Let's give them a state!
The Jerusalem Post has an article this morning that gives some indication - for those who still need it - of what kind of state the 'Palestinians' would have:According to statistics gathered from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), 93.3 percent of Palestinian children have experienced domestic violence, amounting to 1,950,739 children - 953,950 of whom are girls.A few comments:
Further surveys reported that only 52.2% of Palestinian families feel they can provide a safe environment for their children.
...
Data from the New Family report revealed that 2.1 million children under the age of 18 comprise 52.2% of the Palestinian population living in the occupied territories. Reportedly, undernourishment causes 10% of these Palestinian children to suffer impaired development, a 36% increase from statistics in 2000.
"The situation is getting worse and worse because people are poor," stated Rosenblum, "and Israel needs to help."
Today, low body weight is the leading cause for infant deaths in Gaza. This infant mortality rate is three times greater than that of Israel, and also higher than the rate in the Western world.
New Family found that 95.1% of Palestinian girls spend the majority of their free time at home, in contrast to 80.5% of Palestinian boys, making the home the only place where female children suffer more violence than males.
Rosenblum says "girls, who are less powerful, are the victims. Tradition encourages the inferiority of women, but tradition affects reality."
While 24.6% of Palestinian mothers are unaware of their sons' general whereabouts, only 5.2% say they don't know where their daughters spend their free time.
After-school clubs and activities are rarely available to Palestinian children, mainly because few options exist, and those are largely unaffordable. The poverty plaguing the families forces one in every 10 Palestinian children under age 18 to work; 73.4% of them work for their families without pay.
1. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish society (the society in which I live) is probably the only society in Israel that approaches the poverty rate of the 'Palestinians.' While I am sure that there are some children abused behind closed doors at home, it is nowhere near 93%. In fact, I'd be surprised if it's as high as 10%.
2. The 'Palestinians' are poor largely because in choosing between guns and butter, they have inevitably chosen the guns and not the butter. For example, look what they did with the greenhouses Israel gave them in Gaza.
3. There are lots of things children can do for very little cost aside from spending time at home if their parents don't need to worry constantly about explosive situations around them.
4. The first responsibility of a parent - at least until the child is old enough to take care of himself or herself - is to know where that child is at all times. That's not Carl in Jerusalem - father of eight children (bli ayin hara - warding off evil eyes) - talking. Someone much wiser than I am said that.
5. Children who play with toys rather than weapons are more likely to be able to play in public parks even in the absence of after school activities. Hint, hint.
6. "Rosenblum" is Irit Rosenblum who founded New Family. In the article, she goes on to imply that poverty leads to terrorism. That theory has been more than adequately debunked.
/But if only we give them a
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:54 PM
2 Comments:
On point one, "it is nowhere near 93%. In fact, I'd be surprised if it's as high as 10%." I'd be surprised if it's as high as 2%. If the vast majority of Israeli Jews are like the vast majority of American (and a few Canadian and British) Jews I've known over my lifetime, Reform and Orthodox, domestic violence is not a factor in the vast majority of their families.
(Same for most Christians, I think. Generally, stats seem to indicate that intact families who are regular synagogue or church-goers, who try to live their faith in their families, much more tend to avoid, or at least overcome, these severe problems like child or spousal abuse, infidelity, drug-alcohol abuse, etc.)
On related points four and six, if the author thinks poverty causes terrorism, she's got it backwards. Terrorism causes poverty. A brutalized and brutalizing society does not prosper.
Someone ought to remind her that of the nineteen Al Qaeda terrorists of 9/11, seventeen were of middle or upper class affluent backgrounds, all at least with a modicum of a modern education.
This is reflected in when you subtract the oil revenue from the total GDPs of all the Arab states, their combined total GDP isn't even equal to one of the major European states.
To paraphrase from Bill Clinton, "It's the culture, stupid." Or I'll be even blunter, "It's their stupid culture and religion."
(I'm in a very pessimistic state of mind about Arabs and Muslims in general at the moment. At the blog Celestial Junk at http://cjunk.blogspot.com/
there's a thread halfway down the home page entitled "The Face of Iran ... The Face of modern Islam". It shows a video of an Iranian woman being hanged, complete with a cheering audience chanting "Allah u Akbar!" Give 'em a reichlet and inside of five years, it'll be a large-scale replica of those greenhouses.)
I also think we should give the Palestinians a state: Uganda. They can't screw it up much more than the Ugandans themselves have done.
The country is 84% Christian so the Palestinians will still have same group they can terrorize as they have done in the territories.
Of course, suicide bombings in Israel should see some diminution.
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