Calling Gaza a "prison" and a "ghetto," European Union parliamentarians harshly condemned Israeli actions there in a special session held in Brussels on Wednesday.The level of EU depravity and hypocrisy stays pegged at 11 on a scale of 10.
During the hour-long, heated debate in advance of a Thursday vote on a resolution, parliamentarians, as well as EU officials, called on Israel to open the Gaza borders to alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in the impoverished area where 1.1 million of the 1.4 m. population are dependent on the international donations for basic food supplies.
In one of the more impassioned speeches, Belgian MEP Veronique De Keyser called Gaza a "ghetto" where "people are dying little by little with cameras trained on them."
While the IDF is working on a proposal to close the borders between Gaza and Israel in favor of Egyptian crossings, EU parliamentarians called on Israel to find a solution to the problem.
In particular, it urged Israel to live up to its commitment to ensure pedestrian passage at Rafah and full commercial movement in Karni.
The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June forced the closure of the main commercial crossing into Israel at Karni and the pedestrian one into Egypt at Rafah. The third major crossing into Israel at Erez has been opened for limited pedestrian traffic.
Since June, the IDF, along with the United Nations, has worked to bring basic supplies, agricultural products and limited goods into the area through alternative crossings at Sufa and Kerem Shalom.
Among the stumbling blocks to opening the crossing have been continued mortar attacks by Hamas on the passages and the absence of a viable plan to replace the Fatah personnel who had manned the Gaza borders on the Palestinian side.
In a more measured speech than some of the others, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs Manuel Antunes Lobo attacked Israel's decision last month to declare Gaza a "hostile territory" and said that such a move "exacerbated" an already bad situation.
"The European Union recognizes Israel's legitimate right of self defense but asks Israel to carefully consider the consequences of its decision." He added that "access and movement" agreements regarding the borders need to still be respected even in the current situation.
The EU, he said, remains committed to helping out the Palestinians financially both in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2006, it gave out €688 million in humanitarian assistance and this year it has already shelled out €425m., he said.
EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was particularly disturbed by the fact that the border closures had forced the suspension of important water and sanitation projects.
But even as she took spoke of the EU's continued financial commitment to the Palestinians, she called on the Arab states - who have not contributed in the same way we did - to step up and "do their part in the future."
One British MEP, Chris Davies, said it should be Israel and not EU taxpayers who should foot the bill to solve the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.
"What does it have to do with the EU? Gaza is an Israeli prison camp. It is the Israelis who should be responsible. They are the ones that keep them in misery," said Davis.
They pay lip service to Israel's security needs but do not blame Hamas for anything that is happening in Gaza. They say that all responsibility for Gaza is Israel's, not their Arab brethren who they admit contribute next to nothing to solve the "humanitarian crisis." They blame the closing of Karni on Israel and do not acknowledge the terrorist attacks at that border crossing.
The hypocrisy really hits home when they blame Israel for Rafah being closed. Somehow, Egypt manages to open it for wanted terrorists to travel to Gaza and the EU which is supposed to monitor it disappears.
So it is Israel's fault that the Rafah (and Karni) agreement stipulations have been abrogated by Hamas' takeover of the Strip?
So the EU can insist that Israel negotiate with a group sworn to destroy it?
So when a people democratically elect terrorists, they must eb shielded from the consequences?
So Egypt has no responsibility for Gaza, and only Israel does?
So the EU cannot deign to mention weapons smuggling, Hamas/Fatah civil war, religious coercion, torture and all the other things that make life in Gaza hell that are quire independent of Israel?
These moral midgets love to stand up and accuse Israel of crimes - and their use of the word "ghetto" is no accident as they try so label Israel as being Nazis without actually saying it - when they have histories of colonization whose associated atrocities have dwarfed anything Israel could dream of.
Perhaps most tellingly, they promote the stereotype of Arabs as savages, saying that the Arab people cannot possibly be expected to take care of their own, or to act like human beings. No, only Israel is responsible for taking care of the poor animals, in th EU's twisted and bigoted viewpoint. The very idea of Arab responsibility for their role in creating and prolonging a fake "refugee" problem is never to be mentioned - and the idea that somehow Palestinian Arabs have the ability to fix their own messes is not even entertained.
Gaza is not sub-Saharan Africa, and PalArab children are not sitting with distended stomachs and fleas begging for a morsel of bread. Gazans are educated and clothed and fed; they have cars and houses and designer clothes and the Internet. A billion dollars a year flows into Gaza legally, who knows how much more smuggled in suitcases from Saudi and Iranian petrodollars. Gaza could have turned into a Singapore or a Hong Kong if the Arabs had the ability to take responsibility for themselves rather than spend their entire existence whining that somehow they deserve more and more Western support. Gazans have created a successful industry of building rockets and tunnels - efforts that could have been building real businesses where they could export their wonderful goods to Europe itself.
This is the ultimate irony: a group of politically correct Europeans saying, in effect, that Gazans are less than human and must be treated as if they are all mentally ill.
Arabs taking responsibility for their own actions? Mon Dieu!