Israel reopens Gaza crossings

[Thorgal]

Easy way to fix this. Israeli's get out of the areas of Gaza they have ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED.

What areas of Gaza are illegally occupied?

All area's in red are non-Israeli sovereign territory and still occupied under Israeli military law.

These occupied territories made that Palestinian territory is nowadays completely separated with Israeli border crossings.

Just to give you an example : Ashdod port - Occupied territory - is good enough to boost 60 % of Israeli domestic economy.

Not to mention offshore gas fields...

These territories are not under 'Hamas' rule or any threat...so why not give it back ?

Israel made an acknowledgement for (some) of these captured territories outside legal Israeli boundaries of their 'Declaration of Independence'.

http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/B4085A930E0529C98025649D00410973

Edited June 11, 2015 by Thorgal

[JingerBen]

Easy way to fix this. Israeli's get out of the areas of Gaza they have ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED.

What areas of Gaza are illegally occupied?

All area's in red are non-Israeli sovereign territory and still occupied under Israeli military law.

These occupied territories made that Palestinian territory is nowadays completely separated with Israeli border crossings.

Just to give you an example : Ashdod port - Occupied territory - is good enough to boost 60 % of Israeli domestic economy.

Not to mention offshore gas fields...

These territories are not under 'Hamas' rule or any threat...so why not give it back ?

This is a map that should be forcibly tattooed on some prominent part of Netanyahu's anatomy.

[Thorgal]

When Israel blocks entry to Gaza from the sea the result is that Gaza becomes totally isolated and crippled.

That Egypt has blocked Gaza isnt the problem, the problem is that Gaza is blocked by Israel from the sea.

Much of the suffering in the Gaza region began in 1948 when Egypt began the extended refusal to integrate the Gazan's into the Egyptian economy and society when the population was relatively small. The isolation and suffering of Gaza began then and has continued to this day, exacerbated by both Egyptian policies and Israeli policies. TO claim that the Israeli blockade is somehow the problem and that the Egyptian blockades are not is simply illogical.

(bold mine)

Are you quite certain that the Egyptian policy at Rafah has nothing to do with Egyptian-Israeli politics and that Israel does not insist on it?

The Egyptians have their own issues with the Muslim Brotherhood ally, Hamas. Egypt is currently fighting jihadists in the Sinai and has no love for Gaza. Israel has no control over Egypt policy.

When Morsi, a strong advocate of Hamas and supporter of Islamic jihad was in power, the Gaza tunnel network expanded because the Gaza residents did not want to deal with issues such as customs or taxes or compliance with the non proliferation of weapons that was part of the return of Gaza. The tunnels expanded with the knowledge of Morsi's government.. Life did not improve for Gaza residents. The Egyptians who lived on the border with Gaza continued to exploit the Gaza residents and considered them to be thieves and barbarians.

So, why don't you provide a coherent answer in respect to the question? Why do you and others continually blame Israel when the same issues exits on the Egyptian border?

Egypt’s closure of the border is in large part due to outside pressure from US, Israel and Fatah and the need to stop Egyptian Islamist groups domestically to support Hamas and vice versa.

Israeli settlers left Gaza in August 2005. And Israeli government requested to Egypt to sign an agreement in September 2005 to rule all traffic and security measures at the Rafah border. These negotiations were facilitated by the US and EU.

The PA and Israeli government signed in November 2005 the Rafah Agreement, or 'Agreement on Movement and Access', again under negotiations facilitated by the US and EU.

We can consider that Israel is responsible for 90% of Gaza imports, and Egypt only 10%. One of the reasons that Israeli government is opening their borders so fast, is pure economical. Egypt didn't close the Rafah border during latest rocket attacks...

The blockades of the Gaza Strip refers to a land, air, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israel from 2007 to present. Egypt is not engaged in this blockade, even if their border crossing remains mostly closed for any traffic.

Egypt maintained that it could not fully open its side of the border since completely opening the border would represent Egyptian recognition of the Hamas control of Gaza, undermine the legitimacy of the PA and consecrate the split between Gaza and the West Bank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip

Again, Egypt is not engaged in the economical blockade created by Israel.

Egypt has no responsibility in the economy of Gaza. Israel has, through its Paris Protocol signed in 1994, an annex of the Oslo agreements. I will not discuss this in detail or go off topic, but related to the OP : the Palestinian labor can not work and move freely in the Israeli-Palestinian economic zone...even when the borders are open...

Egypt and its border control is not included in the Paris Protocol too !

Edited June 11, 2015 by Thorgal

[Thorgal]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4667138,00.html

Hamas is now pointing a finger at the Palestinian Authority for its efforts to destabilize Gaza.

I think Hamas have their hands well and truly full seeing as ISIS are apparently infiltrating their organization and stealing munitions which they promptly fire at Israel. The Israelis recently even admitted Hamas were trying to stop this, albeit because they are fighting to save their own skins. Meanwhile a recent poll of Gazans found 63% believed the recent conflict with Israel was not worth it, not that they will ever get the chance to vote on it. Meanwhile sat safely in their armchairs many time zones away some of our esteemed members cheer Hamas on from the sidelines.

P.s regarding the allegations that the Palestinian authority are behind the violence this speaks volumes for the credibility of any so called ’Unity government' that Israel are supposed to negotiate with.

Security (closing borders, etc...), political measures and media coverage in the region are not always in line with the facts 'on', or 'in' the ground,...like you want...

Average bomb crater from IDF in Gaza :

And an average rocket crater from Hamas : (could not post the original copyright picture of the june 2015 rocket : see 2nd link)

http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Pages/Rockets-fired-from-Gaza-hit-southern-Israel-4-Jun-2015.aspx

[Jingthing]

Egads. Nobody is arguing that Israel doesn't have the greater military capability. I don't get this tired line from Israel demonizers ... do they think war is like a garden party and that you're not supposed to beat the enemy? An enemy, BTW, openly dedicated to the end of Israel and openly racist against Jews with genocidal intentions against Jews. Good thing Israel is powerful enough to stop them so effectively.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Jingthing