Chalk Up Another Absurdity on the Gaza War

Egypt is finally opening the border to Gaza but only for three days to allow people who need urgent medical care, etc, to finally get out of their neighborhood-turned maximum security prison. All due respect and consideration to those who were affected by the pre-war rocket fire in Israel, but why would civilians lying in hospitals needing dialysis or advanced surgeries have to wait for a peace deal or for Egypt to negotiate with Israel before being able to go to Cairo for lifesaving medical care?

On Halloween, as most of us are running down the street dressed as zombies, bleeding celebrities, or story book characters, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Abu Dabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Another kind of charade, perhaps. Since last winter's Gaza War, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have predictably fallen into the usual rut. Anyone with any civil approach to resolving tensions gets knocked away from the microphone by someone obsessed with isolating the Other.

While the core dispute about how to allow free passage for innocent Palestinian civilians and trade goods out of the isolated Gaza enclave moves forward at a snail's pace, with tunnels being the controversial steam release, many of the decision-makers are distracted by related but should-be-separate issues of whether one side or the other committed war crimes. The second issue is vital, but does not need to slow down progress on the first issue. On closer look, one of the reasons Israeli authorities claim it is important to limit goods and people going in and out of Gaza is because of do-wrongers posing as the sick or using "dual-use" items such as metals or cans that can be turned into bombs. What do you think?

[Photo: Hebron's old city, West Bank, Daniel J Gerstle.]