Cosmetic Gesture Doesn't Go Near What It Should

Egypt Reopens Border With Gaza (sort of)

"RAFAH, border station between Egypt and Gaza — Hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza strip arrived here by the busload Saturday to pass through the reopened border into Egypt, taking the first tangible steps out of the Israeli occupation after years of deadlocked peace talks.

“I feel this is the start of freedom,” said Hasna el Ryes, 45, a Gaza resident waiting to cross into Egypt so she could travel to visit sons studying in Great Britain. “You can’t imagine how much we have suffered.”

While a gradual loosening of the border controls over the last year had already allowed some Gaza residents to cross — registered students or those seeking medical treatment — many of those making the trip on Saturday said they felt a new stirring of hope at Egypt’s announcement that it was breaking the blockade imposed on Gaza five years ago when the militant group Hamas took over.

They cheered the decision as a humanitarian gesture to residents of Gaza but also as an important concession to make possible the reconciliation deal Egypt brokered between Hamas and the moderate Palestinian faction Fatah. And they saluted the Egyptian revolution that brought about Egypt’s new spirit of independence."

This article by the NYT is typical of what you'll find in MSM about Israel and the Palestinians. You would think from the declarative headline that the despicable siege of Gaza is over, that is until you read the fine print, where the border is open to some Palestinians, and is still closed to desparately needed goods to rebuild from the devastating zionist embargo. And of course just three paragraphs in the Times repeats the propaganda line that "the militant group Hamas took over", the usual weasel wording that suggests Hamas grabbed power at the point of a gun, where they assumed control through a free and fair election.
Also, nowhere in this piece ballyhooing the border opening do you get any kind of context why it should be considered historic, such as the fact that Israel has tried to crush Gaza anyway they inhumanely could for the last five + years.
As a matter of fact this seems to be a propaganda piece to make people think there was a huge sea change in Egypt, when in actuality the Egyptian people recognize their "revolution" was stolen and the new bosses are the same as the old bosses.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for real change for the Palestinians, for the last thing Israel will do is allow Gaza to recover from carefully orchestrated subjugation for years on end. The Egyptians simply won't buck the ziofascists on this and won't jeopordize the yearly american gravy train. A telling quote from the article -
"The Egyptians are moody,” she said, as an Egyptian customs officer standing on a stool behind a counter called out names and tossed stamped passports into a waiting crowd of Palestinians. “You never know what they will do.”