:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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Amazing Israeli Media says

Netanyahu's message is there will be no peace

By David Grossman
Tags: Barack Obama, Palestinians

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech was indeed, as it has been decribed, the speech of our lives. Our bogged-down, hopeless lives.

Once again, most Israelis can snuggle up around what appears to be a daring and generous offer, but what is in fact, as usual, a compromise between the anxieties, the weakness and the self-righteousness of the center just-to-the-right and the center a-little-left. But what a great distance between them and the harsh demands of reality, as well as the legitimate needs and rightful claims of the Palestinians, now accepted by most of the world, including the United States.

Now, after every word of the speech has been analyzed and weighed, we should step back and look at the whole spectacle, the big picture. What the speech exposed, beyond all its juggling and parities, is the desistance we have come to, we Israelis, in the face of a reality that requires flexibility, daring and vision. If we turn from the skilled orator to his audience, we will see how passionately it barricades itself behind its anxieties, and we will feel the sweet stupor from pulsating nationalism, militarism and victimhood, which were the heartbeat of the entire speech.
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Other than acceptance of the two-state principle, which was wrung out of Netanyahu under heavy pressure and sourly expressed, this speech contained no tangible step toward a real change of consciousness. Netanyahu did not speak "honestly and courageously" - as he had promised - about the destructive role of the settlements as an obstacle to peace. He did not look the settlers in the eye and tell them what he knows full well: that the map of the settlements contradicts the map of peace. That most of them will have to leave their homes.

He should have said it. He would not have lost points in future negotiations with the Palestinians; rather, he would have allowed these negotiations to begin. He should have spoken to us, the Israelis, like adults, and not have swaddled us in more insulation from the facts known to all. He should have related specifically and in detail to the Arab peace initiative. He should have pointed out the clauses that Israel accepts and those it does not. He should have initiated a challenging call that would have allowed them to respond, and begun Israel's most essential process.

He spent many minutes regaling the audience with the promises and assurances that Israel had to receive from the Palestinians even before negotiations began. He did not speak of the risks Israel had to take or its desire to achieve peace. He persuaded no one that that he really intends to fight for peace. He did not lead Israel to a new future. He only collaborated with its old, familiar anxieties.

I looked at him, and at the impressive data on the support he received after the speech, and I knew how far we are from peace. How distant, and perhaps even whithered within us, are the ability, the talent and the wisdom to make peace, and even the instinct to save ourselves from war. I saw my prime minister in his tight-lipped juggling act, a sophisticated performance of close-eyed rejection. I saw how his ever-ready internal mechanism turns every attempt-to-talk-peace into self-persuasion that an edict from heaven commands us to live by the sword forever. I saw, and I knew that none of these will bring forth peace.

I also observed the Palestinians who responded to the speech, and I thought that they are the most faithful partners to desistance and missed opportunities. Their response could have been much wiser and more prescient than the speech itself; could they not have grasped even the drooping branch Netanyahu offered them, unwillingly, and challenged him to begin negotiations with them immediately, as he proposed at the beginning of his address; negotiations with some chance that the two parties will climb down from the lofty heights of reverberating declarations onto the soil of reality, and perhaps to each party's promised land.

But the Palestinians, trapped like we are in a mechanism of contention and haggling, prefered to speak of the thousand years that would pass before they would agree to his conditions.

This is what Netanyahu relayed to us, this is what his statements revealed: Even if most Israelis want peace, they will not, apparently, be able to achieve it. One can wonder whether we, Israelis and Palestinians, even truly, deeply understand what peace means, and how a life of peace could look. And the question immediately arises as to whether this option of true peace still exists in our consciousness.

Because if it does not exist (and Netanyahu's speech honed and exposed this almost embarrassingly), it means that we have no way of reaching peace. That being the case, as strange as it sounds, we also have no motivation to achieve peace.

Netanyahu's speech, which should have aspired to the new global spirit that U.S. President Barack Obama has generated, tells us between its contorted lines that there will be no peace here if it is not forced upon us. It is not easy to admit it, but it seems increasingly that this is the choice Israelis and Palestinians face: a just and secure peace - forced on the parties through firm international involvement, led by the United States - or war, possibly more difficult and bitter than those that came before it.


Haretz 16, June 2009

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Hamas accepts Israel with 1967 borders
Hisham Abu Taha | Arab News



FRIENDLY GESTURE: Deposed Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh presents a souvenir to former US President Jimmy Carter during their meeting in Gaza City on Tuesday. (EPA)


GAZA CITY: Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, yesterday said his movement accepts a Palestinian state alongside Israel with its 1967 borders with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital.

“We welcome any push for achieving this dream if there is a real plan for resolving the Palestinian issue,” Haniyeh said in a news conference with visiting former US President Jimmy Carter here.

Haniyeh also praised US President Barack Obama’s June 4 address in Cairo to the Muslim world. “We saw a new tone, a new language and a new spirit in the official US rhetoric,” he said.

Earlier, Carter denounced the Israeli blockade and the destruction wrought by its 22-day war on Gaza in December and January. “My primary feeling today is one of grief and despair and an element of anger when I see the destruction perpetrated against innocent people,” Carter said as he toured the impoverished territory.

“Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings,” he said. “The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life — never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself,” Carter said at a UN school graduation ceremony in Gaza City.

“I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wreaked against your people,” he said at a destroyed American school, saying it was “deliberately destroyed by bombs from F16s made in my country.”

Meanwhile, two Israeli human rights groups said yesterday that Israel is making it near-impossible for Gaza residents to move to the West Bank, even in humanitarian cases. “The procedure constitutes an escalation in Israel’s policy of separation between Gaza and the West Bank, undermining the prospect of a viable Palestinian state,” said Joel Greenberg of the Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual.

“Israel is preventing civilians from changing their place of residence using the vague pretext that it is responding to the security-political situation in the Gaza Strip,” he said at a joint news conference with the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.

— With input from agencies

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Last March, my older brother and I travelled to the West Bank.

At some point we entered the settlement of Ariel. Overwhelmed by its size and maze-like streets, we managed to get lost in what can only be described as a little city.

As we tried to leave, we found ourselves going in circles. In a moment of slight frustration, my brother, who was driving, turned to me and said: "I think we're stuck here."

The degree to which my brother's observation is correct has become a major bone of contention between the US administration under president Barack Obama and Israel.

In depth

In Cairo, Obama challenged the regional powers to prove that they are part of the solution, not the problem.

For Israel, that meant a complete freeze on all settlement activity and an endorsement of the two-state principle.

Obama's uncompromising position on the settlements and on peace left Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Compliance with Obama's demands meant losing political support.

On the other hand, siding with the pro-settlement block, meant significantly damaging relations with the US (something the Israeli public will not forgive).

In an attempt to forge a way out of this impasse, Netanyahu delivered a speech in which he inched towards Obama by endorsing a two-state solution.

"In my vision of peace," Netanyahu said, "there are two free peoples living side by side in this small land, with good neighbourly relations and mutual respect, each with its flag, anthem and government, with neither one threatening its neighbour's security and existence."

Formidable conditions

However, with a nod to his hawkish political bloc, Netanyahu's vision was not without formidable qualifications. The prime minister made it clear that any future Palestinian state will:

a) have to be demilitarised (i.e. no army or control over air space),
b) recognise Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people,
c) relinquish aspiration to a shared capital in Jerusalem,
d) unequivocally drop the right of return of Palestinian refugees into Israel proper.

On the question of settlement, Netanyahu declared that until a final agreement on territory is reached, Israel will not build new settlements.

He added, however, "There is a need to have people live normal lives and let mothers and fathers raise their children like everyone in the world."

The words "natural growth" are absent, yet the message remains.

"With his speech, Netanyahu attempted to proverbially dance at two weddings... His conditions for peace are unrealistic."

With his speech, Netanyahu attempted to proverbially dance at two weddings. But his act should fool no one.

His conditions for peace are unrealistic.

No moderate Palestinian will accept a peace agreement that excludes East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Likewise, no moderate Palestinian will accept the right of return to be unilaterally solved by Israel without some kind of partial repatriation, full compensation and a sincere acknowledgment of wrongdoing on the part of the government.

Netanyahu also slammed the door on the possibility of including Hamas in the negotiation process.

'Path of Hamas'

"Palestinians must decide", he said, "between path of peace and path of Hamas. They must overcome Hamas. Israel will not sit down at conference table with terrorists who seek to destroy it."

It is not clear how Netanyahu envisions the Palestinians overcoming Hamas without an army (something Israel couldn't do with its own!).

Netanyahu said Palestinians must
recognise Israel as a Jewish state [AFP]
Netanyahu's position on Hamas makes Palestinian unity, a likely prerequisite to peace, impossible.

The prime minister's assertion that Israel will not sit across the table with Hamas contrasts sharply with Obama's claim that Hamas can play a meaningful role in fulfilling Palestinian aspiration so long as they put an end to violence, recognise past agreements and recognise Israel's right to exist.

On the question of demilitarisation, Palestinians will reasonably raise the objection that it is unfair to strip them of the right to self-defence when their neighbours are armed to the teeth.

Currently there are 27 countries with no army – seven of which have been demilitarised.

At the very least, if the Palestinians do accept this condition, they need to be guaranteed security in an anarchic and volatile region.

Blaming Arabs

Finally, there is the issue of Netanyahu's condescending tone and one-dimensional analysis of history (another stark contrast with Obama).

According to Netanyahu, the root of the conflict, and the reasons why we keep fighting, is because the Arabs refuse to recognise the state of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.

Apparently the conflict has nothing to do with forced dislocation, a brutal occupation and generations of humiliation.

"All anyone needs to know is that the Israelis are civilised peace-loving people, while Palestinians are not."
All anyone apparently needs to know is that the Israelis are civilised peace-loving people, while Palestinians are not. Should the Palestinians change their way, Netanyahu tells us, Israel will magnanimously give them a simulacrum of a state.

Writing in Haaretz, Akiva Elder brilliantly summarised the hubris of Netanyahu speech: “The Palestinians can have a state, but only if those foreign invaders show us they know how to eat with a fork and knife. Actually, without a knife."

Netanyahu opened and ended his speech with the word "peace" (which he uttered 36 times); he also opened and ended his speech with a reference to [former Egyptian president] Anwar Sadat and [former Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin’s historic peace treaty.

Yet Egypt's treaty with Israel was based on a land-for-peace formula (including dismantling settlements), and no conditional recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Conveniently, this fact was absent from Netanyahu's history lessons on the peace process and the failure of withdrawals.

In the end Netanyahu is not Menachem Begin. Not even [former Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon.

In the Bush era, this speech would have been welcomed with open arms, but with the ascent of Obama, Netanyahu is proving himself to be part of the problem.

It seems that we will have to wait for Ms Tzipi Livni to make a triumphant, you-see-I-told-you-so return for meaningful dialogue and negotiations to take place.

Until then, I concur with my brother’s observation: "I think we’re stuck here."

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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BBC


Voices: Gaza's two-year blockade

In June 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, and Israel tightened its blockade of the territory. Israel said it wanted to weaken Hamas, which supports violence against Israel, and end Palestinian rocket attacks on its towns.

Only humanitarian basics are allowed into Gaza, and no exports are allowed out. The economy has ground to a virtual halt and the water, sewage and power systems are ailing.

Two years and an intensive three-week Israeli military operation later, a farmer, a student, a businessman and a health worker describe how the blockade has affected their lives.

Nasser el-Helo, businessman, Gaza City

Nasser el-Helo

For 22 years I have run a business supplying steel security doors, locks, safes and security products. I imported the goods mainly from Israel.

When Israel imposed its blockade two years ago, we were able to manage for a few months because we had a relatively big stock. When that ran out we waited and waited, hoping things would return to normal.

But they didn't, so I have fired 27 out of my 32 employees. I have stopped being able to import goods from Israeli companies.


GAZA UNDER BLOCKADE: June 2009
40% unemployed
750,000 receive Unrwa food aid
No petrol or diesel since Nov 2008 (except UN)
Half required cooking gas allowed
Recently blocked items: light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts
Virtually no building materials allowed in
Source: Unrwa and World Bank

Scant movement on Gaza blockade
Guide: Gaza under blockade

I come from a relatively rich family so my life hasn't changed as much as some. I am not in debt, but I have lost most of my capital. The last two years have erased 20 years of business activity. Of my former employees, some have joined the Hamas police force, some have found taxis to drive. Others live on charity from Unrwa and other organisations.

The people who are making lots of money now are the tunnellers, they are not businessmen, but they have become millionaires. This siege is killing the real businessmen.

Even when politicians across the border couldn't speak to each other, we businessmen could. But now this relationship of 30 years' standing is being destroyed.

To be fair, I have to mention the positives as well - Hamas has brought security to Gaza. Economically it's gone from bad to worse, but now theft and robbery is almost non-existent.

Ghada al-Najjar, public health officer, Gaza City

Ghada al-Najjar

We have just finished a programme educating kindergarten children about personal hygiene and water safety.

All the children we selected suffered from poor water supplies. Gaza has high salinity in the water anyway, but things have definitely got worse.

Many water and sewage systems were damaged during the war and because of the lack of cement, they remain unrepaired. Cement is 13 times more expensive than before the siege began.

There are more cases of diarrhoea now than last year, before the war.

Another impact of the siege on my work is lack of materials. We give hygiene kits to the children and their families and I have had real difficulty in finding the things to go in them.

The best quality on offer in the market is really not good enough, I'm talking about toothbrushes, toothpaste, washing up liquid, towels.

It's almost impossible to buy cotton towels at the moment! Prices have shot up. We go for the best quality, and we don't ask where it comes from.

We try to get our message across through play and fun. We give children the chance to debrief their trauma.

When you ask a child to draw their dream environment, they draw a house with no borders around it, with green trees and birds.

When you ask them to draw their actual situation, they draw their home with a siege surrounding it. The message is clear.

Mohamad Khayl, strawberry farmer, Beit Hanoun, Gaza

Before June 2007 we were making good money - I was the first person to export strawberries from Gaza to Europe. Then the blockade started and restricted our exports.
Mohamad Khayl
Mohamad, second from right, in his strawberry fields

Sometimes we can lose all our produce - so we sell it at a loss locally before it spoils. It's the same with the flowers.

Life has been really difficult for the past two years. I have been gambling between two options: the money I get from potatoes and flowers I invest in strawberries, and the money I make from strawberries goes back into potatoes.

I cover about 80% of my costs - so I'm losing money every year. If the situation remains as it is, I don't think I'll plant anything this season.

It costs between $6-7,000 to plant and care for 30 dunums [30,000 square metres] of strawberries. I can't afford to lose that sort of money. I need to sell the produce before I can even pay some of my workers.

Of course this makes life miserable. I have 13 children and I can't afford to buy them the books and bags they need for school.

It's a domino effect, if I don't bring home money, I can't buy my kids food; if we don't pay money in the markets, the shops close. Most people here depend on aid from Unrwa now.

I haven't looked for other work because there is nothing else I could do here. I will have to depend on aid - they already give us food rations.

We farmers are trying to contact the UN, theRed Cross and local NGOs to help us fight the situation, because we are losing everything.

Mahmoud Abdalrahman, 19, student in US, Gaza City

Mahmoud Abdalrahman

When I arrived in Gaza last month, it was the first time I had been back in three years. I'd been studying abroad and my mother worried that if I came home for the holidays I'd never get out again.

I missed my family, but my mother always said the future was more important than emotions and that I should concentrate on my studies. This year she said she couldn't bear it any more and I had to come home.

My term in Massachusetts starts on 20 August, so I started applying to get out of Gaza the moment I got in.

The way to leave is complicated. I hope to leave through Rafah, into Egypt. Everybody knows the border is controlled by Israel and the Egyptians.

The Palestinian authorities just decide which cases are the priorities to be allowed to leave when the border opens.

I have to keep checking the website for the Ministry of the Interior here in Gaza, they publish the names that can leave the Strip, and when they can go.

I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to leave at all. I would be very sad if I could not continue my studies.

I have a full scholarship, including even my flights. I am studying biology now, but I want to study medicine after that. It is a very long dream.

Coming back after three years was also strange. I live in an area called Tel al-Hawa which suffered huge damage in the war. There are a few ministries nearby which were occupied by Hamas two years ago, which is why it was hit.

I see people with no political affiliation whose houses were half destroyed too, that was shocking. It was more random than the news reports prepared me for, and more dreadful.

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BBC


Israeli minister in Arab slur row
Avigdor Lieberman visit to London (13.05.09)
Yisrael Beiteinu's policies have sparked anger around the world

Israel's internal security minister has apologised after being caught on film using the word "Araboosh" - highly offensive Hebrew slang for Arabs.

While Yitzhak Aharonovitch was on a tour meeting police, one plain clothes officer apologised to him for his scruffy appearance.

"What do you mean dirty? You look like a real Araboosh," the minister was heard to respond.

He is a member of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's far right party.

Mr Aharonovitch later said he wished to "apologise to anyone who was hurt".

"This remark does not reflect my positions or world view," the minister said in a statement.

His far-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu, has been under fire for its policies, which have raised concerns over racism in Israel and around the world.

The party wants to make all Israeli citizens swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, something that most of the fifth of the population who are Israeli-Arabs would find very difficult to do.

It has also pushed for a law to ban commemorations of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", as Palestinians call the events of 1948, when Israel was created and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what had been British-ruled Palestine.

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On the last leg of his Middle East tour, former US president Jimmy Carter has called on Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip.

In an attempt to coax Hamas toward the West, Carter on Tuesday criticized Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and tried to convince and encourage Hamas leaders to accept the precondition that Western countries have set for ending their boycott of the Islamist party, which was democratically elected in 2006.

He said that the Palestinians are being treated “more like animals than human beings.”

Carter said that “all violence” against both Israelis and Palestinians should be brought to an end.

"This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace... all of us are children of Abraham," he said at a joint press conference with Haniya.

Carter also said that he handed over a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit to Hamas.

Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, was captured by Hamas fighters in an Israeli cross-border raid almost three years ago, and still remains in custody.

Although traveling as a 'private citizen' and not a representative of the US government, Carter said he would report to Obama administration officials after returning to the United States.

Haniya in turn said Hamas supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.

However, most Palestinians still dream of eventually establishing an independent Palestinian state encompassing not only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also all of the land of Palestine upon which Israel has been built by Jewish immigrants.

"If there is a real plan to resolve the Palestinian question on the basis of the creation of a Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967 and with full sovereignty, we are in favor of it," Haniya said.

"We saw a new tone, a new language, and a new spirit in the official US rhetoric," he said referring to US President Barack Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo to the Muslim world.

FTP/ZAP/HGL

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BBC

y Heather Sharp
BBC News, Jerusalem

Two years since Hamas seized control in Gaza, US President Barack Obama has strengthened his calls for an end to the crippling blockade Israel has imposed on the territory.

"If the people of Gaza have no hope, if they can't even get clean water… if the border closures are so tight that it is impossible for reconstruction… then that is not going to be a recipe for Israel's long-term security," he said in his recent speech in Cairo.

Israel says it is aiming to weaken Hamas, the Islamic movement that supports attacks on Israel and is holding its captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, while providing "support" for the civilian population.

Critics say the blockade has served only to punish Gaza's civilian population, destroy the politically more moderate private sector and boosted Hamas with taxes from smuggling tunnels from Egypt.


Men make mud bricks, Gaza

Gaza's new mud homes

Some basic foodstuffs and medicine are allowed into Gaza, but the UN says a whole host of other items, from building materials to footballs, musical instruments and lightbulbs, have not been allowed in.

Israel says steel pipes and fertilizer can be used to make the rockets Palestinian militants have fired in hundreds at Israeli towns, while cement can be used to build launching pads.

Other goods are blocked as they are considered "non-essential" or "luxury" items.

Virtually all exports are blocked, which has devastated Gaza's economy, pushing unemployment to 40%. Some 80% of the population live in poverty, if aid is discounted, according to UN figures.

Half Gaza's population depends on UN rations which cover only two-thirds of dietary requirements. Many families have little or no income with which to make up the shortfall.

Restricted fuel supplies for Gaza's power plant mean frequent power cuts; the power, water and sewage systems are in dire need of spare parts.

Graph: Trucks entering Gaza monthly

When the blockade was tightened in June 2007, an Israeli official described the policy in off-the-record comments as "no prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis", Michael Bailey of Oxfam told the BBC.

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahyu, said he had never heard this phrase.

But he said there is not now, and has never been, a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

'Catastrophic proportions'

In 2008, a group of Western aid agencies called the situation a "humanitarian crisis" and a "humanitarian implosion" - long before Operation Cast Lead damaged thousands of buildings, including schools and hospitals, and killed well over 1,000 people.


GAZA UNDER BLOCKADE: June 2009
40% unemployed
750,000 receive Unrwa food aid
No petrol or diesel since Nov 2008 (except UN)
Half required cooking gas allowed
Recently blocked items: light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts
Virtually no building materials allowed in
Source: Unrwa and World Bank

Guide: Gaza under blockade
Gaza feud puts patients at risk

A year later, the World Health Organization says the blockade, Israeli military activity and divided Palestinian leadership had led to "a complex, chronic disaster of catastrophic proportions".

However the situation is described, few in the humanitarian community are optimistic, despite Mr Obama's comments.

Sari Bashi of the Israeli rights organisation Gisha says Israel's past reactions to US pressure have been "words not deeds".

In March, a few weeks after it came to international attention that a shipment of macaroni was blocked, Israel's cabinet voted to end restrictions on food products.

The Ministry of Defence later clarified that "the resolution did not intend to lift the restrictions imposed in the past", although it now says food items enter "almost without restriction" - apart from "gourmet items".

But this month the UN relief agency Unrwa said some food items - including tea, coffee, chocolate and nuts - were still not allowed in.

Changes mulled

Last week, Israel's security cabinet said it was examining ways to ease life in Gaza while maintaining Israel's security interests.

A government official who did not want to be named told the BBC one suggestion was shifting from the current situation - a list of items permitted, which changes from month to month - to a list of banned items.

Donkey cart, Gaza (file pic)
Donkey carts are a common sight in Gaza, where fuel entry is restricted

Aid agencies often complain the policy is too vague and is wasteful if items ordered are then denied entry.

Another option is to re-examine the policy on luxury goods, the official said.

The official said the government would review whether Hamas may be inadvertently benefiting from the blockade, which was "causing a boom time" for people who control the smuggling tunnels.

But the official said there was a risk Hamas could take the credit for any easing of the closures.

He did not mention building materials, which, with $4.5bn in international pledges for reconstruction remaining unspent, are one of the most urgent needs.

'Human crisis'

Mr Regev says these could be "siphoned off" by Hamas, which he says has happened "countless" times to aid in the past.

But Chris Gunness, spokesman for Unrwa, said the agency has a "watertight" system which has been "tried and tested" to the satisfaction of donor countries.

And Mr Bailey of Oxfam said the major agencies took "all possible steps" to track aid and could be held responsible for doing anything to benefit Hamas under anti-terrorism laws.

But he admitted that there may be "some loss at the margins" if a large volume of goods was involved.

Deliberations over a mechanism for tracking aid are not helped by the deep split between the Palestinian Authority, which Israel will deal with, and Hamas, which it shuns.

And two days before Israel's security cabinet discussed the blockade last week, Palestinian militants attempted what was apparently a major attack near the main fuel crossing - one of the reasons Israel has given in the past for closing crossings.

In the meantime, Mr Bailey says, "it's a humanitarian crisis for the people that have no money or are living in tents because their homes were destroyed".

"And it's a human crisis for one and half million people who don't know where to look for hope."

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BBC

Carter 'distressed' by Gaza visit
Jimmy Carter in Gaza, 16.06.09
Mr Carter advocates talks with Hamas

Former US President Jimmy Carter has said he had to "hold back tears" while viewing destruction on a visit to Gaza.

He met leaders from Hamas, which controls Gaza but is shunned as a terrorist group by western countries.

The veteran politician handed over a letter from the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who he said he believed was "alive and well".

He criticised Israel's blockade and January military operation in Gaza, and called for an end to all violence.

The former US president, who brokered the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace deal, has long advocated engagement with the militant Hamas movement as crucial for progress on peace.

Standing beside Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader and former Palestinian prime minister, Mr Carter said he was visiting Gaza as a private citizen, but would be be passing on what he had seen and heard to President Barack Obama.

Mr Haniyeh praised a "new language and new spirit" coming out of Washington, and reiterated that Hamas would support "a genuine project" aimed establishing a Palestinian state "with full sovereignty" within the pre-1967 borders.

Although Hamas's charter calls for Israel's destruction, leaders have offered a 10-year truce in exchange for a state in the West Bank and Gaza, occupied by Israel in 1967.

A spokesman for Hamas's military wing told AP news agency it would "study the possibility" of delivering the letter from the family of Gilad Shalit, who has been in captivity for three years.

Mr Carter condemned "deliberate" destruction in Israel's January offensive, but also expressed sadness over Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

Visiting the American School in Gaza, damaged in Israel's three-week operation, Mr Carter said "it's very distressing to me".

He said the school had been "deliberately destroyed by bombs from F-16s made in my country and delivered to the Israelis".

Mr Carter also criticised Israel's blockade of the Strip, which prevents all but humanitarian basics entering Gaza - and extends to a ban on virtually all building materials.

Gazans "are treated more like animals than human beings," Mr Carter said.

"Never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then been deprived of the means to repair itself," he said.

Visiting Israel earlier this week, Mr Carter said a major policy speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "raised many new obstacles to peace".

While Mr Netanyahu yielded to US pressure to back the creation of a Palestinian state, he set the conditions that it must be demilitarised and recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

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Former US President Jimmy Carter has advised the Obama administration against keeping the Hamas resistance movement on its list of terror organizations.

Carter, who was in the Gaza Strip to meet rulers of the area, says he will meet with officials in the Obama administration in two days to discuss his latest trip to the Middle East.

Hamas, whose main objective is Palestinian statehood, has long been branded by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist group and is under boycott for its refusal to recognize Israel.

During an interview with Fox News, Carter said Israel must stop treating Palestinians "like animals."

Israeli human rights activists, such as Uri Davis, in late 2001 called Israel the "last colonial power in the world" for openly practicing "torture, detention without trial, confiscation of land for security purposes and collective punishment."

A year later, when South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu visited the area, he drew disturbing analogies between Israel's treatment of Palestinians and how blacks were treated under South African apartheid.

"I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa," he said in a speech in Boston in 2002.

"I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about," Tutu added.

During his visit of the Gaza Strip, Carter expressed extreme dismay over the damage inflicted by Israeli forces using state-of-the-art US-produced weaponry on the tiny coastal sliver.

"I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wreaked against your people," Carter said while touring the war-ravaged strip on Tuesday.

Carter also surveyed a school destroyed during Israel's Christmas war, decrying the fact that it had been "deliberately destroyed by bombs from F16s made in my country."

Tel Aviv unleashed its military operation plan on Gaza on December 27. Three weeks of ensuing airstrikes and a ground incursion left nearly 1,350 Palestinians -- at least 1,100 of whom were civilians -- dead and nearly 5,450 others injured.

The onslaught cost the Palestinian economy at least $1.6 billion, destroying some 4,000 residential buildings and damaging 16,000 other homes.

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Hamas says it would consider the possibility of delivering a letter to the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit if it could help the stalled prisoner swap deal.

Former US president Jimmy Carter passed a letter from Shalit's parents to Hamas officials on Tuesday during his two-hour meeting with Hamas chief Ismail Haniya.

"We are studying the possibility of handing the letter that Jimmy Carter was carrying to the soldier, who is held captive by us, if this serves the prisoners' swap deal," Abu Obeida, the spokesman for the Hamas armed wing -- the Qassam Brigades -- said Wednesday.

Last year, Hamas allowed Shalit to write to his family as a humanitarian gesture. The letter was passed onto his family by the Carter office in the West Bank.

Since Shalit was captured during a cross-border operation in Gaza in 2006, Hamas and Tel Aviv held several rounds of indirect talks through Egyptian mediators over his fate.

Hamas demands the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in return for the freedom of Shalit. The government of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert rejected Hamas demands over a proposed prisoner swap deal and the new Israeli government, which took office in March, has yet to start talks.

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