POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
Israel and the United States have got their way pressuring Egypt intensely on this matter, threatening the economic assistance the United States extends.
The poor residents of Gaza are again locked into their giant open-air prison where essential supplies of most descriptions - fuel, electricity, medicines - depend on Israel's whims.
When is the world going to express itself clearly on this appalling situation?
People hold an election, cleanly elect a government Isreal doesn't like, and they are treated as criminals and pariahs. My God, what kind of respect for democracy is this?
Hamas is ready to have a peaceful understanding with Israel, it has said so repeatedly, but Israel is not even willing to talk, making the feeble excuse that Hamas does not recognize Israel in the terms Israel demands.
Why? Because Israel still hopes to reduce these people into leaving their homes, leaving their land to Israel.
Only last week, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel said the Palestinians should all be put into the Sinai Desert where they could form a state, and he was not the first to advocate such measures.
Surely this ranks with the most inhumane statements of apartheid South Africa's rulers?
