By Ryan Jones
Oct 26, 2005
In a letter last week to his US, EU, UN and Russian overlords, Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn slammed Israel for failing to immediately surrender control over Gaza's borders, even as he feigned concern for the Jewish state's security.
Wolfensohn asserted that by continuing to isolate Gaza while deliberating just how to keep the innumerable terrorist weapons in the Strip from harming its Jewish citizens, Israel was ?acting as though there has been no withdrawal.?
Israel was delaying in Gaza the ?economic revival essential to a resolution of the conflict.?
Wolfensohn's assessment was supported Tuesday by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said it was ?very clear that the crossings issues need to get resolved, not just the Rafah crossings but the issues of freedom of movement within the West Bank and issues about other crossings that need to be freed up.?
But while the envoy made note of Israel's ?important security concerns,? he somehow failed to recognize that the Palestinian Authority's unwillingness to alleviate those concerns was in fact causing the delays.
The PA has rejected every Israeli attempt to condition the transport of goods and people into and out of Gaza on its ability to closely monitor the border crossings.
A decade of ?Palestinian? efforts to smuggle weapons with the express intent of violently murdering the nation's Jews would seemingly give Israel the right to make such demands.
Wolfensohn and his bosses made it clear they do not have time to wait for PA compliance, however, and will instead sacrifice Jewish security to realize their aims.
On Wednesday, Israel reopened Gaza's border crossings into ?Israel proper,? and agreed to let Egypt reopen the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula.
Western pressure appears to have been behind those decisions, as military officials confirmed that terrorist smuggling efforts have anything but decreased.
?A lot of ammunition and weapons are coming from Sinai. They are being stored in the Sinai and transferred to the Palestinian side,? IDF Southern Command chief Dan Harel told The Jerusalem Post this week.
How many Jews this most recent round of international pressure will see sent to their graves will ? if Israel?s history is anything to go by ? soon become painfully clear.