Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: la farsa della flottiglia

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395022140188274.html#printMode
The Flotilla Farce
Whether they are from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate 
reek of hypocrisy.
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By DANNY AYALON
A couple of years ago, a Palestinian refugee camp was encircled and laid 
siege to by an army of tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers. Attacks 
initiated by Palestinian militants triggered an overwhelming response 
from the army that took the life of almost 500 people, including many 
civilians. International organizations struggled to send aid to the 
refugee camps, where the inhabitants were left without basic amenities 
like electricity and running water. During the conflict, six U.N. 
personnel were killed when their car was bombed.
Government ministers and spokesmen tried to explain to the international 
community that the Palestinian militants were backed by Syria and global 
jihadist elements. Al Qaeda condemned the government and the army, 
declaring that the attack was part of a "crusade" against their 
Palestinian brothers.
View Full Image
ayalon
AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian refugee collects metal and plastic objects at a garbage 
dump in the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi near Tripoli.
ayalon
ayalon
While most will assume that the events described above took place in the 
West Bank or Gaza, they actually took place in Lebanon in the summer of 
2007, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Lebanese Army, which 
struck back with deadly force. The scene of most of the fighting was the 
Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon, which was home to the 
Islamist Fatah al-Islam, a group that has links with al Qaeda.
At the time, there was little international outcry. No world leader 
decried the "prison camps" in Lebanon. No demonstrations took place 
around the world; no U.N. investigation panels were created and little 
media attention was attracted. In fact, the plight of the Palestinians 
in Lebanon garners very little attention internationally.
Today, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who are 
deprived of their most basic rights. The Lebanese government has a list 
of tens of professions that a Palestinian is forbidden from being 
engaged in, including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. 
Palestinians are forbidden from owning property and need a special 
permit to leave their towns. Unlike all other foreign nationals in 
Lebanon, they are denied access to the health-care system. According to 
Amnesty international, the Palestinians in Lebanon suffer from 
"discrimination and marginalization" and are treated like "second class 
citizens" and "denied their full range of human rights."
Amnesty also states that most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have 
little choice but to live in overcrowded and deteriorating camps and 
informal gatherings that lack basic infrastructure.
In view of the worsening plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon, it is 
the height of irony that a Lebanese flotilla is organizing to leave the 
port of Tripoli in the next few days to bring aid to Palestinians in 
Gaza. According to one of the organizers, the participants are "united 
by a feeling of stark injustice."
This attitude exposes the dishonesty of the whole flotilla exercise. 
Whether it is from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate in 
these flotillas reek of hypocrisy. There are currently 100 armed 
conflicts and dozens of territorial disputes around the world. There 
have been millions of people killed and hundreds of millions live in 
abject poverty without access to basic staples. And yet hundreds of 
high-minded "humanitarian activists" are spending millions of dollars to 
reach Gaza and hand money to Hamas that will never reach the innocent 
civilians of Gaza.
This is the same Gaza that just opened a sparkling new shopping mall 
that would not look out of place in any capital in Europe. Gaza, where a 
new Olympic-sized swimming pool was recently inaugurated and five-star 
hotels and restaurants offer luxurious fare.
Markets brimming with all manner of foods dot the landscape of Gaza, 
where Lauren Booth, journalist and "human rights activist," was pictured 
buying chocolate and luxurious items from a well-stocked supermarket 
before stating with a straight face that the "situation in Gaza is a 
humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur."
No one claims that the situation in Gaza is perfect. Since the bloody 
coup and occupation by Hamas of Gaza in 2007, in which more than 100 
Palestinians were killed, Israel has had no choice but to ensure that 
Hamas is not able to build up an Iranian port on the shores of the 
Mediterranean. Until Hamas meets the three standards laid out by the 
international community, namely renouncing violence, recognizing 
Israel's right to exist and abiding by previously signed agreements 
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Hamas will continue to be 
shunned by the international community.
While Israel's policy is to continue to see that all civilian needs are 
addressed, it can not allow Hamas to rearm and use Gaza as a base to 
attack Israel and beyond. For this reason, Israel initiated a blockade, 
fully legal under international law, to ensure that no items can be 
appropriated by Hamas to attack innocent civilians. Organizations that 
wish to join the U.N. and the Red Cross to deliver goods or aid to Gaza 
are welcome to do so through the Kerem Shalom crossing or even through 
Egyptian ports. Those that refuse and seek to break the legal blockade 
to boost Hamas are interested in provocation. If Israel allows these 
confrontational flotillas to successfully open up a shipping lane for 
arms smuggling for an Iranian proxy, then the region will suffer from 
continuous conflict. Actions that embolden the extremists will be at the 
cost of the moderates and this will pose a grave danger to moving the 
peace process forward.
The latest flotilla preparing to leave from Lebanon fully exposes not 
only the hypocrisy but the danger of these provocative vigilante 
flotillas. The Lebanese flotilla, whose organizers claim injustice while 
ignoring the dire human rights situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon, 
amply demonstrate that these flotillas have nothing to do with 
humanitarian concerns and everything to do with delegitimizing Israel.

 By DANNY AYALON
PLONK!