Hundreds of Palestinians cross reopened Gaza-Egypt border

Huge development.

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February's revolution.
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The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through.
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All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic.


Israel's government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February's revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border.

"People are happy Rafah is open, they say it's the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza," said local journalist Hazem Balousha. "They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation."

This should be interesting.  Rafah is open, and Palestinians have an opening.  What happens now?  Looks like it's everyone's next move..

Geopolitically, This Is A (Really) Big Deal..

Vatican body asks UN to 'end Israeli occupation' Key excerpts in italics:

Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new "settlements" in Jerusalem or territorial claims, a Vatican synod on the Middle East said on Saturday.
And:
US-brokered peace talks have stalled since Israel rejected appeals to extend a temporary moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank that expired last month.

Since the freeze expired, Israel has announced plans to build another 238 homes in two east Jerusalem neighborhoods, drawing the condemnation of Palestinians and world leaders.

In a separate part of the document, a section on cooperation with Jews, the synod fathers also took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.


"Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the document said.

Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God.

Asked about the passage at a news conference, Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, said:


"We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.

"The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians," he added. "The justification of Israel's occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures."

This is big. The Vatican is criticizing THE Fundamental Justification of Israel's Military Strategy and doing it to the United Nations. Whatever your thoughts are on either organization doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that this bit of information means jack-shit your little corner of the world.

To the entities involved, this is a big slap in the face and won't be forgotten anytime soon. My prediction is that Israel will take a much more defensive posture, thereby escalating tensions, not only in the region(including Iran), but with Russia, China, and the U.S. What alliances actually occur is something I won't speculate on, at least, not at the moment..