No Pasta For Palestinians

It's been more than a month since Israel's devastating war on Gaza left many dead and thousands injured. The war has ended, but life in Gaza has not returned to normal. Thousands of people remain homeless, and many still remain hungry. Their stories have all but disappeared from US media coverage.

One story is the story of Ayman Aboud, a ten year old orphan from Jabalia. Ayman has lost his parents, two uncles, his grandmother and all of his four siblings. He is now legally deaf (having lost more than eighty percent of his hearing) and has not spoken a word since the devastating event of January 6 when Israeli shells fell on his home. Ayman's story is not unique. There are hundreds of stories just like his. Does anyone care?

Here is a story that made headlines and several news cycles on CNN, FOX and other networks: The United Arab Emirates came under sharp criticism after it banned Israeli women's tennis player Shahar Peer last week from entering the country to play in the lucrative Dubai Tennis Championships. The decision of banning Ms. Peer was foolish. Politics and sports should not mix. However, why are those same media outlets not reporting Palestinian athletes banned from participating in local and regional competitions due to Israel's restriction of their movement? Last year Israel prevented the captain of the Palestinian soccer national team - who resides in Gaza - to travel to the West Bank in order to attend the team's first international home match. There was no international outrage and CNN, FOX and others did not mention this in their coverage.

Also last week, US Senator John Kerry made a rare visit to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. His first stop in the impoverished Palestinian enclave was the American school left in ruins by the deadly 22-day Israeli offensive that ended on January 18.

Kerry defended Israel for responding to the rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.

"Your political leadership needs to understand that any nation that has rockets coming into it over many years, threatening its citizens, is going to respond."

Senator Kerry did not talk about Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air since June 2007, but he got to experience it firsthand. UN officials have informed him that truckloads of pasta were waiting at the border for days and were prevented by Israel from crossing the border to be distributed to thousands of hungry refugees and homeless in Gaza. Guess what reason Israeli officials gave as an excuse for preventing the pasta from entering Gaza?

Pasta is not considered humanitarian aid! But rice is.

Fortunately for Palestinians, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak eventually allowed the shipment in after direct intervention by Kerry. Starving children in Gaza can now eat pasta!

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be making her first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat next week. She will be bringing good news to the besieged people of Gaza. According to unconfirmed reports, the Obama administration will be donating at least $900 million in humanitarian and rebuilding aid to the Palestinian Authority to help Gaza recover from Israel's latest offensive.

Check this out: the aid will go to the Palestinian Authority, which does not have any control over Gaza and whose corrupt members were the reason behind the rise of Hamas in the first place. Just a reminder: Palestinians elected Hamas because the Palestinian Authority was corrupt!

In the meantime Madame Secretary, please bring with you some tomato sauce for the pasta. Gazans would appreciate this more than a promise of $900 million going to the PA.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV.

Comments

[rosiebond007]

Why can't the aid be split between the PA and Hamas?

BOTH ARE CORRUPT - but at least some aid might flow into Gaza where it is most needed.

[jad114]

The aid should go directly to the people of Gaza through NGOs and the UN (UNRWA). It should NOT go through the hands of PA crooks. Hamas should also not be allowed to handle it lest it will be accused of funneling it to finance attacks on Israel.

[leonardox1]

Well it seems that Hillary did not bring with her the tomato sauce! It's all nice and dandy to make promises, but when will the people in Gaza receive food, medicine, clean water and get to live in homes instead of tents?

[Doris]

"The army says Palestinians have fired more than 110 rockets and mortar shells at Israel since the Gaza offensive ended on January 18. The aim of the three-week Israeli assault was to stop rocket attacks, so there is a growing sense in Israel the war did not achieve its goals. "

what is it that Hamas is asking for?

[InjunTrouble]

The main aim of thr rocket firing is to break the Israeli blockade. Here is the timeline of the Israel-Hamas confrontation (since Gaza elections - confirmed by President Carter):

1. Hamas wins Gaza elections fairly
2. The US/Israel/Fatah refuse to let Hamas take control
3. Hamas takes control of Gaza by force (their legitimate right).
4. Israel imposes blokade in order to punish Gaza residents for their vote
5. Hamas start firing rockets to try and break blockade
6. June 2008, 6 month brokered truce on condition that Israel eases blockade
7. Israel still does not ease blockade as promised
8. Nov 4 Israel breaks truce and kills 6 Hamas
9. Hamas announces end of truce and resumes rocket firing
10. Israel invades killing 1300 including 400 children.

BTW Hamas is not in complete control of Gaza, so many of the rockets are from non-Hamas groups.

[alexa07]

I also want to thank you for keeping the Gaza nightmare in the news. Kerry's statements while in Gaza were petty, mean-spirited & wholly neglectful of who did what & how (with literally billions of our American tax dollars & state of art killing machines!) Thanks to our foolish Congressional leaders, we have enabled this nightmare in Gaza where the victims of this siege are denied the basic necessities, while being blamed for resistance to this untenable situation. Rice is OK, but dates & pasta are not. So Kerry intervened, most likely with a guilty conscience. The American public has been forced, also, to enable the totality of the experiences of the occupation--land grabs, barriers & roads allowing travel for those of one religion only--surely as far afield from our ideals as is possible! As more Americans become aware of our part in these horrors, they are joining the boycott, divest & sanction movements. None too soon, but hopefully our leaders will respond! Please continue your good work with Mosaic on Link TV! Nothing could be more important than spreading the word!

[joz22]

Doris-

You are forgetting about the most important "role" in the suffering of the Palestinians: The Occupation!
There were no suicide bombings, acts of resistance, etc. since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 until the mid 80s. During that period Israel was engaged in confiscating Palestinian lands and building settlements on them. Tell me what would you do if I came and took over more than half of your house?

[Doris]

but you are forgetting what lead to the occupation of the West Bank. And Gaza. And, you are forgetting what happened to the West Bank and Gaza BEFORE the occupation. Palestinian state? No, Jordan and Egypt maintained them as refugee camps because the plan was to eventually destroy Israel.

[joz22]

That's not true. Palestinians of the West Bank became citizens of Jordan and the ones who were in refugee camps were from towns and villages occupied by Israel in 1948, similar to those ones who are currently in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria. 85% of Palestinians living in Gaza were ethnically cleansed by Jewish militia groups (Haganah, Irgun, Palmach, Stern, etc.) . I recommend you take a look at the book "the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Israeli scholar Ilan Pape.

[Doris]

The Palestinians play a large role in their own suffering. If there had been no suicide bombers or continued efforts to get suicide martyrs across the borders, or if there had been no rocket attacks - which serve NO purpose except to challenge Israel (and still continue even now - could someone explain the reasoning there?) - if there was no weapons smuggling going on = there would be no reason or *excuse* for check-points and closed borders. If the Palestinians had not voted in Hamas, who's well known goal is to wipe Israel off the map - who now work closely with Iran who states the same goal = there would be no *excuse* for limited humanitarian aid or closed borders.

[jad114]

Yeah, let's blame it on the victims. The Palestinians have watched Europeans take over their land for the past six decades, they've been made into refugees, they've been starved, they've been caged behind fences and walls, etc., etc.- so I guess they must accept all of this with a big smile on their faces.

[Doris]

Of course not. But their chosen tactics of resistance has made things worse.

[Doris]

sorry, I meant the corrupt PA.

[Doris]

so the choice is between corrupt PLO or terrorist Hamas. Why don't the Palestinians have a better choice in leadership?

[chaos4700]

Probably because when the Palestinians formed a unity government between Hamas and Fatah which would have mitigated the faults of both, Israel persuaded the rest of the world to sabotage it politically.

[Denmark2]

cohen238765:
Israel a democracy? A Jewish democracy maybe but not a secular one. Radical far right religious blokes control the show. Non-Jewish people are openly treated as second class citizens or worse. It is as democratic as Iran. They have elections etc., but it is a theocratic democracy as non-Muslims tend to be second class. At least they dont slaughter children with 155mm guns while taking billions in US welfare type aid. To top that they spy on us, steal technology and work against our interests. Over the years we have spent 100+ billion for an ally like this. It is my tax money and I do care that it goes for real aid not this inhumanity.

[cohen238765]

Name one democratic Arab country?

[leonardox1]

No Arab country is democratic. But a Jewish democracy is a theocracy.

[petphotos]

The US doesn't get it, but not everyone wants a democratic government. If they did, maybe that is what they would have.

Years back we used to use the term, self determination, that went away.

[batguano]

The power of extremist fifth-columnists to subvert OUR foreign policy to Israel's supposed interest, at the expense of OUR real interests, is a clear and present danger to the United States; that has NOT changed under Obama! AIPAC and the other pro-Israel groups, JINSA, AEI, & PNAC subvert our electoral process to such an extent that if a candidate does not kowtow to this group of war-mongers, they will be attacked in the most extreme vitriolic manner, witness their vicious attacks on Pres Jimmy Carter & professors Walt & Mearsheimer. ANY criticism of Israel or its racist policies & occupation­/colonizat­ion (theft) of Palestinian land, much less mass killings of civilians, is met with howls of outrage & the worn out charge of "anti-Semitism". The ugliness of their attacks is representative of their mistreatment of the Palestinians under their brutal occupation & policies of collective punishment.
We must limit the power of these extremist agents of a foreign country and not tolerate any interference in our elections or foreign policy. Even now they plan an attack on Iran as part of the "war without end" strategy to cement their illegal colonization of the West Bank & ensure that there will NEVER be a viable Palestinian State or a just peace, until they have accomplished their "god-given" theft of all the land & water of "Eretz-Israel". If any other country or special-interest group tried this subversion of America they would be run out of town on a rail!

[nochaos]

What about the LEFT-WING LIBERATION THEOLOGY EXTREMISTS??? ARE THEY OK???

[Chazak]

Are you kidding me??? Are you telling a group of US citizens who make up less than 5% of the US population have so much influence over the government. What paranoia.

[chaos4700]

Liberation theology extremists? You mean like Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams?

[Ergon]

The $900 million aid is going to Palestinian dictator for life Mahmoud Abbas, not Gaza.

[Hasur]

This could very well be true. He has just extended his term in office to coincide with the next presedential and Paleistinian legislative council elections in january 2010. It will dependant on the US and Israel to respect the choice of the palestinian people.

[nochaos]

They DO!! They never sought to NOT have the elections.­...probabl­y because they knew the terrorist Hamas organization would win...and that'sbetter for them both!!

[newsjunkie5]

and you know this how?

[nochaos]

Uh..he was second to Arafat in the PLO for 40 years!! Why give a terrorist like him who wrote his thesis on Holocaust Denial anything???

[nochaos]

Oh..you mean the man who was second-in-Command of the PLO for 40 years??? BAD idea to give him even a penny!!

[QueenCeleste]

I cannot understand why a people who were treated so horribly throughout history would inflict such suffering on another people. Clearly Israel needs to protect herself, but the retaliation is always so brutal. The stories of children suffering are heartbreaking.

To answer your question, I care. But I feel helpless about this, as presumably do many Americans. Tell us, what can we do?

[Hasur]

Please don't generalise, there are many of us who speak out against the policies of israel, whether israeli or jew. There are also many israelis who are not European in origin, and our experiences of anti-semetism and our history are far different from European jews. Israel is an ethnically diverse society.

[zaz33]

The only reason I knew about the captain of the soccer team not being allowed to leave Gaza is because I read about it on " Haaretz News " in Israel.

If a tennis player's plight is reported in the US the soccer player's should also have been.

No surprise though.

[jad114]

The pasta story could be funny and is an example of stupidity and bureacracy if it was not for the pain and suffering of the starving Palestinians.

[BubbaC33]

You act as if there is only one border for Gaza. If the government in Gaza wants commerce to reach the people of Gaza send it through the Egyptian border. Given the Hamas goal of the destruction of Israel I can understand why my government does not open the border.

[justice2008]

Nothing can get through the Egyptian border without the approval of Israel. This is part of an agreement between Israel, Egypt and the PA.

[YankeeCanuck]

And, Israel has repeatedly bombed the tunnels to Egypt that are the highway for food.

[cohen238765]

Why should the US give anything to Palestinians? We are broke

[justice2008]

This is ludicrous! If any one should be helped it is the Palestinians in Gaza. Why should we continue financial aid to Israel?

[cohen238765]

Israel is our only ally in the Middle East. It is the only democracy there.

[joz22]

We are broke? We can just print out more money like the trillions for the bailout!

A million here a million there...wh­o cares. $900 M is a drop in the bucket that won't satisfy the thirst of Ford, GM, Citibank, etc. I say give them to the Palestinians!

[skialethia]

Why should the US give Israel 3 billion a year???

[nochaos]

Or 3 billion to Egypt..who HATES America???

[leonardox1]

Jamal- you are one of the few who keeps the people of Gaza and their suffering in the US media. I really appreciate your intelligence reports. Keep stories like this coming maybe the world will one day wake up. Thank you.