Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s decision to finally allow a convoy of humanitarian aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip doesn’t sit well with MP Arye Eldad. The head of the minor Hatikva party today called for Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to indict Barak for allowing the aid in, claiming it constituted “aiding an enemy during war.”
Or at least right before a war. The Israeli cabinet has decided to launch attacks on the Gaza Strip, and the military has completed its preparations, but the actual attacks are being held off for more pleasant weather.
Barak’s decision allowed 90 trucks carrying medicine, fuel, and other goods into the strip and was defended by Cabinet Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who said it was a message to the Gaza people that they were not the enemy. That message may have carried more weight in the absence of bellicose talk of invasions from so many high profile Israeli officials, and if the Israeli government hadn’t spent the past month doing everything it could to keep food and medicine away from Gaza’s 1.5 million civilians.
Barak’s Labor Party lashed out at Eldad for his comments, accusing him of incitement and saying he “is thus joining an irresponsible group whose members are in both the Likud and Kadima.” So far there has been no comment from the attorney general’s office on whether or not charges are being considered.