Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Gaza and Cholera

Some blame the rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel's blockade. However, rocket attacks preceded the blockade. Thousands of rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza prior to the blockade. Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 -7 after the Palestinians elected Hamas, which vows to take over Palestine for Islam and refuses to renounce violence. 


Year
Rockets
Mortars
2002
17
455
2003
123
514
2004
882
276
2005
574
286
2006
1,247
28

However justified the blockade might be, it seems to be contributing to an enormous humanitarian crisis. 98% of the drinking water in Gaza is polluted in part due to the focus of Hamas on terror, the effects of Israeli bombing on the sewer infrastructure, the availability of a single overburdened aquifer, and the dearth of materials to rebuild the infrastructure.

Gaza borders Israel and sits 70 km from its population centers. According to a recent article in Organic Lifestyle, "Cholera spreads easily through contaminated water and food and kills very quickly; it often proves fatal within hours of the first symptoms of vomiting or diarrhea." So if they get cholera, we may get it, Heaven forbid. 

What to do? I don't know, but we need to know that pummeling and squeezing Gaza is not necessarily the answer. Tough guy tactics are the preferred method in Israel but they really might not be the best course of action. 

Professor Haim Gvirtzman of Hebrew University argues that the Palestinians have the means of correcting the water crisis in Gaza and the West Bank but refuse to employ it. For example, he says that 40 sites were identified for drilling in the Hebron Hills region and despite being offered funding by the international community, Palestinians have only drilled at one-third of them over the last twenty years. He says they refuse to build water treatment plans despite available funding and lose one third of their water through leaky pipes that they fail to fix. He lists numerous other reasons as well. However, most of the concerns the West Bank. He says Gaza could build a desalination plant but refuses. His write-up from the Begin Center is here. So according to his view, it could be that the blockade isn't really the cause even of the water problems. 


It's all quite difficult to unravel when analyzed politically. So we look to the gadolim:

R’ Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe (1860-1920)

Should–Heaven forbid–the Zionists succeed in obtaining a country as they hope, they will defile and desecrate it with their abominations and their evil deeds and thus prolong–Heaven forbid–the length of the Exile.
Brethren, consider the matter well. Does the Lord delight in these matters and will the salvation of Israel be brought about by their hands? No. We will not accept it under any circumstances.
Even the benefit to be derived from these men will we cast before them. Not in this benefit do we delight but in the good granted us by the Lord through the fulfilment of the Torah and the Commandments as it is written ‘If you walk in My statues … then I will give your rains in their time.’ In this do we delight and for this is our hope.


6 comments:

  1. Objectively speaking, hundreds of millions of dollars have poured in to help the Palestinians over the last decades. Objectively speaking, other countries have used these methods to solve their water problems. So objectively speaking, the Palestinian leadership could have done the same. But objectively speaking, they have not.

    Any guesses as to where all that money has gone?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure and I am trying to get out of the game of assuming. You are saying the leaders took it. Do you have proof? Wouldn't surprise me. But do you have proof?

      Delete
  2. I'll assume we agree on the following facts, which, to my knowledge, are universally considered to be facts. Correct me if I'm wrong.

    The Palestinians have received billions in humanitarian aid. The money was not spent on humanitarian aid. The common people are very poor; hence, they do not have the money. Much of the Palestinian leadership are engaged in constantly upgrading their rockets, and constantly building tunnels, with which to kill Jews. It costs a lot of money to do this.

    Is it a huge leap to assume that a large part of the billions in aid went toward Palestinian leaders' attempts to murder Jews? Or is it just common sense?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hamas spends anywhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of its budget on social services. They steal some and squander too much on weapons and tunnels but how much does it take to support a broken down society of tw0 million people? A 1,000 dollars each means 2 billion a year. How much aid do they get. You have to do the accounting. I'm not interested in ignorance, assumptions, demonization of the other side any more. Do some homework and speak factually or hold your tongue.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So we agree! "They steal some and squander too much on weapons and tunnels." Precisely. And somewhere between a quarter and half of their budget.

    Curious: why when I say it, I'm guilty of "ignorance, assumptions, and demonization." But when you say it, you're not. This all sounds downright....ad hominum.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ad hominem attacks say a person is a this or a that. Name calling. If I call a comment ignorant, that's not ad hominem because maybe the person makes comments that are not ignorant. So you said the money was not spent on humanitarian aid. That is not correct. Half to 3/4 was sort of as I'll explain in a bit. But first this, in Israel people often say, Hamas spends all the money on tunnels. It's an ignorant statement. Even the IDF says they used to spend 3/4 on social services. I can cite the exaxt source if you want. After the war in 2014, they changed that to 1/2. And they don't spend the 1/4 to 1/2 remaining on tunnels. They steal some for their own bank accounts. They spend some on weapons. And some go to tunnels. And most of the tunnels are for smuggling, less are for hiding weapons and militants during combat with Israel, and even less are for terror launches - about a dozen. You have to be accurate that's all or we lose credibility. As for the term humanitarian aid, Hamas doesn't do anything out of humanitarianism. They are pure psychopaths or Amalek or whatever. So it is really buying off the people, but the point is it about 1/2 goes to the people even though it's all intended for them.

      Delete