And about damned time.
Of course, we can’t discount this being the usual Palestinian spokesliar propaganda.
A senior Palestinian official said Israel dramatically reduced fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip on Sunday after threatening to impose sanctions in response to rocket attacks from the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory.
But Israel, whose defense minister, Ehud Barak, gave a green light last week for cuts to Gaza’s fuel and electricity supplies, said the measure had not yet been implemented.
Mojahed Salama, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Petrol Agency, said Sunday’s fuel imports showed a 40 to 50 percent reduction in diesel and benzine supplies and a 12 percent reduction in fuel for Gaza’s power plant.
“We sent the supplying company the same daily requests but they said they were sorry and that because of the new imposed sanctions they could only send us a reduced quantity,” Salama told Reuters.
Gaza’s power plant received a full supply of fuel on Sunday, officials with the European-funded fuel supply program said.
Here’s hoping Olmert carries through with his threat. Why should Israel supply her enemy with the tools needed to kill her own people?
To extend paternalism to one’s murderers is an act of stupidity. Of course I have no inkling of what sort of pressures and threats have been levied against Israel by the ‘big boys’ in the world.
If he was telling the truth, the Israel delivered too much fuel to Gaza. However, what probably happened was that the terrorists diverted the fuel to their own activities and used it to put more money in their Swiss bank accounts.
I am in Seattle at the moment and this morning’s Post-Intelligencer carries a story on Israel “tightening the screws” on Hamas. The story is mostly about Israeli plans and how they will adversely affect Palestinian economic activity and life in general. If you look carefully there is a sentence or two indicating why Israel is not especially happy with Hamas.
There hasn’t been enough blogosphere attention paid to the British Gas deal that former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon recently criticized:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/915151.html
If Yaalon is right, it’s potentially a very dangerous deal.