Welcoming Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to the White House on Wednesday, Obama promised the "full weight" of US diplomacy on the latest crisis and vowed to coax Israelis and Palestinians out of a "dead end" and into direct peace talks.
He also unveiled 400 million dollars of US aid for Gaza and the West Bank for housing, education and infrastructure, as part of a US commitment to improve the "day-to-day lives of Palestinians."
Sure, this was mostly to prop up Abbas and the West Bank, but Gaza will get cash, too.
And the focus on humanitarian issues related to the blockade neglects that Hamas uses access to the outside world to acquire the means to wage war on Israel.
Israel, naturally, isn't keen on easing the pressure on Hamas in Gaza. There is also a more human reason for refusing to lift the blockade:
Israel will not lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip unless the Islamist Hamas movement allows the Red Cross to visit an Israeli soldier captured in 2006, its foreign minister said on Thursday.
"We must say clearly that the minimal condition for lifting the blockade is for the Red Cross to be allowed to regularly visit Gilad Shalit," Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement, referring to the 23-year-old conscript.
Remember him?
I know that there are those who insist that Israel's blockade is illegal since that is only a legal measure in war. But if there is no war, why does Hamas still hold a POW from the 2006 war? (Or more accurately, kidnapping Shalit sparked the 2006 war with Hamas in Gaza that expanded to southern Lebanon in the fight with Hezbollah.)
Clearly, even if you didn't pay attention to Hamas' desire to destroy Israel as their statements and periodic rocket and mortar attacks on Israel indicate, doesn't this POW fact indicate that Israel and Gaza are, in fact, at war?
Which means Israel is fully justified in enforcing a blockade on Gaza. Yet they are willing to lift it not to get Shalit released, but just to find out if their soldier is alive.
Which means we've decided to side a little bit with the enemy of our ally by lessening the impact of the blockade.
To be fair, our leaders are probably truly unaware that there is a war going on. Somebody really ought to brief the president on who's ass he should kick.
