Is this how you would want your children to grow up? The people of Gaza, a full half of them children under the age of 15, are without adequate clean water, food, electricity, homes, medicine and well, everything. Children, people. Write me all the polemics you wish about terrorists, but children are not terrorists. The babies dying in Gaza because there is no sewage treatment and the aquifer is being poisoned are not terrorists. They are babies. And the same people that shout and cry when a collection of cells is aborted think this is just fine. Seriously, fuck you all. And stop calling yourselves prolife until you can bring youself to care about Palestine's children.
Today, 1,400 activists from from over 42 countries will march on the wall in Gaza to protest the inhumane, cruel treatment of the Gazans. I felt nauseated when I read this. I fear for them. I really don't think all 1,400 of them are walking out of there.
And I wish I could be there. I wish I could do something for all those people- and that's what they are, people- suffering under conditions I cannot imagine. You take away my coffee and I'm a wreck, I can't imagine drinking sewage water. I wish I could make everyone listen when I say that we cannot treat children this way and expect anything good in the future.
All I can do is write this post and hope that you will think on it. Think on the fact that each American taxpayer gives about $400 a year to Israel, so if you live in the US, you helped build that wall. You and I helped create this horrendous situation.
I am paying to ensure that children drink sewage.
So are you.
The wall actually has nothing to do with the situation regarding water in Gaza. The water situation is connected to a variety of different issues. They include (in no particular order of priority):
ReplyDelete1) Israel bombing electricity substations and cutting off electricity at different points. (Water is really hard to move in modern water systems with out electric pumps)
2) Corruption which has caused resources allocated to water going to pockets. (This is one of the examples where Hamas is better than Fatah in that Hamas has much less of a corruption problem). This is aside from the general difficult of maintaining such systems in a near warzone.
3) Refusal for Egypt to assist at all in running even the most basic utilities or resources through their side of the border. (The border on the Egyptian side is very strictly guarded. In many ways, more strictly than the Israeli side.)
Gaza had serious water problems well before the construction of the current barrier.
The water situation in Gaza is due to a large variety of different problems. Yes, it is tragic. But to blame it on the barrier is simply wrong. If the situation is going to be corrected at all, we need to understand what is causing the problem.
Joshua wins the innerwebz. It's not easy to write the dumbest sentence on the net, but ... "The wall actually has nothing to do with the situation regarding water in Gaza." ... FTW!
ReplyDeleteme like you i say prayer,i hope they release from poverty and these limitations. i,m sorry for the people that don't pay attention to them.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteApologize for my previous post if anyone got to read it. I was rather sarcastic and nasty in it, as its been a rough week. My apologies for any offense i may have caused.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteCan someone with complete understanding of modern geopolitics explain to me the strategic relevance of Israel, because I just don't see it.
Uzza, it doesn't. And simply declaring a sentence to be "dumbest sentence on the net" isn't an argument. The wall is having serious economic impacts but even then that's not actually the wall itself but rather the fact that Israel hasn't been very willing to let people through the checkpoints. That doesn't impact the water situation except in a very indirect fashion. They've had serious water problems since before '67 (although there have been better and worse situations). Blaming the water situation on the wall is just factually incorrect.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Joshua.
ReplyDeleteThe 'inhumane, cruel treatment of the Gazans' has nothing to do with it.
Serious economic impacts have nothing to do with it.
Not letting people through the checkpoints in the wall have nothing to do with it.
Indirect impacts have nothing to do with it.
It's the elves. Elfs pooping in the water!
uzza,
ReplyDeleteIt seems your sarcasm adds nothing to the debate. Joshua made a claim, and rather than respond to him in a calm, rational manner with facts and arguments, you responded with adolescent derision and condescension. People are not "dumb" for simply disagreeing with your childish, oversimplified, black and white views of the world, especially since you seem utterly incapable of defending them.
Luke, Joshua, and anyone else who is dogpiling on Uzza for being "childish" or whatever the fuck:
ReplyDeletethis isn't a discussion new to most of the people who respond on this forum. Uzza's point, which was completely ignored, is that saying "the wall itself isn't the original source of water problems, and so lets not talk about the wall" DOES NOT MOVE IT FORWARD.
whatever may have been true historically, RIGHT NOW there are people who do not have access to clean drinking water, who DID have access before the wall went up. is this all, or even most, or even a majority of Gaza? no. is that the *point*?
still no.
the point PF was making, and that Uzza was backing up, is that so MUCH of what Israel does is funded by US citizens. our fucking taxes go to ensure that the people living in Gaza [or Palestine, and other places, sigh] have NO CHANCE for something different.
and we are godsdamned sick of hearing people on the Right scream that THEIR tax dollars can *NOT* go to something THEY are opposed to - while we on the Left, who would MUCH rather fund hospitals and schools in Gaza, as opposed to funding yet another military operation [the wall] are forced to hand over *our* tax dollars to things WE are opposed to, and then have people trying to tell us that reality is not what it is - that those people in Gaza "did this to themselves and deserve to be treated like shit, because of X, Y, Z thing that isn't their fault but we are blaming on them". yes, Gaza has had these problems for decades. that doesn't mean that they aren't getting worse, and weren't MADE worse by the wall.
that wall wasn't the first problem, no. it wasn't even the first problem funded with OUR money. but it is the latest, and we can mock and deride it all we want. further, Uzza [and everyone] is under no obligation to explain what they mean. when one comes to a new forum, the weight of figuring out the rules lies with the new member.
if you show up out of nowhere and start mansplaining and acting as if the OP [and owner of the blog] knows nothing, and acting as if only what YOU say is important, and MISSING THE POINT -
well, when you do that, most of us here aren't going to attempt to talk to you. why should we? you have shown up, mansplained, and didn't get it. we are tired of explaining ourself over and over ad infintum. we don't have to. either read up or go away.
denelian,
ReplyDeleteI don't see where I or anyone else in this thread said that the wall shouldn't be discussed. Nor do I see anyone saying that Israel isn't at fault here. Indeed, I find your and Uzza's reactions puzzling in that regard given that the first reason I listed for the water problems are Israel's bombing campaigns which have targeted utilities.
I'm similarly puzzled by your last paragraph since I've been reading and commenting on PF's blog for some time and am even part of her army of trolls ( http://foreverinhell.blogspot.com/2009/12/ouch-no-it-was-all-lulz.html ). I'm similarly puzzled by your labeling polite disagreement as "mansplaining." Gender doesn't impact factual issues and I'd be deeply curious as to what in my comment indicated anything at all having to do with PF's gender.