[Marxism] Remi Kanazi, "Heartbreak Hotel" (on Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Heartbreak Hotel
by Remi Kanazi

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a military man turned "peacenik," is
unilaterally "disengaging" from the Gaza Strip. It's all over
television, play by play -- the hardship Israel is enduring.  Scenes
of Israeli soldiers emotionally and physically struggling to remove
the 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip is displayed while CNN anchors
utter soft words in hushed tones in the background. The Israeli
government has spent billions to protect and provide for the
settlers. Now, Israeli soldiers must painstakingly carry off the
flailing settlers who are still protesting the move -- the same
soldiers to whom they once turned for help.

Should Israel be commended for dismantling the illegal settlements
they built against international law, the will of the Palestinian
people, and the effort to maintain peace? The corporate media's
melodramatic portrayal, with close-ups of tears on the faces of
settlers, would have the viewer believe that this is a major
sacrifice on their part. The media are silent on a minor fact that
the settlers had trampled on the rights of an indigenous people --
that they had lived in their fortresses of Israeli luxury in the
desert of Palestinian impoverishment.

The settlers' departure from Gaza is indeed historic. Yet, it is not
disengagement in the proper sense of the word, notwithstanding the
corporate media's terminology. Gazan children may be able to play in
the yard and Gazan wives and husbands can walk the street freely, but
unfortunately their freedom ends there. Israel will control Gaza's
air, sea, and borders as well as the movement of Palestinians
entering or leaving Gaza. . . .

FULL TEXT: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kanazi200805.html>

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud-
ahmadinejads-face.html>;  <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez-
congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/
2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>



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