Why we sail to Gaza

[Tiassa]

Not everything is easily solved with mass murder, Max

Nothing, NOTHING good has ever come out of Gaza ......NOTHING!!

Although it's not a marquee city like Firenze, Gaza's heritage includes prominence on an historical arc that leads to diverse cultural heritages.

All through the heat of summer archaeologists dug and sifted through the dunes on the edge of Gaza City.

Gradually walls, homes, and the outlines of alleyways emerged from the sand.

These were the bones of the ancient Greek city of Antidon. And they were testimony to the extraordinary richness of Gaza's past.

Not only the Greeks passed this way. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the Persians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Turks, the British and many others left their mark on Gaza.

It has been described as one of the world's oldest living cities.

Layers of civilisation lie beneath its busy streets and crowded ranks of badly made apartment blocks ....

.... Today on Gaza's main highway battered taxis go hammering past donkey carts - blaring their horns at pedestrians.

It looks unremarkable enough now, but it is actually one of the world's oldest roads.

The chariots of the armies of the Pharaohs and Alexander the Great, the cavalry of the Crusaders, and even Napoleon Bonaparte all rode this route, which is now named after the famous Muslim General, Salah al-Din ....

(Johnston)

So even if you cut it away and dropped it into the sea, there would still be a vital and contested area right along the new coast. Diverse versions of civilization passed through Gaza en route to the modern era. That route in history would still be necessary.
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Notes:

Johnston, Alan. "Gaza's ancient history uncovered". BBC News. October 22, 2005. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4365440.stm​