Chart of the day: The Gaza blockade

From The Economist.

If the notion is, give the guy a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and he eats everyday, then I detect a distinct desire on Israel's part to make sure Gazans learn how to do nothing for themselves.

Hard not to argue that these are essentially prison conditions, designed to punish more than allow economic rehabilitation.

Convince me otherwise.

Comments

[Jeff J]

I would think Hamas would rather have it that way as well. A growing economy leads to a middle class, a middle class leads to more demands for better governance and a diffusion of power to those interested more in jobs than wiping Isreal off the map etc. Perhaps Isreal should encourage more economic development but can they stomach the diversionary attacks Hamas would have to perpatrate on Israel to maintain their legitamacy as defenders of the Palestinians.

[MikeO]

I'm with Jeff, but I want to see Israel be smarter. Hamas is desperate to avoid modernization in Palestine. Only Salam Fayyad is pro-modernization. How does Israel make itself the proponent of Arab modernization? How does it humiliate Hamas as hyper-reactionary or motivate it to get with the program? Israel is exquisitely tuned to not appearing weak—every time it withdraws from some place or acts nice, it is pilloried as weak and craven and the terrorists say “Look what we made them do. Let’s jack up the attack.” So they can never appear too “nice.”

Israel needs a brilliant strategy, something to empower the best elements of Palestinian society, knowing that the Arab governments, on their own, will never do so. Suppose it created a scholarship program for Palestinian kids and included Gaza? Would those kids be killed by Hamas? If Israel funded modern schools, would they be allowed to function? Suppose Israel put in modern, high tech border scanners, like industrial scale versions of airport security scanners, and issued biometric ID cards, to allow a more open border and recreate some cross border social intercourse. Would the Israeli public accept the cost and risks associated with this? Would Hamas blow it up and murder the participants?

Perhaps Israel should enlist Egypt and Jordon in sponsoring modern schools with the US and Europe funding them, rather than the UN schools which are under Hamas control? Would that be enough to thwart Hamas? Those contries once ruled in the West Bank and Gaza, they don't want to rule again, but maybe they could step in as elder brothers and dampen the risk on their borders.

It is not useful to disparage Israel and judge it. This is a cruel and ruthless chess game, and Hamas is setting the pace. How does Israel turn the tables? If you were responsible to Israel’s voters, what strategy would you use?

[Vadim]

It looks like economic rehabilitation is happening on West Bank. But Gaza is not ready for it. Or so is take of Israeli decision makers. Be nice to Israel and get development. Be nasty and get blocade. Make your choice.

Turkish peacekeepers in Gaza would be something. Hamas takes it as face saving way out of dead end: muslim brothers who just suffered from Israel are coming to help!
Israel can trust Turkish military. Turkey gets World and Arab recognition as Middle East problem solver. Erdogan does what no American President could do. Just dreaming...