Would it make sense to cut off all medical supplies and all roads to all Americans if American president Bush was bombing other countries?

No.

They why does it make sense to so many Americans that Israel can choke off Palestine completely (of all medical aid, supplies, roads, and other important needs) because Hamas is hurling rockets into Israel? Why do the civilians, men, women, and kids, have to suffer because of something that they’re not doing themselves?

Just think about it. What amazes me (or maybe i shouldn’t be so amazed) is that presidential candidate Obama wrote this letter below:

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,
I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel…

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families.

However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this… Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks… If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator

The part that really gets me is this:

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families.

However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this… Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The gall! Obama, you’re supposed to be one of the “progressive ones”. The right to respond is OK. But, the right to respond by holding hostage the whole citizenry of Palestine is WRONG. Israel is not *forced* to attack palestinian civilians by cutting off medical aid to them, cutting off electricity to their hospitals, and cutting off all border crossings. Now I’m as scared of Obama’s foreign policy as I am of Hillary’s. What about his foreign policy speaks to “hope” and “change”?

So Obama doesn’t support the United Nations Security Council coming out with a statement condeming Israel’s action’s on innocent Palestinians unless it includes a statement about Hamas’ rocket bombing?

This news piece is from mid-January, but speaks to the stark imbalance between casualties on both sides, and isn’t unique (so many news stories over the past years have shown similar casualty differences):

Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians since Tuesday in air strikes and gun battles with militants in the bloodiest fighting since Hamas took control of Gaza in June.

On Thursday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a car in northern Gaza, killing a Hamas-allied militant leader and his wife, according to Palestinian medical officials. Two other Palestinians were reported injured in the attack.

Wednesday’s deaths included three members of a Gaza family in what the Israeli military acknowledged was a missile attack on the wrong car.

Meanwhile early Thursday, Hamas claimed it fired 24 rockets at Israel after launching 79 rockets and mortars the day before. No injuries were reported.

The almost daily rocket attacks rarely strike their intended targets or cause casualties, but have kept residents in southern Israeli border towns such as Sderot under a constant state of fear.

Israel: Killed 27 Palestinians in 3 days in January. At least 3, if not more, of those deaths were confirmed as “oops” we killed a palestinian family who wasn’t involved in the fighting. Sorry, tiny mistake. Moving on…

Hamas: Fired rockets. No deaths. Not even any INJURIES.

27 to 0.

(of note – using rockets and bombs are wrong, no matter what the situation. but it’s important to make sure that a country’s retaliation towards rocket-throwers isn’t aimed at innocent civilians. and the numbers are important (i’m NOT denying that innocent israelis have been killed by palestinians, i just gave an example of a few day period. take any few day period and there may be casualties on both sides, but the ratios are alarmingly one-sided). obama shouldn’t be yelling at the security council to derail its statement because it doesn’t condemn rocket-throwers. instead the candidate using the words “hope” so casually, and talking the talk about fighting for the underdog should better understand this international human rights violation that israel is inflicting upon the people of palestine).

then again, no matter how much he acts like he ain’t, Obama’s a member of the US “establishment” and has Washington insiders as his strategists and policyfolks, so I guess I shouldn’t expect him to walk the walk that he talks, on a number of issues.

I’ve recently written about the cutting off of supplies to Gaza by Israel in retaliation for the rockets. And again, here’s a palestinian doctor’s personal account of the situation in January, just for some context:

I telephoned Al-Awda hospital and was really panicked to learn that we have only have enough fuel for 4 days for the electrical generator!!!!! What more details shall I give?

No electricity leads to no pumped fresh water and no proper sewage system which in turn leads to more diseases and more needs for different surgical operations. But after 4 days no emergency operations can be conducted in our hospitals.

Israel sealed the Gaza Strip completely and strictly on Friday. Even the UN food supplies are not allowed to enter Gaza. 80% of the population at the moment depends on the UN aid and different international aid agencies. The UN staff are also not allowed to leave or enter Gaza. And while Israel is sealing the Gaza Strip it is at the same time intensifying air raids and military ground operations against Gaza. In the last few days 37 people were killed and 120 were injured. Most of them are civilians. It is a desperate attempt to stop the rockets from Gaza against the Israeli villages where the Israeli citizens are complaining of panic attacks. This response with such overreacted operations against Gaza is unjustified. The cutting off of power and fuel is frank collective punishment.

By the way, Hillary ain’t any better on this issue (A comparison of all the presidential candidates’ stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict can be found at the Council for Foreign Relations website). Edwards os slightly more balanced on the issue.

And both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton co-sponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, a bill that would unjustly punish innocent Palestinian civilians for the wrongdoings of some of its leaders. Didn’t know that…

UPDATE (Feb 1): Now that edwards is out of the race, although I hate what barack obama did above, i’m going to vote for him against Clinton (who is no less anti-palestine). Obama’s not surrounded by the establishment AS MUCH AS Clinton is, and clinton won’t apologize for anti-war vote, AND she’s got more money from drug companies and health insurance companies than any other candidate. Obama on the other hand has great momentum, is somewhat more progressive, and is specifically ANTI-WAR, which is the biggest thing the american democrats are asking of a candidate. more later…