Residents of Gaza see no hope for a brighter future — and that’s one of the most distressing aspects of the situation in the Middle East, according to an international Christian aid-and-development group’s advocacy officer for the region.
Hanan Elmasu of the United Kingdom-based organization Christian Aid worked on a new briefing detailing the impact of Israel’s measures to ease the blockade of Gaza after six months.
Elmasu, a regular visitor to Gaza, told the British Baptist newspaper The Baptist Times, “Life for Gaza civilians is very traumatic. There is very little economic activity, high unemployment and much of the population are dependent on handouts.”
Far more interesting is what they do [i]NOT[/i] report, for example [url=http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001114.html]luxury restaurants and olympic-size swimming pools[/url]. Or [url=http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html]brand-new, well-stocked shopping malls[/url].
Nor do they report that in 2009 the [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574571491401847518.html]Palestine economy grew at 7%[/url] and the Nablus stock exchange produced the second best returns in the world, after Shanghai.
Nor would the usual suspects ever report that Israeli agronomists, engineers and planners are working closely with Palestinians to facilitate a wide range of improvements.
Nope. Doesn’t fit the narrative. In the meantime, Wikileak diplomatic cables demonstrate clearly that surrounding Arab nations are completely unconcerned about Israel.
The commonly conveyed and utterly false narrative about Palestine is “anti-Semitism” pure and simple. Yeah, Arabs are Semites, too, but it is primarily the Western left, not Arabs, driving the stories.
I bet that if the population of Gaza refused to accept terrorists in their midst and deported from Gaza anyone who is found to be involved in terrorism, that living conditions in Gaza would greatly improve in a relatively short period of time.
A few helpful suggestions for Gaza:
1. Stop firing missiles on Israel.
2. Release the kidnapped soldier Shalit.
3. Ask your ‘brother Arabs’ in Egypt to open THEIR border.
4. Close your ‘refugee camps’; after 62 years you can’t really be a refugee.
5. Vote out Hamas and elect someone sane.
6. Stop persecuting the few Christians left in Gaza.
7. Emigrate if necessary to find work (as hundreds of millions around the world do).
8. Stop living on western handouts.
Peter Hitchens (Christopher’s kinder, gentler Christian brother) had a very interesting piece based on his own trip to Gaza in the [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319157/Gaza-Strip-Lattes-beach-bbqs-dodging-missiles-worlds-biggest-prison-camp.html]Daily Mail[/url] back in October.
“Life for [downtown Kansas City] civilians is very traumatic. There is very little economic activity, high unemployment and much of the population are dependent on handouts.â€
Pop Quiz! What’s the common factor?
Answer: A victim mentality.
Let ’em rot. Every one of ’em. Gaza. Downtown KC. Urban DC. LA. The rest. They’re arrogant parasites, all of ’em, and until they change both their attitude and their effort … I really don’t care what happens to them.
Their ‘problems’ are the natural consequences of repeated bad choices. That does not make it [i]MY[/i] problem. I have enough challenges of my own, and unlike them I deal with those problems as best I can without blaming someone else.
Sympathy = ZERO
#5 sounds like someone who’s never had a string of bad luck.
John, I disagree. Most people’s “bad luck” is the natural consequence of bad choices. We’ve had the worst weather in 35 years for farming, which has devastated our income, but we’ll make it through because we have consistently paid down debt, delayed gratification, and invested in efficiency.
One result of that is our employees still have jobs. Talk to me again after you’ve carried a few families on your back. Bad luck and all. Talk to me after you have forgone much desired things in order to make payroll and take care of the people who help your business survive.
I fundamentally reject your premise.
There was a somewhat famous incident back in ’05 after the Israelis withdrew all their settlements from Gaza. One particularly good greenhouse business business employed over 50 Gazans, and wealthy American liberal Jews purchased the business from the owner in order to [i]GIVE[/i] it to the Gazan employees.
They reduced it to rubble in less than 48 hours. On purpose. Because it [i]had[/i] been owned by a Jew. That is psychotic, and in political terms I have absolutely zero sympathy for people like that.
I have rutabagas with more brains, more common sense, and deeper ethics than that.