The Solution For The Gaza Blockade

Here is my solution for Gaza. Since we, the Israelis, are in the eyes of the world the evil prison wardens, hoping to starve the population into submission, I suggest to hand the administration of Gaza's external borders over to the world. Not the whole world of course, because that would mean the UN, and the UN has yet to prove effective in administrating any border in this region (ask me about this one, if you wonder what I mean...). Not Egypt, of course, as they already share one border with Gaza and have supported the blockade nicely for the last couple of years.

No, the real expert for how to deal with Gaza, the humanitarian crisis and the Hamas is the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who has publicly cursed Israel for the "massacres" during the Gaza War of 2008 and the "humanitarian flotilla attack". So, here we have an expert on dealing with radical Palestinians, who also knows how to keep his own problem in form of the PKK in check, in cooperation with the Iranians and without the oh-so-busy-with-Israel world opinion even noticing.

Therefore I suggest to open the Gaza strip, both the harbour and the airport, under the condition that Turkish customs officers police the border crossings. I am sure they will know better how to bring everything in, except for missiles, mortars, TNT and other goodies that really don't help that much with the humanitarian crisis.

If you promise to keep me and my family alive, Mr. Erdogan, I am willing to give you the Gaza strip. How's that for a deal?

Israeli Army Saving Lifes in Haiti

Israeli Jews saving Christians out of the ruins of Port-au-Prince. The army has dispatched over 200 soldiers from a medical home front unit, who have set up a field hospital with 50 beds in a socker stadium. The BBC (not exactly pro Israeli any other day) called the hospital the "Rolce-Royce" under the field hospitals and praised the Israeli search and rescue team as "the only team that knows what it is doing". Fresh wind from London?

Where are the search and rescue teams from Hezbollah, Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood, The Islamic Jihad? Not fair? Okay, then let's think about Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Sudan (and North Korea)?

The obvious answer is: Islamic fundamentalists couldn't care less about 100,000 dead Christians. Actually, they are probably celebrating ("God is punishing the infidels"). The really crazy thing is that even many fundamentalist Christians are using God as an explanation for the Earth Quake ("They used condoms, that place is full of homosexuals, ...."). And the Jews that died over there were punished for driving on Shabbat. Yeah, sure. What a world - FUBAR (remember that one?).

I wondered how Turkey would respond to the desaster. To my relief and satsifaction there are Turkish search and rescue teams in Haiti. Maybe there is a reason deeper than cold strategic interests for Turkey being the only muslim ally of Israel?

Read Christopher Hitchens in Slate about the religious abuse of natural desaster over centuries. Nothing has changed, people.

And in any case, you can make a humanistic donation void of a missionary agenda here: Non-Believers Giving Aid: a religion-free way to help disaster victims.

Atheists donated $50,000 in the first 24h after the quake via Richard Dawkins' initiative. That is the power of the web, paired with human compassion. No religious dillusion necessary to help your fellow humans, it seems.