prohibit certain innocuous items (e.g., musical instruments) from entering Gaza. That’s certainly preferable to the first option, but I don’t know what it’ll solve. The point of the flotilla wasn’t to sneak aid to Gazans but to challenge Israeli authority with an eye to using international outrage afterwards to get the blockade lifted completely. That would give the local Islamist regimes an easily demagogue-able political victory and would hopefully open Gaza’s port to all sorts of special “aid” from Iran. So long as Israel remains in control of the coast, even with relaxed rules about what can be brought in, they’re going to face new provocations. But don’t take my word for it:
When asked if the activists [aboard the next boat to approach Gaza] would try to break the blockade or would agree to a compromise that would allow them to unload the cargo under Israeli supervision, Kysia said, “We don’t recognize Israel’s authority to impose a blockade on the Gaza Strip or to impose their power on the Gaza Strip,” adding that the organization didn’t want to be accomplices to Israel’s policy of “putting Palestinians on a diet.”
No doubt Netanyahu realizes all this; I assume the new concession is aimed at simply throwing the west a bone to turn down the heat and to hopefully deny Turkey a pretext to escalate the situation further by sending its warships to escort the next “aid” boat. But all they’re doing here is buying time until the next demand comes for Israel to stop defending itself, which, per the JPost, could be as soon as this weekend when the MV Rachel Corrie (yes, really) steams towards the coast. Stay tuned.
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To be fair, “attacking” a reservoir is massive undertaking…It’s not exactly like you are putting cyan!de into Aunt Esther’s lemonade. Any adulteration involves a massive volume of chemicals and an equally complex means to mix those chemicals into a fairly substantial volume of water.
JFKY on May 16, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Obama said today that he does NOT support an Independet Counsel being appointed for ANY of the scandals….
The bottom line is if Holder des not call for an Independent Counsel it will NOT HAPPEN, they will be able to get away with all of it, & there is nothing anyone can do about it.
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:01 PM
:) not yours as in ‘you voted for him’ :), of course not… ‘your preezy’ (and mine too, I suspect, but then I’m in denial :) as in your (and our) collective curse…but only for 2 more years or so…I’m looking fwd to the last two lame duck years of his preezydency…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:04 PM
I think Jon Stewart needs to add to that skit decrying government incompetence highlighted on the Internet a day or two ago.
This is the stuff government needs to be worrying about. Not people wearing “Don’t Tread on Me” shirts.
WTH is going on in this administration.
BuckeyeSam on May 16, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Obama’s administration / term in office so far:
FAILURE & SCANDAL!
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:09 PM
Brat, great find. Thanks.
Schadenfreude on May 16, 2013 at 2:10 PM
INCOMPETENCE is the hallmark of this administration. Starting in the Oval Office.
GarandFan on May 16, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Only credible option: crowdsource.
Names, photos, known acquaintences and known addresses.
Time to take your lumps with the rest of them, US Marshalls.
socalcon on May 16, 2013 at 2:12 PM
I hope and pray, most earnestly, that the last years are mired in controversy and scandal….and a painful inability to accomplish much of anything, I prepare for a “good” 2014.
JFKY on May 16, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Well why not? It’s not like they were planning on praying the rosary in front of a Planned Parenthood Clinic or something terroristy like that.
Lily on May 16, 2013 at 2:14 PM
Hmmm, scandal has been a feature of many a president’s second term, even if it boiled over from the first.
Maybe a president should only serve one term. That makes for more than enough potential scandal.
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM
{facepalm}
socalcon on May 16, 2013 at 2:16 PM
I didn’t know about the IG REPORT…(of course, knowing about what the IRS was doing is another story…)
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:18 PM
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM
MAYBE we just shouldn’t elect inexperienced Communist-tutored (Frank Marshall Davis) hate-spewing racist Communist-based Black Liberation theology pastor-mentored (Wright), Socialist Ideologist-quoting (Saul Alinsky) Community Organizers as President, especially one who plans to put a scndal-plagued Eric Holder in charge of the DOJ & a tax cheat in charge of the Treasury?! Just saying…
easyt65 on May 16, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Same here…methinks we are getting a preview of how his last two tears in office will look like…good news is that by then his political capital would have been spent and exhausted, so that his lame duck years will be even lamer…all these scandals will take a toll which makes me really optimistic about 2014…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:29 PM
No we shouldn’t have. But Barry was the perfect stooge at the perfect time for this job. His election was carefully coordinated by a crafty organization and abetted by the LSM. It was certainly an effort he could have never have hoped to coordinate on his own.
A mastermind he is not.
hawkeye54 on May 16, 2013 at 2:30 PM
And don’t they perform daily water test/analysis anyways? you’d think that a basic test would reveal the chemicals that are not supposed to be in there, especially if they are in lethal quantities…it’s not quite the Middle Age with the Borgias or the Medicis poisoning the water wells of their enemies :)…
jimver on May 16, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Probably placed them in a munitions factory…no one would ever look there…
right2bright on May 16, 2013 at 2:51 PM
government is good for you! let’s make it bigger!!
Sachiko on May 16, 2013 at 3:22 PM
Isn’t keeping track of terrorists racist or something?
We’ll have to wait till they join a tea party. Then they’ll find them for sure.
PattyJ on May 16, 2013 at 4:17 PM
Which name: their original one, or the one they use in the WPP?
Or the false one they are going to use once they get fake documents?
AesopFan on May 16, 2013 at 4:21 PM
It’s all a conspiracy to deny Hillary her turn at the wheel. Dirty Mysogynysts.
abobo on May 16, 2013 at 5:47 PM
The problem is that any highly-public “attack” would close smaller/on-site reservoirs until they could be tested, drained, cleaned, tested again, verified, etc. Then the equipment. Then the distribution system (the comical part is realizing where the water from the flushed lines would go.)
The country re-elected Obama. It’s not a stretch that many or most of them would think one gallon of ________ in a 100 million gallon tank would kill them.
rogerb on May 16, 2013 at 8:46 PM
There are two ways to go after a reservoir.
First is the water, but that hasn’t been treated yet so you are unlikely to do much there.
Second is the dam, which is an earthen dike for the Quabbin Reservoir.
I have a t-shirt around here someplace that says: ‘There is no problem that can’t be solved with the suitable application of high explosives.’
ajacksonian on May 16, 2013 at 9:06 PM
“Man arrested at Boise Bench home on terrorism charges…
BOISE — Federal agents have arrested 30-year-old Fazliddin Kurbanov, who was living at a Boise Bench home, as part of a federal terrorism investigation.
The U.S. Attorney says federal terrorism charges were filed Thursday afternoon in Boise and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Kurbanov is an Uzbekistan national and is legally in the United States.
Kurbanov has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boise on three counts; one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device.
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City also returned an indictment charging Kurbanov with one count of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction.
Government officials say this arrest was the culmination of an investigation by the FBI’s Salt Lake Division, which covers Idaho and Utah; and Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Idaho and Utah, which include a number of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents have been closely monitoring Kurbanov’s activities for any potential threat….
KTVB has learned that Kurbanov has a police record here in Idaho. He was pulled over for traffic violations in three different Idaho counties over the past two years.”
http://www.ktvb.com/news/FBI-conducts-investigation-on-Boise-bench-207753341.html
workingclass artist on May 16, 2013 at 9:08 PM
Large amounts of ricin can be fairly easily made, radioactive isotopes in even modest amounts can be detected, and botulin is extremely toxic in small amounts. The entire reservoir need not be made highly lethal; detections of toxicity need only be high enough to close down the reservoir for some time and cause fear or even panic. That’s what terror is about.
Of course, these foreign Muslims from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore were trespassing in the middle of the night only for the purposes of making observations of the water supply for their “education and career interests” , and they are not (as the media is making a point of) known to be connected to criminal groups. So nothing to worry about, move along unless you’re a greasy racist Islamophobe.
Chessplayer on May 17, 2013 at 11:21 AM
The picture in the caption is priceless and says it all!
rjoco1 on May 17, 2013 at 11:28 AM
Just as Ed used the word “unexpected” for months (years?) regarding the growth in unemployment, perhaps the word “Incompetent” should be used with this administration every time one of these incredible messups occurs. It’s time that the truth be told – either this administration is really into “changing America as we know it” – that is, changing America to a hunting ground against decent Americans or it is incredibly incompetent and the word must be used.
Who else is getting their phone tapped?
MN J on May 19, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Hello all
can someone tell me what this triple face palm photo is from. I just noticed it reoccurs, anyone?
Thanks in advance.
Observation on May 19, 2013 at 3:53 PM
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