"Israel OK's arms shipment and exports for Palestinians
By Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times | November 22, 2007
JERUSALEM - Israel said yesterday it had authorized a shipment of 25 armored vehicles and 1,000 rifles to bolster a promised Palestinian police crackdown on armed militants in the West Bank.
Israel also will allow the Gaza Strip to resume strawberry and flower exports that have been blocked since September.
Israel's opposition leaders and its internal security service, Shin Bet, objected to the Russian shipment, arguing that vehicles and weapons eventually could fall into the hands of Hamas and other militant groups.
Criticizing the promised new shipment, right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Army Radio, "We will one day see Hamas sitting on the armored vehicles, firing at us."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorized the arms deal, which also includes 2 million rounds of ammunition. In preliminary peace talks, he has been telling Abbas that there can be no Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank unless his Palestinian police move to disarm the militias of Hamas and other radical Islamic movements hostile to the Jewish state. Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, only to receive continued cross-border rocket fire from militants there.
See how the MSM consistently portrays the Arabs as the aggressors, while making no mention of Israel's brutal, war-crime of an occupation?
Israeli officials said that another 25 vehicles could be sent to Abbas's forces if they made progress against the militias. A Hamas spokesman, Sami abu Zuhri, said Israeli approval of the arms shipment demonstrated that Abbas was working "hand in hand with the occupation."
Well, you can't fool Hamas.
Notice how every single aspect of life for Palestinians is controlled by Israel, readers?
How would Amurkns feel if China was occupying America? Or worse, Iran?
How would that be, America?
"Israel Allows Some Gaza Exports" by ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM, Nov. 21 — Israel has approved the transfer of 25 armored personnel carriers from Russia to the Palestinian Authority and will allow the export of some agricultural produce from Gaza for the first time since Hamas took over the area, Israeli government officials said Wednesday.
Because of public pressure and exposure on the monstrous conditions, or... ?
Israeli government officials said Israel had agreed to the transfer of the armored vehicles to bolster the Palestinian Authority security forces and “their actions to prevent terror.”
I get sick of the world's leading terrorist state transposing its crimes onto everyone else!
Fuck off, Zionists!
The vehicles will be sent to Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank where armed gangs have long ruled, and where the Palestinian Authority recently embarked on a security campaign after a deployment of 300 specially trained police officers.
Israeli-trained assassins?
There is no arrival date yet for the vehicles, but if the security campaign is successful in Nablus and is repeated in other cities, Israel will consider allowing the transfer of another 25 vehicles.
Hamas called the authorization of the delivery “a Zionist gift.” A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said it showed that Mr. Abbas worked “hand in hand with the occupation” against the Palestinian “resistance.”
Yeah, that's right!
Israeli legislators from the right-wing opposition also criticized the move, raising fears that the Palestinian Authority’s weapons could be turned against Israel or fall into the hands of Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Likud Party, told Army Radio, “According to all the security services, Olmert is endangering the lives of Israeli civilians.”
Wow! Hot charge, Bibi. You must want the job, huh?
"On the day of the 9-11 attacks, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked what the attacks would mean for US-Israeli relations.
His quick reply was: "It's very good…….Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)"
And he is your "friend," Amurka!
A spokeswoman for the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said he had no comment on the matter.
But a former Israeli Army chief, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, told Israel Radio that the supply of armored vehicles was a “meaningless event.”
“The armored vehicles will not substantively change the Palestinians’ ability to handle security or the balance of power between the Israeli Army and the Palestinian security organizations,” he said.
Meaning that "balance" is never meant to change! Which means NO PEACE!
He noted that the Palestinians already had a number of armored vehicles in Gaza. “I think most of them didn’t work for technical reasons,” he said.
Then what is the threat, really!
The decision to allow the resumption of agricultural exports from Gaza was made with the approval of the minister of defense, Israel’s Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
Israel closed down the commercial crossings along the border with Gaza as soon as the militant Hamas took over the territory. Since June only basic goods have been allowed in, and no exports have been allowed out. Many Gaza factories have closed as a result.
Yup, Israel controls even the most minute things!
And the greatest: LIFE or DEATH!
The agriculture minister, Shalom Simchon, said strawberries and flowers grown in the Gaza Strip, and destined for the European market, would be allowed out. According to the ministry, the crop export, carried out in cooperation with Israel’s agricultural sector, is worth about $25 million a year.
Oh, THAT'S WHY!! The stuff is meant for EUROPE!
So it isn't the suffering of Palestinians that gets the borders open.
It's EUROPE'S NEED for goods! This is sickening, folks!
In a normal year, Gaza exports about 60 million flowers, mostly carnations, as well as 2,000 tons of strawberries and 1,500 tons of tomatoes, the ministry said. The season runs from November through March.
A Gaza economist, Omar Shaaban, said that the Israeli policy change came about as a result of “continuous pressure” from Palestinian and Israeli agricultural institutions, including a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court, with support from Europe. He said that 5,000 families in Gaza would benefit directly from the export of the crops.
You would like to think that once, JUST ONCE, they would do it out of kindness and compassion, huh?
And if they aren't going to do that, quit ramming that shit down my throat!
Israel closed the main Karni commercial crossing in June. Israeli security officials said they did not expect it to reopen soon.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli agriculture minister, Tali Carni, said the produce would pass from Gaza into Israel through the Sufa crossing. Sufa had been used to import relief supplies into Gaza, but that crossing has also been mostly closed since late October, with only a consignment of thousands of calves passing through to the strip.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he had not yet received instructions regarding the exports, said it would take some time to make the necessary security arrangements for checking the produce on its way out of Gaza.
You know, the college students are still trapped in Gaza, and Israel said that would end weeks ago.
So screw you and your public relations garbage, Israel!
The world sees you for what you are: a parasite on the lifeblood of the planet!
Mr. Abbas’s administration of moderates in the West Bank has recently been pushing Israel to open the crossings to alleviate the growing hardship in the strip."
That last paragraph is BULLSHIT!!!
I've read in these very own pages that Abass supported the squeeze of Gaza!
Go read my archives, readers! What a bunch of MSM and NYT LIARS!!!!!
