UN against "flotillas" to Gaza. Pigs fly.

Elder of Ziyon
24 July '10

This has to be one of the most astounding diplomatic victories ever for Israel at the UN:

The United Nations said Friday that groups seeking to deliver aid to Gaza should do so by land, after Israel warned it would intercept two ships seeking to break a blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

"There are established routes for supplies to enter by land. That is the way aid should be delivered to the people of Gaza," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told a press briefing.

"Our stated preference has been and remains that aid should be delivered by established routes, particularly at a sensitive time in indirect proximity (peace) talks between Palestinians and Israelis," he added.

He made the comments after Israel served notice its forces would prevent a planned Lebanese aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip.

"We have received information in recent days about a plan to send a new flotilla to break the blockade around Gaza," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Israeli television.

"This is an unnecessary provocation and we believe that preventing such a flotilla is the responsibility of the Lebanese government."

"If this flotilla does leave Lebanon and refuses to be led by our navy to the (Israeli) port of Ashdod, we will have no other choice than to arrest it at sea," the minister added.

"There exists a way of transferring goods, which are not weapons or material for war-like purposes, to the Gaza Strip through the port of Ashdod."

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Flirting with danger

Hanin Ghaddar
NOW Lebanon
26 June '10

(Ignoring the not unusual anti-Israel rhetoric, you can find a goldmine of interesting and sarcastic thoughts here. I highlighted the one of the first ones, and leave the rest to you.Y.)

Regional dynamics are so fragile that any slight incident or clash might lead to war, in Lebanon or the region. Israel has been more vocal with its threats in the past few days, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring on Thursday that any plans by the Iranians or the Lebanese to send aid ships to Gaza were unjustified, as both Iran and Hezbollah, which holds posts in the Lebanese government, were sending missiles and weapons to the territory.

This warning prompted Iran to immediately scrap plans to send an aid ship to Gaza, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA on Friday. IRNA quoted Secretary General of the International Conference for Supporting the Palestinian Intifada Hussein Sheikh al-Islam as saying that the ship was canceled to prevent giving Israel a pretext to attack it. The aid would now be sent to Gaza via another route, he said.

Iran may have heeded the warnings, but it appears Lebanon didn’t. Its ship is still due to sail, despite the threats. “It’s ready to go,” said organizer Samar al-Hajj to Lebanon’s National News Agency. “We are just waiting for the arrival of some foreign women [activists].”

Israel sent a letter to the United Nations earlier this week saying that any ship coming from Lebanon or Iran would be seen as an act of war. Now let us cast our minds back to June 25, 2006, when Hamas kidnapped Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit in Gaza. The act led to military reprisal in Gaza. Just over two weeks later, Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed five more. And the party was surprised when Israel launched a war the very next day.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Lebanon's Hezbolla #Flotilla? If They Really Want To Help Palestinians--Start With Palestinian Persecution In Lebanon!

Daled Amos
25 June '10
Posted before Shabbat

"Palestinian refugees in Lebanon do not enjoy several basic human rights, for example, they do not have the right to work in as many as 20 professions. Palestinian refugees are not formally citizens of another state, so they are not able to claim the same rights as other foreigners living and working in Lebanon."
UNRWA
-----
[S]tate policies and practices in Lebanon discriminate, effectively on grounds of racial and national origin, against Palestinian refugees who reside in Lebanon and that, consequently, Lebanon is failing to comply with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child with respect to Palestinian children. Particular concerns highlighted include limitations on the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to education, the right to be registered and the right to a name, and the right to social security.
Amnesty International

Salman Masalha writes:

Now that the Lebanese have boosted their national pride by registering the world's biggest dish of hummus in the Guinness Book of Records, they are bidding for the record in hypocrisy, soon to be seen on television screens everywhere. For it is not humanitarian motives or concern for the Palestinians that are making all these hypocrites restless. All they want is spectacle, footage and headlines. Because as we have already said, the Israeli-Palestinian arena is the most photogenic arena in the world.

If they had any genuine humanitarian concern, the Lebanese would stage protests against the harsh blockade that has been imposed on the Palestinian refugee camps in their country for decades. You have to read Amnesty International's reports on the situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon to comprehend the humanitarian disaster there. This hypocrisy was best described by a European volunteer in those camps, who told the organizers of the new flotilla: "You love the Palestinians in Gaza and hate your own Palestinians."

Just how poorly does Lebanon treat its Palestinians?

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.