Drumbeats of War - Gaza in the Spotlight, Iran in the Limelight
Apparently Iran wants to take center stage within the whirlwind of the Gaza blockade.
1. Intelligence sources report that one Iranian ship with aid for Gaza set sail from Khomanshahr, Iran, a port town locally known as Sedeh, on Monday. A second ship is set to leave port on Saturday.
Apparently the cargo will be aid for the Gazans only. There is no news about a third ship reported earlier too hold Republican Army military personnel… sorry, volunteers.
There is also no word about whether there will be any symbiosis with Turkey or Turkish ships. It appears the Iranians want the limelight unimpeded by a Turkish presence. There seems to be some serious rivalry brewing between the two nations to be seen as the rescuers of Gaza, and Iran has some catching up to do. This thought is amplified by…
2. Iran wants to send a whole planeload of high ranking dignitaries to the Gaza strip through Egypt, headed by Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, called The Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, or Majlis. Indications are they want to showboat on the border between Gaza and Israel and make speeches. Oh, and they’re bringing some food and medicine for the Gazans, too.
To be fair, Iran probably has supplied a great deal more to Gaza than Turkey, albeit weaponry for Hamas, via Syria, seems likely to have been a large component of those donations.
In any event, the fandango is scheduled for Saturday, if the pressure they are putting on the Egyptians is enough to make them issue visas for the trip, and open the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Larijani is said to have sent four representatives of the Majlis to Cairo to pressure the Egyptians into acceding to the requests.
Iranian dignitaries thumbing their noses at Israel on the Gaza border… where uncounted acts of violence occur with daily regularity… surely that will calm down the situation.
… and in the shadows…
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s administration is making small noises of acquiescence toward the international pressure to lift or substantially change the Gaza blockade. Days after swearing the blockade would never be lifted, and that it was doing great harm to Hamas, Netanyahu seems tractable and leaning toward some sort of ‘international’ arms blockade solution.
This solution probably seems better than it may turn out to be, since European monitors do not have an excellent track record in this respect. In 2005, they were left in place after Israel withdrew from Gaza, and were quickly routed by Hamas irregulars, thinking discretion was the better part of valor.
Question is, is there time to substantially change the blockade before Iranian and/or Turkish ships arrive? Or this there an assumption by the Israelis that they can promise anything, because by the time it would be implemented, the landscapes will have shifted radically once again?
