Thursday, June 14, 2007

Hamas-stan in Gaza Equals Israel's Fault: Boston Globe

The world's daffiest newspaper which allows for home delivery has an editorial that proves that blame works both ways---when it comes to Israel. Only the Boston Globe editorializes that:
[The Gaza Strip] long suffered from Israel's suffocating occupation, and then from Ariel Sharon's foolishly unilateral withdrawal in 2005, a move that allowed Hamas to bid for power with the misleading claim that its rockets and suicide bombings had driven Israeli soldiers and settlers out of Gaza.

So Israel's relinquishment of direct control in 1993 is overlooked and the incredibly corrupt regime of Yasser Arafat that ensued is, in the view of the Globe:
Gazans were victimized as well by the corruption and misrule of Yasser Arafat's Fatah cronies.

But Arafat was in charge from 1993 until his death in 2004, so it wasn't just his cronies who were guilty of "corruption and misrule."

And those familiar with the history of the Middle East know that Israel conquered Gaza in 1956, then relinquished it back to Egypt, which promptly began using it as a staging area for terrorist attacks on Israel. So when the Israelis won it back in '67, they kept control, which the Globe saw as "suffocating." What was the status in the 12 years between '93 &'05, when the Israelis dismantled their settlements in what the Globe calls their "foolishly unilateral withdrawal?" They don't mention that interim period. What other sort of withdrawal would the Globe have wanted, and what would these clueless editorial writers have blamed Israel for if the withdrawal had been "bilateral" or "multilateral?"

When it comes to blaming Israel, the Boston Globe would have creatively come up with some reason to find fault. Because when it comes to the Globe, it's either Bush's fault or Israel's fault, or both if they can stretch the facts into their own hallucinatory parallel universe.

1 comment :

Diana said...

"nd those familiar with the history of the Middle East know that Israel conquered Gaza in 1956, then relinquished it back to Egypt,"

Yep. Waaay back in the day (a gentleman doesn't ask...) I read a book by a lady British (or maybe American) reporter about conditions in Gaza. There is nothing new under the sun. The genteel lady reporter was shocked, shocked, at the conditions in Gaza. She wrote, "Gaza is a prison."

If memory serves, and it barely does, the book was published in 1965.

I wish I could remember the name of the reporter, and the book. But I can't. I've read so much about that miserable part of the world my brain is fried.

But I do remember that sentence. "Gaza is a prison."