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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1

This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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And? We all acknowledge that Israel is blockading Gaza (with Egypt's cooperation). You can argue that constitutes an "occupation" if you like, but you were talking about administering laws and overseeing policing. Israel is not doing that in Gaza.

OK, administering laws is a bit of a whitewash, my error. If the Israelis don't like someone in Gaza, they'll drop a 1-tonne bomb on them, or reduce food, water and power supplies to the whole population as collective punishment. Or they'll shoot unarmed protestors several hundred metres within the fence. That's not quite what people mean by policing either, in a meaningful sense.

In other parts of the thread people are wondering why it's called an open-air prison...

Sure - but then we go back to the original question you were responding to. If Gaza is a prison, doesn't that make Egypt their co-jailors?

Sure - but then we go back to the original question you were responding to.

Who is the occupying power again? Not Egypt, Israel. Even the US state department admits this.

But again - Israel is not occupying Gaza in any sense that Egypt is not also doing so.

Israel is keeping their borders shut - so is Egypt.

Israel is restricting the flow of goods into Gaza - so is Egypt.

Israel is not occupying Gaza in any sense that Egypt is not also doing so.

Do you understand the difference between blockading and embargoing?

Yes, but it's a pretty academic one in this situation. Israel is the one maintaining the naval blockade, but whenever a Palestinian boat manages to slip through into Egyptian waters, Egypt arrests or kills them.

It's quite clear that the effort to contain Gaza is a cooperative one, not merely the case that Israel is blockading Gaza while Egypt coincidentally also embargoes them for unrelated reasons.

Is Egypt assisting with the Mediterranean side of the blockade? There seems to be an significant difference between a "you can't travel through our territory" policy and a "you can't travel anywhere" policy.

Israel is the one maintaining the naval blockade, but it's quite clearly with Egypt's acceptance. Egypt could easily undermine its purpose by allowing e.g. cement through the Rafah crossing.