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Why Israel's blockade of Gaza was a mistake

Israel's long-standing Gaza blockade policy, which did not bring Hamas down but only provoked it to further arm itself, should be reassessed.
Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert attends an education conference in Holon near Tel Aviv, August 27, 2007.   REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL) - RTR1T5EN

Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas' military wing who has been on Israel’s “Most Wanted” list since the mid-1990s, disseminated a recording this week (July 27) in which he stipulated the removal of the closure on the Gaza Strip as a pre-condition for a cease-fire. All of the military conflicts between Israel and Hamas revolved around this issue. Hamas wants, more than anything else, to end the blockade because this state of affairs makes it difficult to rule the Strip and provide for the needs of the population. Israel, on the other hand, obstinately refuses to revoke the decision taken by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on June 15, 2007.

Olmert’s decision was adopted the day after Hamas’ military coup in the Strip. The prime minister was in the throes of a fight for political survival after the publication of the Interim Report of the Winograd Commission that probed the failures of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The following day, Olmert was supposed to go to the United States for a meeting with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US President George W. Bush. Before his departure, Olmert instructed the defense system to close all border crossings to Gaza. To avoid American criticism of “collective punishment,” he also ordered the continuation of humanitarian aid.

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