Clinton warns Israel over delays in Gaza aid

[IndianaGreen]

Source: Haaretz

Last update - 02:32 25/02/2009

Clinton warns Israel over delays in Gaza aid

By Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A leading political source in Jerusalem noted that senior Clinton aides have made it clear that the matter will be central to Clinton's planned visit to Israel next Tuesday.

Ahead of Clinton's visit, special U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to issue a sharply worded protest on the same matter when he arrives here Thursday.

"Israel is not making enough effort to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," senior U.S. officials told Israeli counterparts last week, and reiterated Washington's view by saying that "the U.S. expects Israel to meet its commitments on this matter."

Two weeks ago, four senior European Union officials sent a letter to the prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister and Yitzhak Herzog, the minister charged with humanitarian aid transfers to the Gaza Strip, protesting delays in the flow of aid through the crossings into Gaza. The officials also demanded that Israel formulates a clear policy on this issue.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066821.html



Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066821.html

[Mind_your_head]

1. Israel is going to provide humanitarian aide to Gaza?

Really?

I mean, "Really?"

Really?

:eyes:

[4lbs]

2. No, Israel is blocking aid from other countries from reaching the Palestinians in Gaza.

n/t

[Mind_your_head]

3. That's what I figured.

Israel isn't doing Israel any favors in not "milking the cup of human kindness" here., IMHO.

[4lbs]

5. True. Israel is coming off looking worse on this as time goes by.

First, the shelling of Gaza using phosphorous rounds, which are illegal by the Geneva Convention. Denying it and then admitting it when their lies were debunked.

Second, the direct and intentional targeting of Palestinian schools and hospitals.

Now, blocking aid from reaching the Palestinians.

[biopowertoday]

6. and this is beyond stupid:

............However, an incident occured last week at a crossing into the Gaza Strip that gave a very different impression to a senior observer. When Senator John Kerry visited the Strip, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid - only rice shipments."

Kerry asked Barak about the logic behind this restriction, and only after the senior U.S. official's intervention did the defense minister allow the pasta into the Strip. The U.S. senator updated colleagues at the Senate and other senior officials in Washington of the details of his visit.

The issue of humanitarian aid is central to a major debate between Israel's foreign and defense ministries. The former supports broadening the amount and types of aid, while the defense ministry opposes anything it considers "concessions" to Hamas.

[Frank Booth]

7. Maybe Israel was worried the pasta would be used to commit acts of terrorism against "her."

:sarcasm:

[karynnj]

17. This shows the importance of the Senator and Congressmen's visit to Gaza

Here just saying what he heard and saw did two things. The first was that it led to a small change on Israel's part. The second, and more important, is that it made it clear to Israel's leadership that official Washington was watching - and actually seeing first hand some of what is happening.

An interesting question is who leaked this story. It is unlikely that Senator Kerry's office or people with him gave an Israeli paper this story. It could be the UN in Gaza or it could be someone in the Israeli government disheartened by Israel's actions. What it means is that this story will become known by many Israelis, many of whom will be angered by it.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Two Americas]

9. objection

I object to the use of ethnic slurs in your post.

[Karenina]

10. Seconded, but not alerted. Let it stay there as a teaching tool.

[Two Americas]

11. agreed

As we saw with the frenzy of gay-bashing at the time of the Warren invitation, the most egregious posts disappear quickly, and we then have people saying "I didn't see any bigotry. I don't know why those people are so angry. They must be over-reacting."

On edit - Hi Karenina! Always good to see you.

[bluedawg12]

12. I just want to say that I'm not Jewish, either...but if you have a gripe

with Israeli policy state that and leave off with disparaging an entire ethnic group.

[cboy4]

13. "You people"?

:wtf:

[LostinVA]

15. I cannot believe, in 2009 and on DU, that you actually posted something like this

:wtf:

[libodem]

8. I hate t admit this but I caught a few dreadful minutes of

the Dennis Miller radio right-wing indoctrination hour this morning before before I completely woke up and turned off the radio. He had the hateful John Bolton from the Enterprise Institute commenting on 9 billion dollars of aid going to Gaza. He had a lot to complain about saying that Hammas will be profiting from the business of rebuilding. I hate that blowhard bastard. I think he said the money was coming form the United Nations but I could be wrong on that. I wondered why it was a topic of discussion. Now, I know why.

[The Stranger]

19. John Bolton is nothing but a racist and a bigot, through and through, to his core.

He hates Arabs and Muslims. Plain and simple.

[eridani]

14. Excellent! Thanks for stepping up, Madame Secretary n/t

[karynnj]

16. It is unconsciencionable that they are not letting humanitarian aid in

Not to mention, it is stupid politically as well - it can only increase the hatred. This article is clearly a call for Mitchell, Clinton or even Obama to take a strong stand on letting the aid through. Look how they covered trucks filled with pasta being stopped.

First of all, the fact that two weeks after EU leaders' protests and implicitly US protests by Clinton, they would stop pasta because only rice was allowed in is crazy. It sounds like Haaretz is implying that the only reason the policy was changed was that a high level US observer called them on it. (How many times do they need to refer to Senator Kerry and the people he can speak to in DC as high level in two consecutive paragraphs. - Israelis know who Senator Kerry is and they know the people he can easily speak to, so the reporter is clearly doing this for a purpose.)

"However, an incident occured last week at a crossing into the Gaza Strip that gave a very different impression to a senior observer. When Senator John Kerry visited the Strip, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid - only rice shipments."

Kerry asked Barak about the logic behind this restriction, and only after the senior U.S. official's intervention did the defense minister allow the pasta into the Strip. The U.S. senator updated colleagues at the Senate and other senior officials in Washington of the details of his visit.

This seems a call to HRC, Mitchell and even Obama to demand Israel make a real change on how they treat the Palestinians.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Good. I hope Israel will respond.

[No Elephants]

20. Oh, God, NO!! NOT a strongly worded message! Oh, the humanity!