[R-G] Let's not have a false sense of security

[Anthony Fenton]

Let's not have a false sense of security
http://www.killingtrain.com
Justin Podur
January 17, 2009

Numerous analysts have said that "Israel will not allow a full-blown  
humanitarian crisis in Gaza". First of all, I am not sure how they  
would define a "full-blown" crisis. Can the current crisis reach "half- 
blown" status at least? The place is rubble. Sanitation, electricity,  
and drinking water facilities are destroyed. Hospitals are destroyed.  
The systems were brought to the breaking point by blockade and then  
pushed over the cliff by systematic destruction. If people are  
starving, how would anyone know? They shoot journalists and bomb  
UNRWA, after all, including reserve food stocks and supply convoys.  
And the world's journalists and the UN mostly apologize for getting in  
the way of the bombs (while condemning the Palestinians for doing the  
same).

Here's another one I wouldn't assume: "Israel must withdraw  
eventually". Why is that? They occupied Gaza for years in the past.  
They want to see to it that Gaza cannot govern itself and that society  
there collapses completely. What better way than to continue to do  
what they are doing? Is it out of their reach financially, militarily,  
politically, or diplomatically? On the contrary. This operation was an  
experiment in what it was possible to get away with, and they have  
gotten away with it all. The next phase is the closely supervised  
destruction of the innovations Gaza used to survive for so long: the  
remaining infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads, plumbing,  
electricity) the tunnels, the police, United Nations aid, the ability  
to share whatever was brought in through Hamas's social networks and  
organization (the social networks will be dismantled through arrest  
and assassination of leaders and terror attacks on civilians). The  
Israelis destroyed it. Now they must look after their investment and  
see that it stays destroyed.

All they need to achieve this is what they have already got: the  
compliance of the Western and Arab regimes. If these regimes allowed  
(when they didn't cheer) a month of high-tech high-intensity massacre,  
why would they shrink from months of occupation and starvation? And  
even if they did shrink, how would accomplish anything effective to  
stop it? With a totally destroyed infrastructure, continued sanctions,  
and Israel's one-sided war against the UN in effect, we are well into  
"full blown humanitarian crisis", unless some unforeseen change in the  
balance of forces occurs.

It bears repeating that it would be easy enough for the US to deal  
with this. They could say no more weapons for Israel unless Israel  
leaves Gaza, ends the blockade, and allows complete freedom of  
movement for people and goods; no Israeli authority over Gaza's  
airspace, sea lanes, passage of its people to the West Bank or any  
other country, or its border with Egypt. This is so minimalist that it  
is painful to argue for it, but it is all the same completely  
inconceivable that even this supposedly hope-and-change-oriented  
administration would do it.

Grassroots efforts to change the balance of forces and impose some  
cost to the indecency of Western political leaders on this issue are  
racing against time. The Palestinians are without protection.