The farce of the flotilla

In certain camps, it is fashionable to blame Bibi, the proverbially accused “war and fear-monger,” for all our woes and for his inaction to promote peace. On the other hand, Shimon Peres is regarded as extremely proactive in the peace process and he has implemented numerous co-existence projects to that end. In light of the impending Flotilla to Gaza, we would do well to be reminded of what our very dovish former President had to say about Gaza:

“I was for the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza,”  “When I did it, I thought, ‘My God, we are going to relieve the Gazan people.’ We offered them the best, without any conditions; we didn’t ask for anything in return.”

When Israelis asked what would happen if the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip were to open fire on Israel, Peres recalled, he said, “Look, why should they?”

“Look, we left Gaza willingly, unilaterally,” Peres said. “We handed over to the Palestinians a free, open Gaza. Which is a beautiful strip of a beautiful beach. They could have developed it for tourism, for fishing, for agriculture. We don’t understand, frankly, why are they fighting? What are they shooting? What are the reasons? We left. What is the purpose? They want to be free? They are free.”

From an article dated August 13th 2014.

And as we all know, Israel is not currently preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, food and construction supplies into the Gaza Strip.

Therefore pressure should be brought upon Knesset members Zoabi and Ghattas as well as any other unpatriotic Israelis who seem to be so selectively ignorant about the situation, to respond to the comments made by Peres and to be asked to explain their reasons for joining the Flotilla (or wishing to join it as in the case with Zoabi).

They should also be reminded that Egypt has placed far greater restrictions on Gaza than Israel has ever done… yet there are no Flotillas on their way there…..not a beep from the world when Egypt destroyed tunnels, razed homes, constructed a 7-mile steel barrier and in fact kept the Rafah border closed for years!