Lift the Siege of Gaza
In June 1948, our wartime ally imposed a blockade on Berlin, cutting off and condemning to death or Stalinist domination 2 million Germans, most of whom, not long before, had cheered Adolf Hitler.
Harry Truman responded with the Berlin airlift, in perhaps the most magnanimous act of the Cold War.
For nine months, U.S. pilots flew into Tempelhof, carrying everything from candy to coal, saving a city and earning the eternal gratitude of the people of Berlin, and admiration everywhere that moral courage is admired.
That was an America that lived its values.
And today, President Obama should end his and his country’s shameful silence over the inhumane blockade of Gaza that is denying 1.5 million beleaguered people the basic necessities of a decent life.
Time to start acting like America again.
That bloody debacle in the Eastern Mediterranean last Sunday was an inevitable result of Israel doing what it always seems to do: going beyond what is essential to her security, to impose collective punishment upon any and all it regards as hostile to Israel.
Israel claims, and film confirms, that its commandos rappelling down onto the Turkish ship were attacked with sticks and metal rods. One was tossed off a deck, another tossed overboard into a lifeboat.
But that 2 a.m. boarding of an unarmed ship with an unarmed crew, carrying no munitions or weapons, 65 miles at sea, was an act of piracy. What the Israeli commandos got is what any armed hijacker should expect who tries to steal a car from a driver who keeps a tire iron under the front seat.
And the response of these highly trained naval commandos to the resistance they encountered? They shot and killed nine passengers, and wounded many more.
But we have a blockade of Gaza, say the Israelis, and this flotilla was a provocation. Indeed, it was. And Selma was a provocation. The marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge were disobeying orders of the governor of Alabama and state police not to march.
Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade.
Where were these fellows when “Bull” Connor really needed them?
Comes the retort: Israel is a friend and ally, and we stand with our friends.
But is not Turkey a friend and ally of 50 years, whose soldiers died alongside ours in Korea and who accepted Jupiter missiles targeted on Russia, even before the Cuban missile crisis? Was it not Turkey whose citizens were wounded and killed in the bloody debacle?
Why are we not at least even-handed between our friends?
On the trip to Israel where he was blindsided by news that Israel would build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, Joe Biden told Shimon Peres, “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security.”
And that is the problem.
America is a superpower with interests in an Arab world of 300 million and an Islamic world of 1.5 billion — interests Israel treats with indifference if not contempt when it comes to doing what she regards as necessary for her security.
While Israel had a right to build a wall to protect her people from terror attack, did she have a right to build it on Palestinian land?
While Israel had a right to go after Hezbollah when her soldiers were shot on the border and several kidnapped, did Israel have a right to conduct a five-week bombing campaign that smashed Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians and creating upward of a million refugees?
While Israel had a right to go into Gaza to stop the firing of crude rockets on Sderot, did she have a right to smash utilities and public buildings and kill 1,400 people, most of them civilians?
Is whatever Israel decides to do in the name of her security fine with us, because there is “absolutely no space” between our interests and hers, our values and Israel’s values?
Even with Winston Churchill’s Britain, there was “space” between us on strategic goals and national policies.
Israel has a right to secure Gaza to deny Hamas access to weapons, especially rockets that could reach Israel. But that does not justify denying 1.5 million people what they need to live in decency.
According to The Washington Post, “80 percent of the population (of Gaza) depends on charity. Hospitals, schools, electricity systems and sewage treatment facilities are all in deep disrepair.”
With our silence, we support this. And we wonder why they hate us.
Obama should tell the Israelis that Joe got it wrong. There is space between us. The Gaza siege must end. And America will herself be sending aid, but will also support Israel’s right to inspect trucks and ships to see to it no weapons get through to Gaza.
Let’s start behaving like who we once were.
Patrick J. Buchanan is founding editor of The American Conservative and author, most recently, of Churchill, Hitler, and the “Unnecessary War”.
COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM
Nice work Pat…
Dare I say, it reminded me a little bit of another decade: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Peace be with you.
Thank you articulating what I was thinking very eloquently.
I was waiting for your input, Mr. PJB. You did not disappoint.
Great article.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting Pat’s wisdom and brilliance on this all week, and he has not disappointed. Long may he prosper!!!
Because of constitutional considerations, I don’t think that sending Federally-purchased goods to Gaza is the solution, but giving the next flotilla a US Navy escort (after an inspection of the ship) might be.
I heard Mark Steyn discuss this issue while filling in for Rush today, and when he was mouthing the Lobby’s talking points, I got the distinct impression that even he found some of it a bit difficult to swallow. His voice was utterly drained of conviction.
The Israeli’s response to these things always reminded me of the Nazi’s excessive responses to partisan activities in France. I wonder what it’s like to become what you hate most.
How many countries has Iran invaded in the last fifty years? (Remember, it was Iraq who started that war by attacking Iran back in 1980.) I mention this because the necons are now wanting America to impose sanctions—or worse—on the Islamic Republic because 1) It might be persuing A nuclear weapon, and 2) It mistreats, oppresses, occasionally even kills people.
Israel already has upwards of 100 nukes. Israel has attacked/invaded its neighbors on numerous occasions, and more than occasionally kills people.
If you wish to put the screws to an “I” country, take a guess which one I’d nominate?
Uh, Pat, I think you do not quite go far enough.
Where exactly does Israel have a “right” to secure a foreign country, Gaza, or even to deny it the right to arms? Does Mexico have a right to “secure” the borders of the United States and to disarm the U.S. government?
John, I think you meant to say, “Thank you for articulating very eloquently what I was thinking.”
(Or maybe you meant to say it was your thinking that was very eloquent. Sometimes a guy has to toot his own horn.)
Israel is willing to kill thousands of the enemy to save one of its own. Pat, how much are your people worth to you?
Best. Buchanan. Piece. Ever.
Mr. Buchanan,
You really are willfully blind to who created the misery the Gazan people endure. Why don’t you try opening your blind eyes to what HAMAS is doing, and just who it is that provoked Israel to invade Gaza?
What, is that too freaking uncomfortable for you? All you are is an Hamas apologist and hater of Israel and the Jews. The sum total of your writings show that you would sell Israel down the river in a heartbeat.
Buchanan displays a bias in favor of Israel here. Namely, where does Israel derive a “right” to secure another country’s (Gaza) borders, and to demilitarize that other country’s elected government.
Does Mexico have a right to secure all of the United States’ borders and disarm the U.S. Army?
How about we cut off all the foreign aid we give to Israel each year and let the chips fall where they may. Bullies tend to moderate when their big brother isn’t around to get them out of a jam.
Mr. Davis, your arguments smack of a rather juvenile “well, they MADE me do it, it’s not my fault!” mindset, and your second paragraph only reinforces this. The notion that anyone who finds fault with or objects to anything Israel does is automatically ‘an Hamas apologist and hater of Israel and the Jews’ is repugnant.
That’s not discourse, it’s throwing epistemological poo. And no, I’m not giving the Palestinians a pass, their behavior has been equally self destructive and juvenile. Using much the same justifications, I might add.
Hamas, like it or not, is the elected gov’t in Gaza. Unfortunately, they’re composed of equally bloody minded men as the Israeli gov’t, both sides willing to kill and maim in pursuit of their ends.
This seem to be most unlikely to ever change, so therefore I say
A plague on both your houses.
Great column, Pat. But frankly Israel needs to be abolished and replaced by a one person, one vote secular state. At least 20-25% of the Israeli population is non-Jewish and this is excluding the West Bank and Gaza. Imagine if we declared a Christian or Gentile State here where only 1.58% are Jewish. You know who the loudest protestors would be.
Well said Siegfried.
And @ Mr. Davis, Hamas may be an organized crime syndicate of brutal thugs, but how does this excuse the clearly initiated policy of collective punishment of the residents of Gaza, implemented and justified by the Israeli govt? Just because Hamas are a bunch of scum does not “ergo propter hoc” justify the brutal, and worse, ineffectual blockade policy. Thats like if the Feds blockaded Cook County during Prohibition and made its residents miserable and impoverished to collectively punish Chicagoans for Al Capone’s mafia.
Don’t pretend that Israel doesn’t have alternative ways to prevent weapons and munitions from getting into the hands of Hamas–they do. The current policy is the result of the Israeli public’s understandable rage and vindictiveness towards a population they rightly or wrongly perceive as fundamentally hostile to them–but that doesn’t justify it morally or strategically.
And one more thing, enough with the wild flinging of antisemitism accusations. Firstly, not all criticism of Israel is cynical; some of us see the country like a family member who’s become a progressively worse alcoholic–we criticize because we care. (people like you seem to think that friends can only be blind enablers). Secondly, its become such a knee jerk response of hard-liners like yourself that its taken on a “chicken little” aspect which totally cheapens the power of the accusation and dilutes genuine antisemitism.
When you can’t tell your friends from your enemies anymore, you’re finished.
The common sense of Buchanan’s column remains missing in the mainstream media. And we wonder why they hate us? Indeed.
Namely, where does Israel derive a “right” to secure another country’s (Gaza) borders, and to demilitarize that other country’s elected government.
Hamas desires the destruction of Israel. Israel has every interest in making sure they don’t obtain the means to bring this about. If it’s a choice between a relatively peaceful arms blockade and an all out war every so often, I know which one I’d prefer.
Very impressive line of reasoning. I really wish to thank you and pray God the great American people wake up and start asking their political leaders behave and act according to the worldwide loved and admired American values (an Algerian, from Algeria)
Gaza/Palestine is not a country. Gaza and the West Bank are both territories of Israel.
Pat Buchanan and most of his tribe, if not all, are anti-semite. For you dim-witts, you should read “The World Turned Upside Down” by Melanie Phillips. You might get an understanding of Israel and its enemies, if you can read.
“If it’s a choice between a relatively peaceful arms blockade and an all out war every so often, I know which one I’d prefer.”
@ Matt: If the blockade constituted nothing more than rigorous inspection of all imports and banning any munitions grade materials, that would be one thing. But just look at the list of what Israel prohibits and you’ll realize that the objective of the blockade is not merely to stop weapons, but to prevent any kind of reconstitution of the infrastructure there, as well as stifle any and all means of economic production which could lead to relative autonomy for its residents again. They are keeping them haggard and dependent on the charitableness of of the Israeli govt, which assumes that the only way to prevent more hostilities is to keep them totally docile. This is a desperate and cruel measure, and the almost universal outrage over it cannot be surprising, especially considering Israel wants to be held to the standard of a liberal democracy. Any other nation engaged in the same policy would receive little to no sympathy.
Anyone can blame Hamas for the Gazan predicament all they want. Any decent person wishes they’d lay down and die; the fact remains that Israel has the upper hand, and can set the terms of whatever policy of containment it decides to pursue…and I have yet to see an adequate justification for the blockade that doesn’t boil down to “oppression as self defense” with more holes than swiss cheese. Its ridiculous to assume that Israel has no other policy options for containing hostilities other than the current one. Tragically, both sides are in the thrall of irrational absolutists.
If the blockade constituted nothing more than rigorous inspection of all imports and banning any munitions grade materials, that would be one thing.
I agree entirely that the current blockade is far more than simply an arms blockade; I was speaking hypothetically that Israel would be justified in setting up a blockade aimed solely at demilitarization of Hamas. The post I was responding to was questioning the legitimacy of even that.
I am not an Israel hawk, in other words. They should stop being so stupid and responding with overwhelming force every time they are the slightest bit provoked.
Okay, maybe I was insufficiently clear the first time:
Not only should the U.S, cut off EVERY DAMN PENNY of aid to Israel, it should also lead the world in the imposition of sanctions against its criminal, fascist regime!
No, Daniel, Israel is illegally occupying Gaza, the West Bank,
East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
“What Price Israel?” (1953) by Jewish-American Alfred Lilienthal.
(Republished in paperback 2003)
What price, indeed.
Wow. The Hasbara has made it to this website. That’s nice; now get out!
Sorry Daniel but Gaza and the West Bank, according to international law, are Israeli-occupied territory, not Israeli-owned.
As to the charges here of anti-Semitism flung from the usual corners, well, that’s about as intellectually honest as Israel’s claim of ‘self defense’ with respect to this latest incident. This charge is routinely leveled at those who refuse to adhere to the same type of religious supremacism that Israel and its supporters subscribe to. I happen to believe in the concept of liberty and justice for all.
Regards.
Lifting military blockade to Gaza Strip is not conducive to the security of Middle East in general and to the State of Israel in particular.
Last weekend, Israeli government acted to safeguard its interest of not allowing Islamists to destroy a non-Islamist nation.
“Palestine” is a fiction created by the United Nations’ Islamic blocks. The very concept of “Palestine” is antithetical to world history.
Furthermore, Islamists around the world do not want anything but Islamization of all non-Islamic lands.
Unfortunately, the United States government acted cowardly by not disapproving Islamic Turkey’s misadventure during last weekend.
Truth of the history: Prophet Muhammad killed all Jews and Christians to Islamize the entire world.
After a long struggle for existence throughout the centuries, Jews were capable of reclaiming (as well as purchasing at above market price) their forefathers’ land.
As a result, the security of the State of Israel is non-negotiable under any circumstance.
Islamists occupy over half of Asia. Yet, they are not satisfied. They want more to Islamize the entire Asia.
It is astonishing to notice that the U.S. President Baraq Hassan Obama continues to appease the Islamists, which is probably due to the fact that president’s biological father was a devout and polygamist Muslim.
Please show me one Islamic country where a non-Muslim has ever been the Head of the State.
But, Americans elected president an Islamic man in 2008.
Why doesnt Mubarek stop the blockade? Makes a hell of alot more sense ..You know Bibi certainly wont..The question remains why does Mubarek like starving the palestinians as well?..Maybe egypt afraid of another black september scenario
Good to see there are so many geniuses who view US “aid” to Israel as something other than 2 Billion in pork (no pun intended) that goes into the pockets of US defense contractors.
An entire sector of Israel’s textile industry, which once produced uniforms for the IDF, has been ground-out by the US provision that part of this “aid” be used for the purchase of US-made uniforms for the IDF.
The same applies in many other cases of so-called US “aid” to other countries.
As I’ve believed and said for years, Israel needs US aid like it needs a toothache.
More importantly – does it ever occur to you knuckle-heads that the hundred of thousands of US troops dropping bombs on Arabs from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen to Saudi Arabia may, in fact, be the source of Arab hostility and not the US’s so-called “alliance” with Israel?
Arab hatred for the US is real (fair or not, rational or not). There are US troops across the four corners of the Arab word killing Arabs as we speak.
The Arab hatred for Israel is not real. Yes – I’m certian the Palestinian’s themselves hate us (Israel) with a passion, but Arab world’s “rage” over the treatment of it’s Palestinian “brothers” is bunk based on propaganda and outrageous blood libels spun by the Arab press.
Palestinians are legally barred from many jobs in Lebanon and have been slaughtered en masse in Syria and Jordan. They are treated like trash in every Arab country (at least in those Arab countries that are not too busy killing each other to focus on the Palestinians).
Wake up, smell the coffee, and keep your so-called “aid”.
Enjoy your day.
Buchanan writes the most bias crap on Israel and it is sad because it is a fallacy of lack of proportion.
Sure, Gaza is a welfare state and it and the world can thank UNWRA(United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) for that.
The blockade of Gaza is to stop arms shipments to Hamas NOT starve Gaza. Further, Gaza is a terror state – an enemy camp – set to attack Israel by all means necessary. Buchanan might note that now Hizbollah has SCUDs supplied by Syria and Israel has to have national air raid drills now since missiles strikes can now range all of Israel from Lebanon.
Lastly, I challenge Buchanan to point out as good as friend as Israel among the Arab states.
“Last weekend, Israeli government acted to safeguard its interest of not allowing Islamists to destroy a non-Islamist nation.”
Hamas does not seek the destruction of Israel but instead opposes Israel’s right to exist on Palestinian land.
“Palestine” is a fiction created by the United Nations’ Islamic blocks. The very concept of “Palestine” is antithetical to world history.
Tell that to the Romans.
“Furthermore, Islamists around the world do not want anything but Islamization of all non-Islamic lands.”
Not so. Al Qaeda quests for this but they are internationalist jihadists–the Trotskyites of Islam–and hence are the true danger whereas Hamas, Hezbollah, and sundry other Islamist groups have local, not worldly aims. Their radicalism would cease in the face of equitable diplomacy.
Please show me one Islamic country where a non-Muslim has ever been the Head of the State. But, Americans elected president an Islamic man in 2008.
Syria–the Alawites are arguably heretical to Islam yet the Assad regime rules this Islamic state. As for Obama, he converted to Christianity and thus is not a closet Muslim but, if anything, is an apostate from Islam.
Oh I see, now Muslims want to go back to the Holy Roman Empire to claim “Palestine”.
In reality, how ridiculous that would be!!!
Muslims rule by the “Shariat” to subjugate non-Muslims and the Roman Empire was never indoctrinated in “Shariat”.
Muslim rulers demanded “Jijyah”, which were additional taxes imposed on the Kafirs (non-Muslims) in an Islamic country.
Muslim rulers raped the women and children of Kafirs (non-Muslims) throughout the centuries.
Now, Muslims claim a land by naming the Holy Roman Empire.
When Prophet Muhammad murdered Christians and Jews for imposing “Shariat”, I think, Prophet Muhammad did not commit those atrocities for the sake of establishing the Roman Empire.
By the way, one would not think Hafiz al-Assad was a Hindu or Buddhist or Jain or Jew or Catholic or Sikh or Atheist.
Because, Hafiz al-Assad and his family followed the same Islamism no matter how deviant that was from Prophet Muhammad’s “Shariat”.
Claiming that al-Assad family ruling an Islamic country as a “non-Muslim ruler” is as saying as Mr. Patrick J. Buchanan is a Buddhist.
And, everyone knows from where all the dreams current U.S. President Baraq Hassan Obama gets.
Baraq Hassan Obama wrote a book (before becoming a statesman) with a headline that his dreams actually come from his devout and polygamist Muslim father.
“The blockade of Gaza is to stop arms shipments to Hamas NOT starve Gaza. Further, Gaza is a terror state–an enemy camp–set to attack Israel by all means necessary.”
Gaza wouldn’t be a ‘terror state’ if Israel had recognized the elections that vaulted Hamas to victory in 2006 and the Israeli’s subsequent cordon sanitaire:
“In the past, the militants often resorted to firing rockets at Israel to push back against the border closure, provoking harsh Israeli retaliation and international condemnation.” [http://wire.antiwar.com/2010/06/04/analysis-israels-deadly-sea-raid-a-boon-to-hamas/]
One wonders if the Palestinians would have had any impetus to lob rockets at Israel absent this blockade. Remove it, and see how quickly terrorism withers away. This is not to say that relations between Hamas and Israel would be amicable in the event of recognition but they would be improved just enough for the construction of a viable peace on local terms rather than this status quo so imperiling of American interests and security.
Daddysteve…don’t Pat Buchanan conservatives generally admire the Nazis?
Why compare Israel to the “good-guys?”
Michael Hardesty…
There is are all Catholic states…Ireland, the Vatican, Italy, Spain…
Catholicism is the official state religions of those four theocracies.
And, to think of all the blood the Vatican and Spain and Italy have on their hands…
One can only fathom…
Rick Niemen…Felipe Calderon of Mexico…with the pied piper of illegal immigration, Roger Mahoney…essentially dictate our immigration policy.
Our current immigration policy: the Mexicanization of the United States of America.
“Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade.”
Way to screw up an otherwise on-target piece, Pat — just couldn’t resist making a brainless political dig, could you? Those who support Israel’s fascist actions are neither principled liberals nor real conservatives. They’re simply hypocritical political hacks who have turned their backs on morality, and they come in all political stripes.
Gerald Wells: “Pat Buchanan and most of his tribe, if not all, are anti-semite.”
Exactly what “tribe” would that be, Jerry?
Majumder,
The historical fiction is not Palestine. It’s Israel.
Islamists “occupy”over half of Asia? The absurdity of this statement tells us all we need to know about your intellect. Last I checked, China, India and Russia occupied a large part of Asia’s area. In none of these countries is the Muslim population anywhere near a majority.
I often disagree with Pat Buchanan, but this time he’s exactly right. What this country needs to do is end the AIPAC occupation of Congress (Just look at Harry Reid’s odious comments about the flotilla incident) and end all aid to the apartheid nation of Israel until they demonstrate that they can live as a civilized nation in the world.
I detest and abhor the fact that even one cent of my federal income tax goes to that pariah state. And you know what’s good, Majumder? A lot of young Jews are beginning to feel the same way.
One way or another, Israel’s days in its current encarnation are numbered.
There will be peace tomorrow if American government stops sending tax-payers’ dime to all Islamic countries.
But, American government won’t do that; because, Islam is a sacrosanct religion in America.
You can criticize Christianity ad libitum in America; but, you cannot say anything about Islam. Because, American government loves Muslims.
Just think about it! If the Russians and the Chinese had destroyed WTC in New York, American government would have started a World War in 2001.
But, when Saudi and Egyptian nationals destroyed WTC in New York, American government started appeasing Muslims instead all over the world.
And, that is not called double standard!
That is American standard of loving and appeasing Muslims.
From Morocco to Indonesia, how many Muslim countries and non-Muslim countries are there? Now, you figure out whether Muslims occupy over half of Asia or not.
The Kingdom of Israel is as old as the Western civilization, if you wanna talk about history.
And, Islam is as old as 1500 years of barbarism!
Barbarism? There’s a guy who never read the OT.
Good and honest article.
Unfortunately Israel has a grip on US Middle East policy.
Israel does not want peace. So there is no solution.
Wrong again, Majumder. You can say what you like about Islam/Muslims (and Christians for that matter) in this country, but don’t you dare criticize Israel or Israeli Jews.
Witness what transpired today with Helen Thomas.
Israel-supporters routinely call for the ‘transfer’ of Palestinians to Jordan or elsewhere, but to my knowledge, never has it gotten an admonishment by the president of the US (‘land of the free’) like Helen Thomas received today.
Hypocrisy of the highest order.
The level of stupidity found among the comments here is stifling. Not one of you Pat B lovers has an inkling of the recent, let alone epochal history of the area around Jerusalem that you winged monkeys ignorantly refer to as Palestine. The recent history has been one of Jewish agreements to give up land, in return for peace. In every instance, the people of Gaza, not just the militants, the people of Gaza themselves, have immediately declared that the Jewish state will be eliminated and, in every instance, they have allowed their “hallowed” land to become the staging ground for rockets, grenades and bullets aimed at the people of Israel. In EVERY instance. The comparisons with the borders between Mexico and the US are so pathetically stupid a toddler would know enough to be ashamed. Can one of you knuckle-draggers name the last time Mexico lobbed a missile into the US or vis-versa? Are all you thug-loving, Jew-bashing morons this stupid? Since you all seem to be SO concerned about the plight of the suffering, peace loving “Palestinians” in Gaza, why don’t you donate a fleet of U-hauls to move them to a more peaceful locale? Hmm? Oh, that’s right, I forgot, most of them were kicked out of other ARAB countries and nobody wants the “Palestinians” in there countries STILL. Why do you think Mubarak lets the aid in but none of his arab brothers out? It’s not like Pat and his legion of adoring winged monkeys would cheerfully suit up in SS garb and man the ovens and showers, noooo, I’m sure some of you 21st century holocaust dreamers would be content sitting in your lawn chairs blissfully ignoring the stench of death coming from the “Jewish Spas” just over the hill. Your calculated ignorance is evil and makes me sick, Buchananites.
This is one of the most idiotic columns PB has ever written. PB advocates a “lifting” of the blockade BUT also advocates Israel’s right to inspect everything going into Gaza for weapons. But that’s exactly what is going on right now! Israel allows humanitarian aid through on a daily basis. There is no shortage of food or gas or other supplies for daily life in Gaza, as many unbiased reporters have discovered. Does PB not realize that these ships wanted to enter Gaza directly without Israeli inspection? How is that compatible with his support for Israeli inspections? Israel was simply asking these ships to dock at an Israeli port for inspection and then they would allow the aid through. But the purpose of breaking the blockade is exactly so inspections will not happen and weapons can enter Gaza. Of course many anti-Israel haters would like to see those weapons enter Gaza, and like Helen Thomas, see all the Jews driven out of “Palestine”. I expect in the next few years PB will write a column supporting exactly that outcome…
Israel is not a friend to the USA. Friends don’t attack friend’s naval vessels and murder military personnel. Friends don’t spy on friends and sell secrets to the victimized friend’s enemies.
Friends aren’t parasitic to friends by sucking up 3 billion US tax dollars yearly.
To the bigoted American haters without a brain in their heads, I am now an anti – semite.
There is almost no point in arguing with neo cons any more. Their tired arguments of equating anti-Israel with pro Nazi are just tedious and dull. They don’t even incite outrage. Kind of like when Al Sharpton calls someone a racist.
Very nice Pat at least you are not a cameleon, you have always been a straitforward Jew hater. I am not sure if it comes from your old fashioned Catholicism or something else causing this. In the beginning I even sympatized with you and your good friend Joseph Sobran because you both were attacking Jewish liberals whom I also love to attack. But because they are (maybe too many) liberals not because Jews. You are attacking Jews (or Israel) no matter on what political coloration. But it is OK there is a freedom of speach here enjoy it until your friend Obama let you have it.
The sheer rudenss of those Zionists who have written comments are a good indication of what they are like.
Arogant,rude,and filled with hate…I pity the poor Palestinians who have to live under the Jackboot of Israeli occupation…odd how the Zionists have started to look and talk like Nazis
by the wa.. Great stuff Pat …Keep up the Good work
It is obvious that Buchanan is as anti-Semitic as Helen Thomas, and refuse to acknowledge historical facts. Gaza was owned by Egypt till it was captured by Israel in the 1967 during the six day war. Indeed, there is no such a thing like a Palestinian people, or a Palestinian culture, or a Palestinian language, or a Palestinian history. There has never been any Palestinian state, neither any Palestinian archaeological find nor coinage. The present-day “Palestinians” are an Arab people, with Arab culture, Arabic language and Arab history. They have their own Arab states from where they came into the Land of Israel about one century ago to contrast the Jewish immigration.
Buchanan knows that the ships are a way to smuggle weapons into the Gaza to be used to attack Israel, THERE IS NO NEED FOR HUMANITARIAN NEED FOR THERE IS NO CRISES. This is a ruse to attack Israel with a no win situation.
“But the purpose of breaking the blockade is exactly so inspections will not happen and weapons can enter Gaza.”
The weapons are making their way through in any case so this blockade is inefficacious as well as counterproductive. This cordon sanitaire was imposed to politically undercut Hamas whose radicalism would have been mitigated if they were forced to take the full responsibility of the governance of Gaza. Instead Hamas is lionized and having its ranks swelled by Gazans who have no alternative employment in legitimate business in the face of the blockade. The black economy reigns as this guardian article relates:
“Unable to either import or export goods, the legitimate economy collapsed. Gaza used to have almost 4,000 factories and workshops; following the blockade–and the destruction wrought in the three-week war of 2008-9–only 500 or 600 are still operating. In their place there has sprung up a flourishing pirate industry bringing in goods through tunnels to Egypt. “We are now a nation of tunnel diggers,” said economist Omar Shaban. “The tunnels were seen as a tool to overcome the hardship. Now they have become socially, politically and morally acceptable.” There is a black market in most countries, he added, but it normally doesn’t exceed 10% of the total economy. “Ours is now entirely black’.”…The net result is the legitimate businesses of Gaza have all but disappeared, dismantled by Israel’s siege policy or destroyed in its military offensives, rendering impossible a normal functioning society or state. Their place has been taken by what some call a new Islamic oligarchy–an alliance between Hamas and the pirate entrepreneurs. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/06/gaza-blockade-black-economy-hamas]
Hamas has won the siege so it would be politic for Israel to treat with them since Hamas are themselves willing to make concessions to break their diplomatic isolation.
With the fall of Helen Thomas Buchanan rermains the most known American Jew-hater.
Patrick James Buchanan is a realist. Now, you DO know what a realist is, don’t you? It is an individual who sees the situation AS IT IS!
Now get your arses back to New Republic!
As a Canadian, I can actually SEE the forest for the trees.
America, Israel is NOT your friend! Not by a light-year!
To Mr. Pat & all commentators who like his crap:
‘DROP DEAD”
Reading this; I can testify : There are Americans caring for America
I have just noticed Val’s comment.
Val, we and Pat will live and we all wish you to “RISE ALIVE”