SAUDIS should be proud that their government is leading the reconstruction effort in Gaza. As the single largest donor, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has demanded guarantees that the reconstruction projects will be secure from more Israeli aggression that would end up destroying development in Gaza. There is, of course, a huge irony in all of this. As far as the Israelis are concerned, Gaza, like the West Bank, continues to be a part of Israel. It does not constitute a sovereign entity and also happens to be essentially a fenced-in concentration camp which ostensibly has its own civil organization that runs thing. According to its colonial ideology, Israel bombed the daylights out of its “own land” and its “own people” and now the rest of the world is obligated to foot the bill for reconstruction. Where is Israel in all of this? Why is the perpetrator of the billions of dollars of destruction and lost lives not liable for one halala of reparations? How could Israel be responsible for 1300 deaths, most of whom by all accounts, were civilians, and walk away scot-free, as if nothing had happened? Israel will continue to receive the aid from the West that has allowed it to develop agriculturally, militarily and politically that it has received since its post-World War II founding. It shows no signs of relenting on the establishment of colonies on Palestinian land. Without the western aid that frees up parts of the Israeli budget to fund the colonies, they wouldn't exist. It is, indeed, a good sign that over $5 billion has been pledged to help make Gaza livable. It is an indication that the world is aware of the wanton aggression perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian enclave. In addition to supplying money for Gaza reconstruction, however, the West should cut its aid to Israel and force that entity to discontinue the inflammatory colonies that will stand in the way of peace and the two-state solution forever if nothing is done. __
