Hamas admits Gazan water crisis its own fault
For years, Hamas has been trying to blame Israel for a 'water crisis' in Gaza. Now, they admit that the crisis was caused by
overpumping by 'Palestinians' using the towns from which Jews were expelled ten years ago.
The Hamas paper Al-Risalah conducted an investigation into
the subject of Jewish agricultural land in Gaza that was evacuated in
the 2005 Disengagement plan, and found that despite Arab claims that
Israel has caused a water crisis in Gaza, local residents are in fact to
blame.
In its investigation, which relied on figures from the Hamas
agricultural ministry, the paper found that excessive use of water for
agriculture by local farmers was behind the shortage of water.
In particular the raising of vegetables that require vast amounts of
water, digging wells without supervision, and pumping water excessively
was found to be the culprit of Gaza's water woes.
The paper of the Hamas terror organization noted that prior to the
2005 expulsion of all Jews from Gaza, no more than 20 wells were being
used by Israelis in Gush Katif, and they were dug around a kilometer
from the coast so as to trap rain water.
The average pumping from these wells was around 20-30 cubic meters per hour.
Today, the number of wells in the area has tripled, and the Arab
agricultural unions working in the evacuated Jewish communities dug
close to 30 more wells - in addition to the 16 dug by the municipality.
But of course, they blame the Jews anyway.
Labels: Gaza, Gaza expulsion, Gaza Palestinians, Gaza water supply, Gush Katif, Hamas
'Turn out the lights, the party's over'
I am sure that those of you who grew up in the '70's remember Dandy Don Meredith singing 'Turn out the lights, the party's over' once each Monday Night Football game was out of reach. The same could be said of Gaza today.
The third picture of the series at the top should look familiar - I posted it on Wednesday. I found the other two pictures later on. They're ridiculous.
Elihu Richter argues that it's time for Israel to
turn out the lights in Gaza. The party's over (Hat Tip:
Mrs. Carl).
It is wrong, pathetically so, for Israeli leaders to say that its goal in Gaza is to reduce (tzimtzum in Hebrew) the number of rocket and terror attacks. Israel’s goal – even if not immediately attainable – should be elimination of these attacks, and its policy should be one of Zero Tolerance for Terror (ZT4T) directed against the entire population. These rockets attacks need to be recognized for what they are: genocidal terror, because its aim is to intimidate, terrorize and kill members of an entire population defined by their national, religious, ethnic or racial origin.
It is no easy decision to cut off electricity from a land mass with population of some two million people. But it is even worse to tolerate rocket terror attacks turning everyday life upside down for some million citizens in Israel’s south – already killing three – and to wait for more rocket attacks reaching every farther north. This reach is the equivalent of some 40 million of 300 million US citizens subjected to daily rocket attacks. These rocket attacks are from the area ruled by Hamas, their chosen elected political representatives.
Rocket attacks from Hamas ruled Gaza directed against Israel’s population are Crimes against Humanity. Even Richard Goldstone, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and BTselem said so after Operation Cast Lead – but not in the eight years of rocket attacks preceding it – when, by being by and large silent, these NGO’s were in effect complicit bystanders. to Hamas’s rocket attacks.
But Israel cannot wait for the wheels of justice to turn. The wheels are rusty. There is next to no international justice and if the wheels do turn, it is not certain they would turn in the right direction. I call upon the government of Israel to immediately initiate proceedings to bring Hamas’s leaders and their operatives to justice for these crimes. But there is the court of international public opinion, and this is where the battle to eradicate terror from Gaza will be won or lost.
The case for cutting off the electricity to Gaza is that it does not produce the staged photo-ops of blood (or ketchup) which genocidal terrorists use to drive their agenda’s asymmetric warfare, lawfare and wordfare. Yes, the population should be given advance warning, so that hospitals can get their generators up and running. But there is a certain coherence to cutting off the electricity to a region whose leaders are making life hell for a million Israelis.
Scholars of genocide and mass atrocity crimes know that these outcomes result from human choice and bystander indifference. It follows that what happens in the next few days, weeks and months will be determined by the degree to which public diplomacy will make the case for holding the perpetrator, Hamas, accountable for this latest round of crimes against humanity – the rocketing of civilian populations with intent to kill, maim, injure, destroy and intimidate. But what the bystanders do or do not do may be even more important: The US has to make aid to Egypt conditional on it reining in on Hamas.
Indeed.
Labels: Gaza electricity supply, Gaza water supply
MK Danon's website hacked by Kuwaitis
MK Danny Danon's (Likud) website was hacked on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he announced that he had more than 5,000 signatures on a petition he posted calling on the Israeli government to
stop supplying electricity and water to Gaza.
"Hamas owes NIS 103 million to the State of Israel for electricity,
and instead of paying back the debt, they shoot missiles on Ashkelon,"
he said. "It cannot be that Hamas can shoot at the power plant that
provides them with electricity."
Minutes after the Likud MK's announcement, his website was hacked.
Visitors to Danon's site saw the headline "Team Kuwait Hackers,"
along with a photo of missiles and another of Ahmed Said Khalil Jabari,
the senior Hamas figure killed in an IAF strike on Wednesday night. In
addition, a song in Arabic played automatically when the site was
opened.
"If extremist hackers broke into my website because of the petition, we must be doing something right," Danon stated.
Not really. If we were doing something right, the government led by Danon's party would not need to be petitioned to take this action. They would do it on their own.
Labels: computer hackers, Danny Danon, Gaza electricity supply, Gaza water supply, Kuwait
Israel trying to stop next flotilla of fools by bargaining with itself
Israel is appealing to the United Nations and to various countries from which 'activists' are likely to depart to stop a repeat of last May's
Mavi Marmara fiasco.
In recent weeks, Jerusalem has engaged in a large-scale diplomatic effort aimed at pressuring heads of states in countries from which ships are expected to sail, to discourage their citizens from taking part. The hope is that such an effort will head off a large-scale "sequel" to last year's flotilla. Furthermore, in the event that another military raid is called for, this time Israel wants to be able to claim that every possible effort was made to stop the ships peaceably.
Among other officials, senior Israeli diplomats have initiated discussions with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, to persuade him to take steps to prevent the departure of the flotilla.
But unfortunately, Israel is also bargaining with itself by opening the Gaza border even more than it is already.
At the same time, security officials are discussing a possible relaxation of the siege on the Gaza Strip. The main advocate of such a move is Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, coordinator of government activities in the territories. He believes that loosening restrictions on the entry of goods would be an effective response to allegations that Israel is infringing the basic rights of Gaza residents, and would defuse many of the claims made by the flotilla organizers.
All that's going to do is encourage them even more. After all, if they get something for nothing, imagine what they can get for something.
Israel should cut Gaza off completely until such time as Gilad Shalit is returned. And it should continue to maintain the naval blockade because we have seen even recently that attempts to smuggle weapons into Gaza continue.
Labels: flotilla, Gaza construction, Gaza electricity supply, Gaza plenty, Gaza water supply
