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A Gazan nightmare

At the risk of repetition, it is important to point out how George Bush is finding out, like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair before him, that Western attempts to bind the Israeli establishment to a permanent solution to the crisis is international politics’ equivalent of asking for the moon.

Tel Aviv is approaching Gaza’s effective extermination in a very systematic manner. By the time Hamas and Fatah fell out, embarrassing half a century’s sacrifices, the Palestinian people were already facing their worst humanitarian catastrophe, owing principally to the economic chastisement slapped on them by the West as punishment for electing Hamas in the Jan ’06 general election. Then, with Gaza under Hamas control, the financial grind was intensified. Just after Annapolis, Israel further increased the force of its choke – combining military attacks with complete isolation, not even allowing fuel and food into the territory. As if that weren’t enough, now a power boycott is underway, exploiting a people living in inhuman conditions on the pretext of isolating Hamas.

The Middle East offers perhaps the best tried and tested examples of how and why sanctions and conditions aimed at hurting ruling entities end up harming only the common man. And the Israeli lobby is perhaps best aware of this fact. That it still continues with such tactics is proof enough that it is out to exterminate the Palestinian people just as much as it wants to finish off Hamas.

The supposedly interested Bush lobby watching from across the Atlantic ought to factor in these facts before making tall claims, lest its track record prove hollower with every new promise.