The Gaza Tea Party

The Arab world is infuriated by the continued blockade
and seizure of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Anti-Americanism is on the rise, even in capitals that are loyal
to the United States, like Amman, Riyadh and Cairo.

"This is the doing of America," most Arabs believe,
in harmony with its "war on terror" against Hamas,
the military group that has been in control of the Gaza
Strip since June 2007. The Americans have decided to
wipe out Hamas, via Israel, while the Arab world is
watching. That is the feeling in Arab capitals from
Casablanca to Baghdad.

For one thing, the Gaza events were a rude
awakening for the Arab street, after sugar-coated
promises for regional peace were made at the Annapolis
"peace" conference in the United States last November.
To understand the magnitude of what is currently
happening in Gaza, and how it backfires on the reputation
of the US throughout the Arab and Muslim world,
Americans must look back in history, searching for
a certain injustice - done to them - that mirrors what
is currently happening to the 1.5 million Palestinians
in Gaza who are being collectively punished for
being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with
the wrong people.

The Gaza 'tea party'
On December 16, 1773, angry Americans destroyed
many crates of tea bricks on British ships in Boston
Harbor. This event, known as the Boston Tea Party,
helped spark the American Revolution. The British
responded with brute force in 1774, issuing what
came to be known as "Intolerable Acts", and closing
down the port of Boston via blockade, until the East
India Company was repaid for the damaged merchandise.
Gaza is the Massachusetts of 2008. The "Intolerable Acts"
of 1774 are a child's birthday party compared to the "
Intolerable Acts" of 2008, committed by Israel. The
Crossing of Rafah is the Port of Boston, 234 years later.

Americans objected back then; claiming the law
was collective punishment for all of Boston rather
than the individuals who had destroyed the tea.
Boston was a major port for the people of
Massachusetts, and its closure sparked public
outcry and an emotional outburst that spread as
far as South Carolina. Other measures included the
Massachusetts Government Act, making all public
appointments in Boston invalid unless signed off by
the King of England.

The British hoped that by escalating against the
Americans in Boston, they would isolate radicals in
Massachusetts. The Israelis are hoping to isolate
radicals - the Hamas leaders - in Gaza.
This eventually backfired. The harshness to
what was done in Massachusetts was too
outrageous, and forced moderates either to
mute their moderation, or transform into radicals.
The Intolerable Acts actually increased sympathy
for Massachusetts.

The situation in the Palestinian territories got out of
hand on January 23, after a week-long siege by Israel
on the Gaza Strip. The Israelis were enraged that since
June 2007, Gaza has been under control of Hamas, a
military group hailed as a resistance force in the
Muslim world, but labelled as "terrorist" in the US
and Europe. For an entire week, the IDF laid siege
to Gaza, under the watchful eye of the US, to punish
its entire population for having produced Hamas in
the 1980s, and voting for them in the elections of 2005.

Israel claims it imposed the siege in response to over
100 rockets fired into Israel from Hamas and Islamic
Jihad in Gaza. The Palestinians claim they fired these
rockets in response to the international embargo imposed
on Gaza since Hamas came to power in the strip in 2007.
The embargo turned violent in December 2007,
when 58 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and
another 61 were wounded during IDF operations.
On the other hand, six Israelis were wounded by
Qassam rockets fired by the Islamic group on the
IDF. Since hostilities started last week, over 70
Palestinians have been killed, 23 of them on
January 15-16 alone.

According to Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, "The Israeli practice of collective
punishment, disproportionate use of force and targeted
killings continues, as does the Palestinian militants' practice
of indiscriminate firing of mortars and rockets into Israel.
Since the beginning of the year and until midday January
22, Palestinian militants fired about 230 mortar shells and
110 rockets into the northern Negev, including the cities
of Sderot and Ashqelon."

Unable to put up with the death, hunger, cold, darkness
(fuel has run out in Gaza, and electricity has been shut
off), tens of thousands of Palestinians stormed, blew up,
and crossed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which
has been closed to the Gazans since Hamas came to
power in Gaza in June 2007.

One man escaping from Gaza to Egypt was quoted
as saying, "We haven't eaten meat since the Eid
[holiday in December]." The Gazans came to Egypt
searching for food, commodities - and security. They
were in miserable condition, said Egyptian eyewitnesses,
and were allowed to enter Egypt under direct orders
from President Hosni Mubarak. Speaking on the
behalf of UNRWA, the United Nations agency aiding
Palestinian refugees, Peter Ford appealed to Arab
States on January 24, calling for donations at US$$9.8
million for "food aid, fuel, supplies and cash assistance
to the most needy in the Gaza Strip".

The former British ambassador to Syria was not
exaggerating, since 80% of Gazans depend on
humanitarian aid, and poverty stands at 57%.
Ford added, "It's not in Israel's interest to
starve the Palestinians in Gaza!"

Israel - worried at the downing of the Rafah Crossing
- noted that it will not let the issue of Gaza snowball
into an international crisis (although by world
standards, it already is). Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert was very clear, saying that he would not
let Gazans lead ordinary lives while Hamas was
firing rockets into southern Israel. One wonders,
what more suffering could the Israeli prime minister want?

Gaza today is a big prison, 100% under the mercy of Israel.
The strip is surrounded by electric fences, watchtowers and
barbed wire - making normal escape impossible. The strip
depends on Israel for electricity and fuel. Before the
blockade this January, Israel had bombed Gaza's
power station in June 2006. It was repaired, only to
be forced to close down this week, because of the blockade.
This means no electricity for the Gazans, and no heating in
the particularly cold and snowy winter that has ripped
through the Middle East.

One observer reminded, "For months a terrible
cloud of stench has been hanging over the tiny
coastal strip. The sanitation system is in a state of
paralysis. Raw sewage is spilling out on to the streets,
homes and fields, and in order to save fuel, the city has
stopped collecting garbage - 400 tonnes a day. The siege
has reduced 85% of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants to total
dependency on food aid, the highest rate anywhere in the
world. More than 95% of businesses and factories have
been forced to close their doors (3,500), leading to the
loss of more than 65,000 jobs. For Gazans, border
closures mean starvation."

Additionally, there is a major crisis in medical equipment
and supplies, with over 100 basic types of medicine no
longer to be found, in addition to 136 types of medical
supplies, like syringes and tape.

Why Gaza?
The Islamic group Hamas fell directly into the hands
of Olmert and US President George W Bush. The
Americans are very serious on pushing through
- in what remains of the US president's tenure -
with their "war on terror". The three main targets
would be either Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah.

State Department and Pentagon officials are advising
against an adventure in Iran - and so is the US's elite
press - claiming that it would be suicidal for Washington
as long as there is war in Iraq. And the war in Iraq is
not coming to an end, despite a relative security
improvement in recent months.

Additionally, the Iran option is difficult. Any attack
that would not topple the Iranian regime would only
strengthen it. Iran is too big, with a strong army, and
a firm religious conviction that would allow its soldiers
to perform with flying colors in any confrontation with
the US. The Iranians are also powerful outside Iran.
They can stir up the Shi'ites of Bahrain, Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia - where the US has military bases, in
addition of course, to the Shi'ites of Iraq.

With Iran being a difficult option, the second best
in the upcoming phase of the "war on terror"
would be Hezbollah. If the Americans cannot beat
Iran, then the least they can do is cut off its political
and military organ in the Middle East, Hezbollah. In
the summer of 2006, the Lebanon war was a war
between the US and Iran, via Israel and Hezbollah.

The Americans wanted to see how powerful
the Iranians actually were, because even today the
US has faulty intelligence on the Iranian regime.
Ever since 1979, the Americans have had no embassy
in Tehran; and thus a large amount of inaccurate
information. In the 1980s, this faulty information
came from Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein and Iranians
in the diaspora who wanted the West to believe that
the Iranian regime was weak and would fall the minute
it were confronted by the international community.
That clearly was not true.

Iran surprised the US, via Hezbollah, by how
powerful it actually was in 2006. The ceasefire
of August 2006 was by no means an end of battle,
as far as the Israelis and Americans were concerned.
It was simply a grace period to rearm, reassess
and then reinvade.

The Americans cannot tolerate the very existence
of Hezbollah - such an independent player from the
US - in the Middle East. Several of its Arab allies
are equally appalled by the popularity of Hezbollah
and the legitimacy of its secretary general Hasan
Nasrallah. They are afraid that this "success story"
will be copied in failed states like Somalia, or even
worse - in Iraq. The Mahdi Army after all is already
earmarked to become another Hezbollah, and its
leader Muqtada al-Sadr is slaving away to become
another Nasrallah.

The Americans will not tolerate that, but they
have one major problem: they cannot go to war
against Hezbollah. This has to be done via Israel.
And Israel at this stage is unable to engage in combat
with Hezbollah, awaiting the findings of the Winograd
Commission (due for final release by late January).
This commission, created after the war of 2006, was
very critical of Olmert and his government, accusing them
of mismanaging the conflict with Hezbollah and leading to
the downfall of defense minister Amir Peretz and
chief of staff Dan Halutz. The first war led to such
results for Israel - causing Olmert to think again
before toying with the idea of a confrontation
with Lebanon.

So basically, in as much as it is bothered by
the continuation of both Iran and Hezbollah,
the US administration has to accept the fact
that it cannot get rid of them easily. A quick war
simply will not erase either Iran or Hezbollah.
The last standing target - and the easiest to nail
- would be Hamas. This part of the so-called
"war on terror" has started in Gaza.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.