What is this, Feel Better About Barack Obama Week?

Via Raw Story comes this news from AFP:

Israel can no longer expect "blank cheques" from Washington once president-elect Barack Obama's administration takes over in January, a former US ambassador to the Jewish state said on Sunday.

"The era of the blank cheque is over," said Martin Indyk, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute who is considered close to incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

That's good to hear, but we've heard similar things before about some "new, tough" US posture towards Israel and I'm reminded of the old saying about "many a slip between the cup and the lip" and wise counsel about "just words." That's especially good advice when it comes to US policy on Israel, which has been given a green light from us in the form of about $2.3 billion annually in military aid, which continues unabated even though

Israel's discrimination between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank is increasingly reminiscent of white South Africa's apartheid system, an Israeli human rights group said on Sunday.

Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory "have created a situation of institutionalised discrimination and segregation," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said on Sunday.

For example, Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military law while Israeli settlers there live under Israeli civilian law. There is a developed road system - but Palestinians can't use it, only Israelis can. Palestinian movements around the West Bank on "winding and dangerous roads" are further hampered by more than 600 military roadblocks and checkpoints.

In addition, Israel imposes strict restrictions on construction in Palestinian towns and villages and does not develop basic infrastructure there.

It's not just the West Bank. Beyond a little harrumphing, that green light continues to glow brightly even as Israel tries to starve the people of the Gaza Strip into submission.

The blockade of Gaza, which has gone on since June 2007, was tightened last month after some rocket attacks were launched on southern Israel from Gaza, rocket attacks which did little damage and which came in retaliation for an Israeli military incursion into Gaza, an incursion which was of course completely defensive but provoked the rocket attacks which then provided the pretext for clamping down even harder.

So now there is a shortage of cows and sheep and their prices have shot up, UNRWA warns that food aid will run out within days, and food and fuel have been allowed in on only four days over the past four weeks, leaving people to deal with food shortages, lengthy power outages, and no cooking gas.

The Association for Civil Rights report said of Gaza that

[t]he blockade policy has almost completely destroyed the industry. Unemployment and poverty are surging... The blockade caused the collapse of local authorities that are struggling to provide residents basic services such as water, sewage and sanitation.

Israel opened up some border crossings for a day as a "goodwill gesture" in the run-up to the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. BFD:

"The opening of these crossings is a positive step although it will have little impact unless they remain open on a regular daily basis," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"Equally important, in order to prevent a further deterioration of the situation, the list of imports into Gaza must immediately be expanded to include vital spare parts for maintenance and operation of the power plant, water and sanitation utilities and other critical infrastructure and basic services for the civilian population," OCHA said. ...

The situation has led the UN to describe conditions there as the "worst ever".

Even money is blockaded.

Israel has not allowed money to enter Gaza since October, barring Palestinian banks from transferring cash to their Gaza branches.

As a result,

[t]he World Bank and International Monetary Fund warned Saturday that Gaza's severe cash shortage may cause local banks to collapse.

The effects are already felt:

The cash shortage means around 77,000 Palestinian civil servants will not be able to withdraw their salaries before a Muslim holiday early next week. The cash shortage also forced the United Nations in November to halt cash payments to thousands of Gaza's poorest residents.

Meanwhile, the AP says it has gotten a letter sent by Jihad al-Wazir of the Palestinian Monetary Authority in which he

begged Israel to allow his agency to send money to Gaza. He said Gaza's banks hold 47 million shekels ($12 million) - less than a fifth of what is needed to pay the public servants.

Israeli officials say the request is being considered.

"Considered." Right. "Your people lack food, power, and cooking gas. Infrastructure is threatening to break down. Industry is destroyed, unemployment and poverty are 'surging,' your poor can't get help, civil servants can't be paid, and your banking system is on the verge of collapse. Well, we'll consider letting you survive. If."

If what? If the attacks cease. Once and for all. Permanently. Once you accept your place under our boot, once you passively accept your status as a defeated, subjugated, people who must come to us as supplicants for your very lifeblood, we'll think about not letting you slowly starve.

What Israel is doing in Gaza is, by any reasonable understanding of the term, collective punishment: punishing a whole group for the actions of a few. It is inhumane, cruel, disgusting, immoral, and explicitly illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. In fact, it is a war crime. And a good part of the reason it can continue is because we keep helping to pay for it by the billions in aid, particularly military aid, that goes to Israel.

So if it's true that we're coming to the end of the "blank check" for Israel, good and damn well about - no, make that past - time. But what we really need to consider is if until and unless Israel ceases to regard itself as exempt from the rules of civilized conduct it demands of others, until it lifts its inhumane blockade of Gaza and puts an end to West Bank apartheid, indeed until it makes an actual agreement - not a "proposal" or a "plan" or a "process," but an actual agreement - for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, until then we really need to consider if there should be a check at all.