US Officials 'Discover' Rafah Border Exists, 3 Years Late
Mainstream media, including Al-Monitor, continues to present the Rafah border crossing as a 'crucial access point' whose reopening is stalled. What they won't tell you is that Rafah's *crucial* status is a direct result of Israel's nearly two-decade-long siege on Gaza, turning it into the world's largest open-air prison. Hamas's 2007 takeover merely provided perpetual justification for a blockade
that choked Gaza before then, limiting access to basics from cement to pencils. US officials, who routinely sign off on billions in military aid to Israel, like the $14.5 billion proposed in HR 7217 (2023), now feign concern over a humanitarian crisis their policies directly enable. It's almost adorable how casually they frame the obstruction of aid as a 'technicality' or a 'plan on hold,' rather
than a deliberate, sustained act of collective punishment. How many UN reports documenting Gaza's unlivability does it take before we question the 'crucial' insight of articles that treat a prolonged siege like a newly discovered problem?