Gaza: send lawyers, guns and money

The fan is rotating rapidly and things are hitting it. Old policies have collapsed and policy makers are still talking incoherent nonsense.

Events are moving too rapidly to keep up.

But here's a quick preview of my tentative opinions on what must be done, right now.

1. Somebody has to run Gaza, not just for humanitarian relief, but exercising a "Responsibility To Protect" in what is currently a "Failed State".

2. Whoever does take responsibility will need both money and guns. Lots of money and lots of guns.

3. The only plausible candidate is the European Union, and in particular the two former colonial powers that still have a military capability to launch an expeditionary force and govern an interim civil administration in a foreign country – France and Britain.

4. They will need to use their navies to break the blockade of Gaza and protect humanitarian workers entering both by sea and by land from Egypt. The Gaza coast does not have adequate ports so floating docks will need to be used. They are not going to fight their way in against Israel. So it has to be from the coast and from Egypt. It is up to the fascist regime in Egypt and the ultra-Zionist apartheid regime occupying Palestine whether they want to fight the military escorts of a humanitarian relief intervention.

5. Both Egypt and Israel have blockaded unarmed relief convoys. That is a war crime and a crime against humanity. There is no point negotiating with the war criminals. Dealing with it requires a well armed escort. Those forces must be assembled now and must be sufficiently large that their opponents choose to just complain instead of fighting.

6. The costs will have to be shared widely. Negotiations about that will take time. So Britain and France are stuck with having to act immediately and collect compensation later. Delay will cost each of them more as well as costing the rest of the world more.

7. They are currently bogged down in negotiations with other countries that are basically irrelevant. Whatever discussions are held with the US and Israel may or may not eventually prove useful but obviously cannot speed up assembling a functional intervention force. Likewise for Egypt and other Arab states.

8. A short, sharp decision is required to break through the fog and make it clear to the world that the cavalry is actually on the way.

Lawyers?

1. Not my preference for making things happen quickly. But necessary in the current confusion.