The blockade against Gaza

It is almost impossible for me to read an article about Israel or to view the comments on a blog about Israel and not spend the next few hours thinking about it. Such was the situation yesterday when I was browsing through blogs on Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier held for four years by the Hamas in Gaza.

One of the blogs I was on said that Gilad’s family is supportive of the blockade as a means to get him out. I thought about this for a long time.

I went on another blog that was more towards general human rights (I don’t think it was owned by a Jew, or maybe someone who was very liberal) and there was a side column with a number of links. One of the links read ‘growing starvation in Gaza’.

I thought about this for a long time, too.

I am very affected by all of this, unaware to myself at times. I don’t realize how affected I am until it is 5:30 in the morning and I have realized that I couldn’t sleep because of my thoughts about these things.

Such was the situation last night. And here I am, venting again, which is a good thing. Better to vent than to stay up another night. Venting might help.

I have gone back to college (I only went 1 semester during the past 25 years). I started with my Associates Degree in Health Care Administration (January 2009) and I am currently finishing up (please G-d) a Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree (August 2011). Considering how much world events affect me, I might go on towards a Masters in Public Health (MPH) when I graduate next year.

I am also Jewish, and I try to keep as observant as I can. I originally was introduced to orthodox Judaism through the Lubavich, as my parents are secular humanists (Jewish secular humanists – although they had an orthodox wedding, of all things). I have history in Poland and other European countries that were Hasidic, specifically Belz. My great-grandfather on my father’s side was said to be Sephardic, from either Spain, Italy, or Turkey, whose family settled in Poland somewhere in the 16th century.

As you would expect, it’s a long story, but since I learned within the last few years that a person is either Sephardic or Ashkenazi through the father, that would make me Sephardic – my Sephardic Zaidy Mechel was my father’s father’s father. It would be wonderful to know how the Sephardic communities in Poland eventually assimilated to the point that they married Ashkenazi women and spoke fluent Yiddish. One day, after my degree, I hope to do research on this.

Getting back to my public health degree, the issue of starvation in Gaza, the issue of Gilad Shalit’s family supporting the Israeli blockade, and the issue in general of the headache Israel has with the Hamas and Gaza, I have come up, at 5:30 am, with a few unconventional ideas.

None of this is anything I should take credit for. These are my 5:30 am thoughts, which are totally responsible for themselves. Nonetheless, some of these thoughts sounded reasonable.

First of all, in the background of all this is the fact that there are no Jews in Gaza. At least no functional communities. If there are Jews, they are captives like Gilad Shalit and possibly some Jewish women who I have heard of throughout the years who had become wives against their will to Arab men. I can’t verify this. In all actuality it is something out of my reach.

So getting back: here you have an entire ‘nation wannabe’ in Gaza with no Jews. Actually they demanded from Israel, and the world - in 2005 when they were granted Gaza - that all the Jews, every last one, vacate immediately; Jewish homes and synagogues be destroyed; and ancient Jewish cemeteries be relocated out of Gaza so they can make the beginning of their ‘Palestine’. I don’t know about anyone else, but in my view, the entire world watched and condoned this incredible ‘ethnic cleansing’ right before their eyes. It is remarkable to me that no one noticed what this actually was… ‘ethnic cleansing’ to the highest degree. The only thing missing were the usual dead bodies that often goes along with 'clinical ethnic cleansing’. In a lesser sense, this was a form of 'generic ethnic cleansing’; creating the same effect (clearing out another ethnic group) without the potency of murder. The results are identical.

In a remarkable website written by an Arab American journalist (Farah, J. 2003) I discovered last night that the Arabs love Israel. Not only is it good to them (they are granted citizenship, vote, have free health care, etc.) but there are 1.2 million of them and counting.

There is not one Jew in Gaza. Remember this. And, while the world watches, there are no plans to include or protect Jewish citizens in this ‘Palestine’ of theirs.

So, given this backdrop, they have Gaza without any Jews, and they have Gilad Shalit without any remorse or human rights intervention as to how he is being treated. Actually, yesterday I came across a remarkable piece of news by the Human Rights Watch organization claiming that Hamas’ detention of Gilad Shalit is cruel and inhuman (Human Rights Watch, June 25, 2010).

So, here we have a tiny country, Israel, who is willing to share its tiny piece of land with 1.2+ million Arabs, give them good things including citizenship, and put up with their hostilities and links to Hamas in Gaza; not one Jew in Gaza and no plans for Jews to live within the borders, or enjoy any degree of citizenship, in the newly proposed ‘Palestine’; cruel and inhuman treatment by Hamas towards our Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for the past four years; and a blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza that hopes to effectively bring about the release of a healthy Gilad, plus claims that there is starvation increasing in Gaza due to the blockade.

Here are my 5:30 AM thoughts on all of this, and my 5:30 AM solution. Take it for what it’s worth:

Since the Palestinians made such an issue about Gaza, and they publicly displayed, while the world watched, a rather severe form of 'generic ethnic cleansing’… why not give them back the same? If Gaza is the true beginning of their illustrious ‘Palestine’ and they like their entire ‘nation’ completely ‘judenrein’ (so to speak – I don’t know the other terms describing ‘cleaning out Jews’ but in all languages it means the same)…. Why not park all the Palestinians in Gaza? That would solve a lot of problems, particularly problems regarding how Jews treat the Palestinians in Israel. If there were no Palestinians in Israel, as there are no Jews in Gaza, this would not be an issue. Jews would not have to be blamed for mistreating their Arabs, and the Arabs can work on solving their own problems. It’s a win-win.

Another win –win that my 5:30 am brain came up with was about stopping the blockade. Considering all the Palestinians in Israel – and, mind you, this means all – if Israel cleaned out all the Arabs from Israel, as in the prisons, schools, factories, construction groups, sanitation departments, universities, hospitals … in other words, what they did to us in Gaza … not one left…. we wouldn’t need a blockade. The nations of the world would come to rescue Gaza… and this would create peace. Trust me, this would definitely create peace. More on that later…

So, to get back to this pristine place where we don’t have any Palestinians in Israel and they don’t have any Jews in Gaza …. We wouldn’t need a blockade. And we wouldn’t have to worry either. Because the world will be taking care of Gaza. I am getting a degree in public health, which is the same as getting a degree in human rights, and human rights workers want peace. Because they want to live. And they go en force to help out a struggling country. And they don’t want any Israeli rockets landing on them. So there will be peace… trust me.

There are lots of human rights workers and organizations and peace keepers in the world that are interested in creating a flourishing nation of ‘Palestine’. Even though this seems sinister, it is not… the human rights workers and human aid workers won’t let them fire rockets on Israel… because there are going to be lots of aids workers working on helping the Palestinians in Gaza and they don’t want to get hurt.

Trust me. This can work.

Plus, the world won’t be able to say that Israel is starving Palestinian children because all the world’s horses and all the world’s men will be rushing in to put the Palestinians back together again… and they will have lots of work ahead of them… and they will be very concerned about any weapons in Gaza because they will understand that if Gaza starts firing them on Israel then Israel will fire back and it won’t be a pretty picture, and all of their hard work will be ruined. The aids workers do not want this. Trust me. I am in a degree for public and global health. These people believe in peace. They don’t like blood. Things will be good.

So there you have it. No Jews in Gaza. No Arabs in Israel. No blockade. Israel can work on developing all her neighborhoods without worry about the Arabs being tossed out. Gaza and the world’s aid workers will work on building up the neighborhoods in Gaza, putting the Palestinians back together again with nice homes, schools, food, water, and sanitation and lots of good things.

The world will be in Gaza. It will be good.

And hopefully we will have Gilad home, healthy and safe long before this.

Let the world take care of Gaza. Israel needs to focus on being home.

I can finally go to sleep now. I am also fasting (Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks). Today is the 17th of Tammuz and the beginning of the three weeks.

Let the world and the Palestinians have Gaza. Not to worry. It will be good.

P.S. Incredibly and amazingly, I just came across a blog called ‘Arabs for Israel’ (Arabs for Israel, 2010). I guess since viewing this wonderful site, my ideas of cleaning all Arabs out of Israel should be revised. Those who truly love Israel can stay!

References:

Farah, Joseph 2003: Why Arabs Love Israel/World Net Daily: retrieved from the web at: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31947

Human Rights Watch, June 25, 2010: Gaza: Allow Access to Gilad Shalit: retrieved from the web at: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/06/25/gaza-allow-access-gilad-shalit

Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks: Aish.com: retrieved from the web at: http://www.aish.com/h/9av/oal/48943446.html

Arabs for Israel, 2010: retrieved from the web at: http://arabsforisrael.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-are-we_09.html

Nonie Darwish: retrieved from the web at: http://nonie-darwish.blogspot.com/