Quoting the Israeli journalist Amira Hass, a leading specialist on Gaza: "The total separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank is one of the greatest achievements of Israeli politics, whose overarching objective is to prevent a solution based on international decisions and understandings and instead dictate an arrangement based on Israel's military superiority."
One aspect of the destruction of Gaza that is never reported is the naval blockade which has been driving back Palestinian fishermen since 2000. Not unrelated is the discovery of a rich source of natural gas in the same waters, which Israel is buying from British Gas and zero going to the supposedly Palestinian-controlled Gaza strip. The lack of media attention to this probably makes it of primary importance as, once again, we see politics as a method of obfuscating a real war over natural resources.
As always, Chomsky is good at highlighting the political newspeak and repeatedly points out that behind every initiative is a list of conditions that make them all largely worthless. Israel, backed by the United States, will do whatever it takes to avoid a Palestinian state. Chomsky picks through Obama's Cairo speech and finds numerous restatements of past US positions. All UN resolutions against Israel will be ignored as America pretends it is being an 'honest broker' whilst funding one side.
On nuclear weapons Obama again called for nations to adhere to the Non-Proliferation Treaty whilst failing to mention that Israel is not a signatory to the NPT. In contrast, Iran should be allowed "access" to nuclear technology, meaning access from the outside rather than running its own research and development. The "threat" Iran poses is not of a suicidal first strike against Israel but as a deterrent against further Israeli expansion. The double standards go on and, I suspect, the decades-long deadlock now serves as the pretext for the illusional war on terror, which in itself is really yet another war to control natural resources.
You can read the full Chomsky article here.
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