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The UN Security Council has issued a statement calling for an impartial inquiry into Israel’s raid on a flotilla of Gaza-bound aid ships. The statement condemned the “acts” which led to the deaths of at least 10 civilian activists during the operation. The raid sparked strong international condemnation and calls for Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip which has been under the control of the Islamist Hamas since June 2007. Jeb Sharp reports.
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MARCO WERMAN: The Gaza strip blockade has been in effect since June 2007. That’s when Hamas took control of the territory by force. The aid flotilla aimed to break through by bringing goods directly to the population there. Now the anger and consternation over yesterday’s violence are leading to renewed calls for the blockade to end. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.
JEB SHARP: Critics of the blockade have long condemned the policy as collective punishment against the people of Gaza. Its defenders say it is a just policy aimed at changing Hamas’ behavior, and stopping rocket attacks against Israel. In interviews today, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on Israel to end the blockade saying yesterday’s tragedy would never have happened had Israel done so earlier. But Rob Malley of the International Crisis Group points out that the blockade is not just Israel policy, it’s also had significant international support.
ROB MALLEY: When Hamas took control of Gaza, at that point a policy was decreed by Israel, but with large support of and implicit support by the U.S., by Europeans and by some Arab countries which all felt that the only way to reverse Hamas’ takeover, was to punish the people of Gaza so that they would take it out against Hamas and Hamas would see that it had no choice but to leave power, because it couldn’t govern.
SHARP: Malley says the policy was morally wrong and politically short sighted and it hasn’t worked, he says.
MALLEY: It’s a policy that was designed as a conception to reverse Hamas’ takeover in Gaza in 2007. It has done nothing of the kind. If anything and our analysts who live in Gaza will tell you that, it has strengthened Hamas’ hold because the more you dry up other means of social interaction, of trade, of commerce, the more everything becomes monopolized under Hamas’ rule. So there is less commerce, to be sure, but almost all of it comes under Hamas’ control.
SHARP: Malley thinks the whole policy needs to be rethought and Gaza opened up again to normal commerce. But Israel says simply lifting the blockade is not an option. Here’s foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.
YIGAL PALMOR: It’s very easy to say okay lift the blockade, but then what? Who will guarantee that Hamas will not use that to send in terrorists into Israel or into Egypt? As long as you don’t get these guarantees, just calling to lift the blockade is completely senseless.
DAVID MAKOVSKY: The question is how do you thread the needle? How do you open Gaza up in certain areas without having a reoccurrence of the military strikes which have occurred in the last few years?
SHARP: That’s David Makovsky, co-author of a book about the U.S. and the Middle East called “Myths, Illusions and Peace”.
MAKOVSKY: Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. After it left Gaza, it got 3,500 plus rockets on its border towns and even extending just south of its main city, Tel Aviv.
SHARP: That fundamental conflict between Israel and Hamas has not gone away, but Makovsky acknowledges that the blockade has done little to solve it or meet another of Israel’s tactical goals.
MAKOVSKY: In the beginning, they really thought this was great leverage to get Gali Shalit out. This corporal who has languished in Hamas basement or somewhere in Gaza that has not been found, but in the end it has not been ideal leverage for that because Hamas has wanted some of its worse killers out on the street in return.
SHARP: Makovsky says given that failure of leverage, he would support taking a second look at how the sanctions are structured. But even so, he’s talking about tweaking the list of banned items, not scrapping the blockade altogether. Other commentators say yesterday’s violence requires a much larger rethinking and even a whole new approach for dealing with Hamas. For The World, I’m Jeb Sharp.
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