Gideon Levy, Haaretz, September 9:
Haim Ramon has made a big comeback. As if renewing the Hebrew language, he has coined the term “infrastructural oxygen” – Israel should strike a blow at Gaza’s infrastructural oxygen. Faithful to his suggestions in the Second Lebanon War (“It is permissible to destroy everything”), he is now the progenitor of the doctrine advocating cutting off the electricity, fuel and water supply to Gaza. Ramon is very proud of his demonic plan: “It’s the first time the government has discussed these types of proposals,” he said. In his eyes, the legal aspect is “hallucinatory”; there is no difference between Hamas and Al-Qaida. And what will happen if this cutoff of water and electricity to Gaza is not effective? “Until we try, we’ll never know,” the minister told an interviewer. That is, we are dealing with an experiment on human beings. As we all know, Ramon is a representative of a centrist party and is considered one of the party’s moderates.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is a moderate, too. She also supports the Ramon doctrine. She says that, “It is inconceivable that life in Gaza continues to be normal.” In the view of the moderate foreign minister, life in Gaza is “normal” – it seems she has no idea about what life is really like there – and a cutoff of supplies will bring an end to the Qassams. The hungry, thirsty and suffocating populace will exert pressure and, hocus pocus, there will be no more Qassams.