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For some perspective,
America and other nations have acquired territories
all over the world as a result of wars fought and
perceived national security interests--often
thousands of miles away from home. The examples are
indeed many, and the war over the Falkland Islands
is a beaut.
In a controversial move, several years back Israel
decided to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza for the
sake of greater peace with its assorted Arab
neighbors. It had already done so from Sinai in
exchange for a very cold peace with
Egypt--especially after President Sadat's
assassination. Hundreds of tunnels move huge
quantities of munitions into Gaza to kill Jews from
Egyptian territory. Just imagine if things were
reversed...
But the tunnels are just one of many unfortunate
aspects of the frigid nature of the peace Israel has
gotten as a result of its withdrawals so far. Keep
in mind that Israel was not obligated to make any
withdrawals whatsoever until real treaties of peace
(not "hudna" ceasefires and such) were concluded
between itself and those who have repeatedly tried
to destroy it.
For good or for bad, Prime Minister Sharon withdrew
from Gaza. Israel maintained some controls to see to
it that Gaza didn't simply become another Fatah,
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and/or Iranian base from which
it could be attacked--like that which it faces in
Lebanon with Hizbullah. Hence, the naval blockade.
The whole idea was to give Gaza's Arabs a chance at
what scholars call positive nationalism--state
building, for example--rather than the negative
nationalism Arabs indeed are such specialists at.
While negative nationalism has different aspects to
it, it can largely be summed up as holding one’s own
nation/group superior and turning this difference
into instruments of discrimination, subjugation, and
other assorted nastiness towards others.
A look at how Arab nationalism has handled/is
handling scores of millions of non-Arab
peoples--Kurds, Imazighen ("Berbers"), Copts, Jews (kilab
yahud--"Jew dogs"), black Africans (abeed--"slaves"),
and so forth--who predate by millennia the Arabs
themselves in the lands they conquered and forcibly
Arabized--is telling indeed. Yet few folks want to
listen...If it's not about Jews and Israel, evil
simply does not exist in the region for the hear no
evil, see no evil, speak no evil majority when it
comes to the "Arab" World.
Sure enough and true to form, Gaza's Arabs did not
disappoint.
Rather than positively responding to Israel's peace
gesture--the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza that it
was not obligated to make but did anyway since there
was no treaty of peace with its Arab Palestinian
Authority and/or Hamas enemies--thousands of Arab
rockets, mortars, and so forth soon rained down from
Gaza on Israel proper. Think about how other
nations--America, Russia, the Arabs themselves, for
example--would have handled this situation. Israel
tolerated such murder, terror, and destruction for
years before reacting.
So, that's how we got to where we're at today.
Facing an enemy elected by Gaza's Arabs themselves
(so they are not "innocent") which is dedicated to
its destruction and the killing of its people,
Israel has thus kept up its naval blockade of the
Gaza coast line. The blockade is totally legal in
international maritime law,www.ekurd.netand
is like others that have been used by nations
against enemies. While others have used blockades
(America included), few-- if any--have ever faced an
enemy such as Israel faces--one dedicated to its
very disappearance. So, if Israel's blockade is not
legit, there has never been one that was.
While numerous weaponry has made it into Gaza via
the Egyptian tunnels mentioned above (nice "peace
partner"), ships have no match when it comes to
delivering massive quantities of materials. A number
of ships filled with weapons destined for Hamas and
Hizbullah have already been prevented from
delivering such "humanitarian aid" in the past. In
the Karine-A incident, behind the bags of flour and
food were missiles, rockets, mortars, mines, and the
like.
To any reasonable mind, Israel thus has good reason
to want to see what's aboard ships getting through
to Gaza's Arabs. And, remember, it didn't have to be
this way...Positive gestures towards peace by the
Arabs themselves responding to the Israel withdrawal
would have seen the blockade gone by now.
Unfortunately, building the Arabs' 22nd state is not
the priority...destroying the Jews' lone, miniscule
one is and always has been.
As for humanitarian aid, please recall that
thousands of tons of food, medicine, and other life
essentials move freely overland each week into Gaza
after inspection. No one is starving in Gaza. Yet in
places where folks are truly starving, being daily
oppressed, and struggling for the most basic of
human rights, there are no flotillas to be found.
Again, Jew devils aren't involved--so there's not
much meaningful interest.
And that brings me back to the marines--Iran's, that
is...
Look--I don't want to see anyone die, suffer, and so
forth.
I truly want to see justice--the relative variety of
positive nationalism, not the oppressive, exclusive
variety of negative nationalism--for all peoples, in
the Middle East and elsewhere. That's what my new
book aims for (http://q4j-middle-east.com). But
that's not what Gaza, Fatah, Hamas, the flotilla,
Iran, and so forth are all about. They are about
Israel's destruction--sooner or later. There is no
doubt about this.
Given these realities, Israel has no good choices.
But, unless it wants to allow Gaza to be able to
import all the Iranian and other weaponry that it
wants, the blockade must stay in force.
I don't want to see war come anywhere, but, Iran is
not giving Israel much of a choice. It openly
proclaims that it too wants Israel dead. One way for
non-Arab Muslims to prove their worth is by out-Arabing
the Arabs in their hatred of the despised kilab
yahud. The mullahs and their followers excel at
this.
The Twelver Shi'a ruling Iran have no fear of war.
They especially expect a major catastrophe before
the return of their "Hidden Imam," their messianic
mahdi.
Iran is a huge country with a large population. The
mullahs calculate that even with massive Israeli
retaliation, Iran will be left standing--while
Israel, which one needs a magnifying glass to locate
on a world map, will not.
Israel should have dealt with the Iranian issue
years ago before new anti-aircraft systems and such
were installed and the Iranian nuclear program
became as advanced as it is today. It did not act
largely because it feared the world's reactions.
Perhaps it also hoped that real sanctions and
actions by the world community would also tame the
mullahs a bit. If so, Israel has been as naive here
as it was when it supplied paintball guns to its
commandos coming aboard that Turkish ship off of
Gaza a bit ago.
If Iranian marines are aboard any new flotilla
aiming to break Israel's necessary, legal blockade
(not to supply poor starving Arabs), then Israel
must either disable the ship--if possible--or sink
it. As a fisherman, it will make a great artificial
reef.
If war comes, well...it was coming anyway. Not a
good thing, but what are Israel's choices
here--other than to roll over and play dead in order
to appease the world's assorted hypocrites and
supporters of the double standard supreme?
It's worth noting that Iran, Syrian Arabs, and its
new friends in Turkey are just playing that same old
game other real oppressors often do: make folks look
elsewhere so they don't focus on the real
subjugation, crimes against humanity, and such being
perpetrated by those assorted pots calling the
kettle black.
And Jews and their nation are always the scapegoats
and whipping posts par excellence.
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Gerald A. Honigman, a longtime contributing writer
for ekurd.net. Honigman has published a major book,
"The
Quest For Justice In The Middle East--The
Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective."
By Gerald A. Honigman. eKurd.net,
June 16, 2010. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com.
Copyright © 2010 ekurd.net.
All rights reserved
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