Barack's Blockade Blast

From President Obama's press conference:

Long term, there has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself permanently closed off from the world and incapable of providing some opportunity -- jobs, economic growth -- for the population that lives there, particularly given how dense that population is, how young that population is.  We’re going to have to see a shift in opportunity for the people of Gaza.  I have no sympathy for Hamas.  I have great sympathy for ordinary people who are struggling within Gaza.  And the question then becomes, can we find a formula in which Israel has greater assurance that Gaza will not be a launching pad for further attacks, perhaps more dangerous attacks as technology develops into their country.  But at the same time, ordinary Palestinians have some prospects for an opening of Gaza so that they do not feel walled off and incapable of pursuing basic prosperity.

We'll skip el bloqueo, America's embargo on Cuba in existence since October 1960 (that's almost 54 years old. is that permanent?)

Stop the Hamas industry of terrorism and economic prospserity and human development will flourish.

Simple.

Oh, and Manhattan is more dense.

^

The Gaza Closure? Naw, The Cuba Closure

As I had pointed out during the Flotilla Affair, there was no little hypocrisy going around in the criticism directed against Israel.

Turkey has an almost two-decades old closure and blockade of Armenia (not to mention its occupation of northern Cyprus) and America has one in place against Cuba for almost 60 years.

And now it is reported - and pay attention to what that US blockade means:

The Obama administration is getting ready to relax travel restrictions to Cuba for some Americans, without lifting the trade embargo and a ban on U.S. tourism to the island, a congressional aide said on Tuesday.

The small steps would make it easier for groups of Americans to once again go to the Communist island as part of academic, cultural or religious exchanges, as thousands of them did during the Clinton administration, the aide told Reuters.

Officials are trying to finish regulations...

Some Cuban-American lawmakers are adamantly opposed to improving U.S. ties with Communist Cuba, which have been in the diplomatic deep freeze most of the time since Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959...

Restrictions on money transfers may also be eased, making it easier for Americans to donate cash to Cuban organizations such as churches or community groups, the aide said.

U.S. sanctions against Cuba are aimed at encouraging democratic reform in the one-party state. Critics of the policy say they have failed to do so in almost 50 years in effect.

In other words, what Israel has in place against the Hamastan that is Gaza that actually does fire missiles against Israel - unlike that 1961 threat of Russian missiles in Cuba - can not be compared and yet the US blockade is much worse and harsh.

I so dislike hypocrisy.


- - -

That Blockade

No, not the one on Gaza.

The one with no travel and food restictions?

The one on Cuba.

By the US:-

A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.

It's a

nearly 50-year-old U.S. embargo on communist-led Cuba

50 years???

But it seems there'll be strong resistance from conservative lawmakers and Cuban-Americans who oppose any step to ease restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba until a democratic government is in power in Havana.

So I checked:-

The United States embargo against Cuba is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo partially imposed on Cuba in October 1960. Entitled the Cuban Democracy Act, the embargo was codified into law in 1992 with the stated purpose of maintaining sanctions on Cuba so long as the Cuban government continues to refuse to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights". In 1996, Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor government in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government are met. In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo even further by ending the practice of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies trading with Cuba. In 2000, Clinton authorized the sale of certain "humanitarian" US products to Cuba...It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.

No flotillas, though.

Well, none going in.



- - -

Hillary Clinton Comes Out for Jewish Hostage - No, Not Gilad Shalit

No, not Gilad.

Alan.

Alan Gross.

Continued Incarceration of Alan Gross

I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet today with family members of development worker and USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, and to express my concern over his continued incarceration in Cuba.

More than six months have passed since Mr. Gross was arrested in Cuba. He is a husband, a father, and a dedicated professional with a long history of providing assistance and support to underserved [??? - YM] communities in dozens of countries. We are deeply concerned about his welfare and poor health, and we have used every available channel to push for his release.

As I told the family today, we will continue to do so. A delegation from the United States will meet tomorrow with Cuban officials to discuss our Migration Accords, consistent with the Obama Administration’s commitment to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration between Cuba and the United States, and we will underscore that the continued detention of Alan Gross is harming U.S.-Cuba relations.

The United States would view favorably the release of Alan Gross so that he can return to his family.

Background:-

...Gross, a 60-year-old native of Potomac, Md., was working in Cuba for a firm contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested as a suspected spy Dec. 3 at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. He has been held without charge at the capital's high-security Villa Marista prison ever since.

"We are deeply concerned about his welfare and poor health, and we have used every available channel to push for his release," Clinton said. "As I told the family today, we will continue to do so."

Judy Gross has said that her husband is a veteran development worker who was helping members of Cuba's Jewish community use the Internet to stay in contact with each other and with similar groups abroad. She said her husband had brought communications equipment intended for humanitarian purposes, not for use by Cuba's small dissident community.

Satellite phones and other telecommunications materials are outlawed in Cuba, where the government maintains strict control over Internet access and the media.

Last month, the head of Cuba's high court said the communist island has yet to open a legal case against Gross. Formal charges cannot be filed in Cuba without a judicial accusation and the opening of a court case, so it appears unlikely charges against Gross are imminent.

And an earlier item I missed.

You'd think he being a liberal would have been to his credit, as he is active in Am Kolel:

...Am Kolel is a welcoming and diverse Jewish Renewal community...Renewal communities have also embraced lessons from diverse spiritual traditions, Eastern philosophy and both Eastern and Jewish meditative practices. In this spirit we sponsor an ecumenical retreat center for the benefit of our members and others who seek spiritual renewal, communion with nature, learning and fellowship...We are pioneers in the movement for Jewish Renewal, a movement that was born in the late '60s and found it's expression in independent havurot, fellowships of young Jews around the country such as Fabrangen, the Bnei Or community, the Jewish folks arts revival movement, and new social and political activist groups such as Jews for Urban Justice and Naaseh...

"

I guess no one was in the IDF?


- - -

Looking for Documentary Corroboration

A veteran member of Betar Cuba, Chananiah ben Chaim Nossen Gabrylewicz, has referred to an even for which I am looking for further documentation.

Here it is:-

a Symposium held in The Jewish Theological Seminar[y] of New York, circa 1936,37 or 38. My father carried a message from the Cuban Government allowing a possible One Million persons to enter Cuba in Exchange for $200.00 per family. As an observer at that time he was allowed to present the proposition and was told by unanimous decision of all present that: "Jews must defend the land where they reside as if it is their homeland."

A similar occurence, it seems, took place when the Saint Louis ship docked in Cuba.

He writes:-

Again my father carried a message to the JDC and the HIAS as well as other institutions that in exchange for money ( $250.00 perperson) they could be landed in Cuba. By the time the quibbling was noticed by the Cuban authorities the ship was ordered out. I witnessed the transfer of some of the people that had landed in Tiscornia, and also the forced reloading and departure as well as the woman that committed suicide.

Any documentary corroboration is appreciated.