One of the justifications given for Israel’s strict blockade against Gaza is that Israel is protecting itself from a potential arms build-up by the leadership of Gaza, which would extent the conflict and bloodletting. But the lists of goods that are barred from entering Gaza goes beyond the more reasonable items like ammo, guns, and other war instruments.

The blockade is not about restricting weapons, but about imposing Israeli’s dominance on the Palestinian people. Israel’s leaders are on a constant war-footing. They believe they must use any means to achieve their goals, economic or otherwise.

Sadly, the consequences of the blockade are mostly felt by the people of Gaza. As the Economist reports:

The main impact of the blockade is on people, who have been barred from leaving, and on exports.

Yesterday June 9, Sheera Frenkel of McClatchy Newspapers reported that the Israeli government believes the restrictions of goods into Gaza by Israel is legitimate and right because a country can decide for itself if it "wishes to operate using ‘economic warfare."

McClatchy: Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn’t about security

JERUSALEM — As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.

Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.

Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.

However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.

"A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using ‘economic warfare,’" the government said.

Continued. . .

This revelation proves even more clearly that Israel is not interested in peace, and has not conducted itself according to the principles of self-defense. Regardless of how much the propagandist media blasts Israel’s lies, wrong is wrong, and warfare, by whatever means, is wrong.

Economic warfare is a tactic that is used by many governments who are imperialistic, and hell-bent on war. The United States government has used the tactic repeatedly throughout its history. In 1987, economist Robert Higgs wrote about the ineffectiveness of such harmful policies:

Economic warfare—prohibitions of international transactions imposed selectively in order to alter the behavior of other governments—is a long-established practice in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Early in American history the government used the Embargo Act (1807) and the Nonintercourse Act (1809) as instruments of foreign policy. The failure of these measures did not diminish the government’s zeal for similar measures in later times. The frequency of their imposition has increased markedly in the twentieth century. During both world wars, economic warfare was waged along with the projection of raw force. Since World War II no country has employed economic sanctions more frequently than the United States.

Speaking of the blockade, Noam Chomsky recently said:

The siege is savage, designed to keep the caged animals barely alive so as to fend off international protest, but hardly more than that. It is the latest stage of longstanding Israeli plans, backed by the U.S., to separate Gaza from the West Bank.

We have a situation in the Middle East where a "savage" State is calling a subjected people uncivilized. Israel’s barbaric policies against the Palestinians are trumped as "humane" and "diplomatic." But that is too outrageous to be believed in by sane and intelligent people. Israel’s brutality and complete deafness to human rights can’t be masked any longer in the public eye. The country is not led by enlightened leaders, but war-minded maniacs.