Another side of Gaza’s story

Another side of Gaza’s story

EDITOR

I would like to comment on a July 28 column, “Visit to Gaza was an eye opener.” This is a report about a humanitarian mission of 200 “patriots” who went to Gaza to “deliver badly needed medical supplies from America to this besieged population of 1.5 million humans inhumanely trapped within a closed ghetto for the past 2 years”. The article blames Israel of committing “the greatest atrocity of our times”.

One cannot but wonder how did the Gazans survive this terrible siege for 2 years before they were “saved” by these “patriots”? How come there was never one case of starvation or hospital closing during these 2 long years?

The truth, of course, is that every day around a hundred trucks are crossing the border from Israel to Gaza delivering food, medicine and humanitarian aid to the UN agency in Gaza, which then distributes it all across Gaza. The “siege” of Gaza is intended only to prevent smuggling bombing material into Gaza and suicide bombers from Gaza into Israel. Before the siege, terror was raining on Israel from Gaza.

A case in point is Wafa al-Bis, a young Gazan woman who sustained severe burns from a cooking accident. She required sophisticated reconstructive surgery that was unavailable in Gaza, so Israel granted her free surgery in Israel on a humanitarian base. On her last visit, on June 20, 2005, she was stopped by Israeli security guards who found her loaded with explosives. This was going to be her expression of gratitude to the Israeli hospital and the medical staff who saved her.

The “patriots” material assistance to Gaza was less then a drop in the bucket compared to the daily Israeli assistance to Gaza. It is, however, a pity that this patriotic humanitarian mission missed the only human being in Gaza that really needed their intervention the most: the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been in solitary confinement in Gaza for three years. The Gaza regime has denied him any human rights. The international Red Cross was prevented from visiting him even once, despite numerous requests. His mother, who did not hear from him for three years, was denied even a picture of him, despite her repeated pleas to the cruel rulers of Gaza.

The article ends with quoting the immortal words from the Declaration of Independence about the inalienable rights of all men, and wishing these rights for Gaza. It is a bit of a stretch that the people of Gaza, who were overjoyed and danced in the streets on 9/11, and who celebrated every suicide bombing on busses and in coffee places in Israel, the same people who denied their innocent victims the right to life, have the audacity to expect the right to freedom and the pursuit of happiness for themselves. Even hypocrisy should have a bit of decency.

A. Z. RABINOWITZ

Liberty

What about us?

EDITOR:

I am very angry that our own law makers that we put in office don’t care if we have health care. They have wonderful care and the heck with everyone else.

If we don’t get some kind of health care reform, I will not vote for anyone who doesn’t support this bill. Congressmen should think about us and not the money they are getting from big health-care companies.

BONNIE MARVIN

Youngstown