zomgwtf said:
I agree with this but I still feel that Israel shouldn't be punishing the citizens of the Gaza strip.
Punished in what way, exactly?
Read the following story from Washington Post on the awful conditions of the Gazans:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6/02/AR2010060204687.html?sid=ST2010060204691
Apparently, their worst complaint is that they are denied import of...concrete.
Concrete?
It is one of the simplest materials to manufacture, with well-nigh ubiquitous raw material distribution and that Palestinians CHOOSE not to use their own country's resources to get a concrete factory going is actually their own fault, rather than anybody's else.
Furthermore, the complaints that the Palestinians are soooo abused and oppressed aren't exactly new. THey have been circulating for about..60 years.
Now we get a REAL glimpse in how horrifying the Gazans lives have become:
They can't any longer travel to Egypt on VACATION as they used to!
They can't have had it terribly bad in past times, either, if vacation abroad was a popular activity..
The Isreali blockade is ineffective precisely because they do NOT punish the Gazans in any ways that actually matter (for example, denying food supplies).
If Israel think it immoral to actually punish the Gazans as a whole, then they shouldn't go about hoping the blockade will produce any effects.
So, they might consider lifting it, and instead take a much more aggressive, confrontational low-threshold line towards those among the Gazans inciting hatred towards Israel/actually smuggling of weapons into the region.
By regarding such individuals as enemy combatants, IDF would know how to deal with them effectively.