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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Break Hamas Stranglehold On Gaza
2014-09-22
[Ynet] Australian Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma says new cross-border mechanism can help restart, not only rebuild, the Gazoo economy.
The honourable ambassador's optimism would be sweet, if it didn't endanger the actual people who live in the region.
This week I visited one of the Gazoo periphery communities, Kibbutz Nahal Oz. It felt anything but normal. High concrete blast walls surrounded the kindergarten. Many families were yet to return, too fearful and uncertain about the future. To the residents, the current calm seemed tentative and fragile.

The fifty day conflict with Gazoo took a heavy toll on both sides. But the current ceasefire remains all too fragile. The status quo needs to change, or the prospect of rocket fire resuming towards Israel is real.

Following the ceasefire, Israel expanded Gazoo's fishing zone to six nautical miles. 400 truckloads of goods now cross the border at Kerem Shalom each day. From sacks of flour to cartons of nappies, from Australian cattle and cooking gas to roofing and watermelon seeds -- I saw it all when I visited this week.

These are positive steps, but more is now needed.

That is why the Israel-PA-UN agreement announced earlier this week to facilitate the reconstruction and recovery of Gazoo is so important, and why countries such as Australia are so keen to support it.

Israel has legitimate security concerns that need to be addressed in any new cross-border mechanism. No-one in the international community will tolerate seeing sacks of cement being used to rebuild the terror attack tunnels.

But provided we can protect Israel's security concerns, improving economic conditions for ordinary Gazooks is a goal Israel and the international community can share.

Gazoo's reconstruction needs are real and significant. As importantly, economic opportunities for Gazooks to earn a living on their own must improve.

When I visited Gazoo several months ago, I was shocked by the stranglehold that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, exercised over the economy.

If people had a job, they worked for Hamas or were employed by an aid agency. Much of the population subsisted on welfare and handouts. The economy was closed and stagnant. It was a miserable snapshot of a place once renowned for its commercial class.

A new cross-border mechanism with robust monitoring and verification could change this equation.

If goods can move more freely in and out of Gazoo, if exports can resume, if a private sector can re-emerge, then the politics of Gazoo can be transformed.

Gazook strawberry and carnation growers could sell their goods into the West Bank, where incomes are three times as high. West Bank Paleostinians could become a big source of tourists for Gazoo's beaches.
"Fatima, pack up the kids and your bathing suit. We've won an all expenses paid vacation in Gaza!"
"Ohhh Bassem, how exciting! Lets see... I'll need to buy a hijab, and one of those black sacks the women wear, and a burkini -- or do you think I should just wear the black sack to the beach, too? -- and we'll need get the same for the girls, but the boy will be fine, and so will you..."
This will not happen overnight, but if we can break Hamas' stranglehold on the Gazook economy, their political dominance will soon be challenged.
True. Which is why Gazans are heading to Europe via Egypt in their hundreds instead.
This is an outcome that would benefit both the security of Israel and the people of Gazoo.
A reader comment at the link: "No need to worry Mr. Sharma...
You won't be "seeing sacks of cement being used to rebuild the terror attack tunnels." (Roll eyes here)"
Posted by:trailing wife

#4  No-one in the international community will tolerate seeing sacks of cement being used to rebuild the terror attack tunnels.

This is either pure horse crap or he is using one hell of a unique definition of "international community."
Posted by: AlanC   2014-09-22 13:14  

#3   Sheik Ahmad Yassin, the Muslim Brother and Islamist firebrand made his home in Gaza and while there helped found Hamas. Jailed by Israel in 1984 for abetting sedition, he was freed in a 1985 prisoner exchange. Yassin was the first to conceive of Palestine as a battlefield in which Palestinian freedom could only be won through jihad. However, even Yassin was thought to be too soft by some Gazans. In 1987 Palestine Islamic Jihad, an even more violent Islamist movement was created. It was inspired by events in Iran, and has had Iranian patronage ever since. In response Yassin created Hamas and initiated the first general Palestinian uprising, or Intifada.

And so it has been ever since. When Hamas is thought to be too weak PIJ emerges with a vengeance. Thus, it is not sufficient to say, let's sideline Hamas. First it would be very hard to do, if not impossible. Second, it does nothing to eliminate the ruthless PIJ. In sum, Gaza (as the Egyptians know) is a tough nut to crack.
Posted by: Beldar Sloque3832   2014-09-22 10:56  

#2  This will not happen overnight, but if we can break Hamas' stranglehold on the Gazook economy, their political dominance will soon be challenged.

That's not going to happen so long as Iran and others keep funding Hamas.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-09-22 10:28  

#1  Yes, yes, Heaven forbid we'll let reality interfere with our, feel-good, theories.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-09-22 03:41  

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