Education: the Only Human Necessity

I had no words for this. In fact, I'd planned on leaving it as a testament to the consummate and obvious folly of the Bush administration, but in the interest of honesty I should add that the Fulbrights were reinstated.

But here's what I can't let go of: the Defense Ministry kook who justified Israel's first decision not to let the students leave Gaza said "Education is not a humanitarian necessity."

Whoa. It kind of makes you wonder: what else doesn't qualify as a humanitarian necessity? Israel's strategy of "isolating" Gaza reminds me eerily of the US internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It was a shame for our nation, one that we seem to skip over in history class perhaps because there's just no way to excuse it. If education doesn't qualify as a humanitarian necessity, what does?

The largely innocent people of Gaza are suffering for the crimes of their extremists. This may satisfy some Israelis' desire for revenge, but how does it help anyone else? The Palestinians cannot leave to attend university, to visit dying relatives in the West Bank, or to assume any of the apparatus of a free existence.

Before people say that it's extreme to compare Gaza to an internment camp, remember that part of Israel's strategy is to strictly control the flow of supplies into Gaza. Who knows what that supply is, if the people in charge of enforcing the blockade think education is not a humanitarian necessity?

A comparable strategy would be if the United States fenced off Texas and allowed no one in or out in order to solve the problem of illegal immigrants moving from Texas to other states. (Wait...)

Israel's line seems to be "until they behave, they get nothing." But who's 'they?' If there wasn't a 'they' before there will certainly be one now.

Do the innocent people of Gaza deserve to suffer for the crime of being Palestinian? Because it seems like that's what's happening.