Yuval Rotem, Israeli ambassador to Australia, writes in his op-ed piece in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:
It is imperative to remember that the Israeli Government aids those Gazans who are suffering under Hamas, even though Hamas appears to be doing everything in its power to prevent the passage.
Is this naive, or just disingenous? Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s comments from just one week ago carry more weight:
As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace.
It is the systematic application of collective punishment, an example of which Olmert here explicitly approves, that sustains and perpetuates the vicous cycle of suffering, fear and hatred that has poisoned the lives of millions. That cycle will not be broken by finger-pointing. When there is no house, it cannot be put in order. The cynical divide-and-conquer wedge politics, that play rival factions of the Palestinian people off against each other, should belong to the past.
Recent Comments