What Checkpoints?

What is he referring to?

Jack Saadeh, head of Pal-Mark, one of the major hotel and restaurant suppliers in the West Bank, opened a cosmopolitan new café, Jasmine, in the Al-Tira section of Ramallah. Since May, the café has been bustling. Pal-Mark increased its profits by about 25 percent in 2010, said Saadeh, attributing the growth to Fayyad’s government.

He, however, faces the most difficulty distributing goods internally within the West Bank. “The checkpoints and access roads we must use to bypass settlements slow down the process,” Saadeh told IRIN, and “prices of basic commodities are inflated by the flat sales tax set by Israel.”

In this report:

The Palestinian economy is growing but remains unsustainable, with large sections of the population still unemployed and trapped by rising poverty, says a new report by the International Monetary Fund...Still, the IMF is upbeat. “The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is now able to conduct sound economic policies expected of a future Palestinian state,” it said.

 
What checkpoints?
 
There are hardly none left.
 
^

Checkpoints Harrass? Not Really

Reported:

Israel Border Police uncover explosives ready to be used in a Palestinian terrorist's bag. Other weaponry was recently found at the same checkpoint

Israel Border Police forces discovered five pipe bombs and three Molotov cocktails ready to be thrown in a Palestinian terrorist's bag at the Tapuach checkpoint, south of Nablus on Tuesday (Mar. 8).

Now recall the whining about those interfering checkpoints as well as this UN claim - "The absence of a satisfactory security explanation for these checkpoints leads to the inevitable conclusion that they are principally designed to humiliate and harass the Palestinian people":

2006:

Israeli checkpoints in West Bank frustrate Palestinians

2007:

In West Bank, Checkpoints Splinter Palestinian Economy

2008:

Israelis Agree to Reduce West Bank Roadblocks

2009:

Israel's military has eased some of its checkpoints in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks and agreed to allow Palestinian security forces more room to operate. The moves reflect a growing Israeli confidence in the actions of the Palestinian forces...

And contemplate these security 'experts':

Israeli generals oppose checkpoints

Former Israeli generals say roadblocks in the occupied West Bank feed "terrorism".

So, are you for or against checkpoints?
^

Condi Had "Indirect" Responsibility for This Shooting

As predicted (here), the removal last April of the Rimonim checkpoint at the demand of Condi Rice has led to a shooting.

...33-year-old Moshe Avitan, was driving on the Alon Highway with his wife, Sarah, who took the wheel of the car after the shooting and drove to the entrance of Kochav Hashahar. The man was airlifted from there to Jerusalem's Hadassah
Hospital on Mount Scopus, where he underwent an operation. After an initial
investigation, police said the shots were fired from a passing vehicle in a drive-by attack.

It was clear that would happen:

The removal of the Rimonim checkpoint - which connects Ramallah with Jericho - on Monday has created a number of headaches for the IDF's Central Command and its commander, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni. From a military perspective, the checkpoints are a crucial tool in the war against terror, with troops catching Palestinians on a daily basis trying to cross them carrying weapons or explosives.

Officials close to Barak admitted on Monday that the lifting of the roadblock was accompanied by a number of security risks. But, they said, the risks were "calculated."

As demonstrated by the 35-page report that Barak presented US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with on Sunday, Israel's primary objective with the gestures is to bolster PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his government in Ramallah. This is being done in face of the growing Hamas threat in the West Bank and the terror group's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

Bolstering Abbas comes with a degree of danger. The lifting of 50 dirt roadblocks, as well as the Rimonim Checkpoint, will allow Palestinians to travel on roads they did not have access to in the past. Weapons smuggling will most likely increase, and there is a fear in the IDF that drive-by-shootings will as well.

Checkpoints

Now where is this taking place?

By Friday evening, the checkpoints were gone from ________________, leaving residents to ponder...after nearly a week of intense police attention.

...______________ was on lockdown for six days, until Thursday, as __________ tried to end a spate of shootings by setting up checkpoints where all occupants of vehicles were required to prove that they had a legitimate reason to enter the area. The police said they had stopped vehicles because most of the killings were drive-by shootings...

...“Why don’t they check some of these guys standing on the corners, run them out of our neighborhood?” Ms. _______ asked, gesturing toward a cluster of young men nearby.

Police checkpoints are not uncommon, but the Police Department’s demand for people’s names and the telephone numbers of their destinations brought national attention.

...the Police Department declared the initiative a success. The police said they made one arrest, turned away 46 vehicles and stopped more than 700 vehicles at 10 checkpoints. And, most important, there were no killings over the six days.

Officials have left open the possibility of additional checkpoints...

...Another resident...known as Winky...“It’s only dangerous to outsiders,” [he] said

So, are we in Israel?

Shiloh? (Despite that Winky there, I'm Winkie)

Nope.

It's Washington, D.C.

(see this article: After Checkpoints, Gratitude and Deep Skepticism )

Now, with Condi Rice going ballistic over checkpoints

Rice, who at a news conference with Abbas on Sunday demanded that Israel do more to ease life for Palestinians in the West Bank by removing roadblocks.

Facing Palestinian frustration at the pace of the negotiations, Rice made unusually direct remarks Sunday about the consequences of Israeli construction and roadblocks in the West Bank...

...Israel maintains hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the West Bank, saying they are needed to protect settlements and prevent would-be attackers from crossing into Israel. The Palestinians claim the travel restrictions have stifled their economy and made free movement in an area they claim for their state extremely difficult.

Rice said she had discussed the lifting of Israeli roadblocks, but did not say Israel made her any new promises. When Rice visited in March, Israel promised to remove 61 roadblocks. The United Nations reported that only 44 have been dismantled, and most of them had no or little significance.

"It was the first time that I had raised this issue, and so it will be now a discussion as to how to carry out that concern, or how to address that concern," Rice said.

At the same time, she acknowledged there is a "real security dimension" for the Israelis.

There was one suicide bombing last year and two so far this year. That's down from a high of 59 in 2002, the year Israel began building a separation barrier along the West Bank and multiplying its military checkpoints and roadblocks.

Source

you might have thought that.

But no, those checkpoints were in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington - Condi's stomping ground.

How blind can some people be?

All is Frustratingly Relative

President Bush, as I saw him on the television last night, had on a big smile and, I presume, was attempting to be a bit witty when he said:-

You’ll be happy to hear that my motorcade of a mere 45 cars was able to make it through without being stopped, but I’m not so exactly sure that’s what happens to the average person.”

But Steve Erlanger had this spin on it:-

Foul weather brought Mr. Bush unexpectedly in contact with Israel security measures that have become a main grievance for Palestinians and their leaders. His helicopter grounded, Mr. Bush drove in a motorcade to Ramallah, passing through an Israeli checkpoint in the hulking concrete barrier the Israelis have erected along and inside parts of the border with the West Bank.

Asked about his own impressions seeing the barrier for the first time, Mr. Bush acknowledged Israel’s security measures and the hardships they cause.

“Checkpoints create frustrations for people,” he said. “They create a sense of security for Israel; they create massive frustrations for the Palestinians.

I left home just before 6AM to avoid the frustrations Bush caused those driving on the road yesterday morning.

But all is releative. At least my Jewish neighbors weren't attemtping to smuggle intio Israel any weapons or explosives and surely were not acting as suicide bombers.

Arabs Support MachsomWatch

You've read my criticism of MachsomWatch at this blog (here and here and here, too) before.

Here are some Arabs who have expressed support, no doubt:

Chemicals used in making explosives caught at West Bank checkpoint

...a truck was caught at one of the crossing points in the West Bank carrying approximately 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate intended for use by militants in the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced in a statement Saturday. Potassium nitrate is a banned substance in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank due to its use by militants for the manufacturing of explosives and Qassam rockets.

"The terror organizations disguised the Potassium Nitrate in sugar bags that were marked as being part of the humanitarian aid provided by the European Union," the IDF said. "This is another example of how the terror organizations exploit the humanitarian aid that is delivered to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval."

So, Jewish Women Give Birth at Checkpoints

A female IDF paramedic served as a midwife earlier in the week when a resident of Elon Moreh began to give birth on the way to a hospital. The baby, his mother’s sixth, was born in an IDF ambulance in Tapuach Junction.

The mother, Tzvia Tzafri, credited the paramedic, Reut Aharoni, for remaining calm while “everything happened at once.” Aharoni credited Tzafri for the calm birth, saying, “The birthing woman was as experienced as I was, so there was no pressure.” Aharoni will be a guest of honor at the new baby’s brit milah (ritual circumcision) next week.

Source

Phony, No?

The "checkpoints", those security elements that save lives, are a constant proaganda theme. We've got Machsom Watch and Betselem and others beating the war drums against Israel on this and, as I posted earlier, even the UN counts them regularly.

Well, look what I found:

The United Nations listed 572 checkpoints (476 of them unguarded barricades)

So, about 80% of the so-called "harrassment" the Pals. undergo is, well, more BS than anything. I mean, even if they are dirt ramps and such, if they are unguarded, then how secure are they?