The Price of Survival in Gaza

Why can African family survive on $150/month but Palestinian family requires $1,080?

 

I've never really understood that one frankly given she is an ally that could never be used (as had to happen during both Gulf Wars) . Historically I'd say support for Israel represented more of a strategic liability than anything else. I mean how many 9/11s need to happen before the penny drops here ?

 

Gaza would be a wonderful place if Hamas abandoned violence and recognized Israel.

The Palestinians have no idea how much power they have, and how they persist in making decisions that only hurt them.

Israeli society continues to grow, strive, and prosper. While Palestine just wallows in its misery.

This is due to Palestine's daily choices.

 

So the difference is between getting a mattress and feeding a family for a week. I know from hearing the deaths that families in Gaza can be as many as 30 people.

$40 will feed one person 2 meals a day for a week is probably a more realistic way to see the amount spent on food. See your page.

 

This whole thread is just another excuse for US posters to take a pop at the Palestinians a tiny oppressed ethnic minority thousands of miles away whom to my knowledge have never attacked the US nor its citizens.

 

Well, certainly many within the U.S establishment are privately beginning to question the U.S-Israeli relationship. Even in public people like General Patraeus are openly saying that Israel is fast becoming a strategic liability for the U.S.

 

I don't believe Palestinians have much of a choice as to who represents them. For example....

• In 2007 the Islamic group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and removed Palestinian officials amid confrontations that left hundreds dead. This territory later became their place to store military arsenal and fire missiles at Israel, exposing their own population to armed conflict.

• Hamas has trained a new generation of terrorists consisting of children, teens and youth in the Gaza Strip who are educated and indoctrinated with a culture of hatred and death. They are recruited and trained to carry out kidnappings, and receive military weapons training.

• Hamas has diverted 1.25 billion dollars, investing them in their fight against Israel by using the funds to build 1,370 tunnels that reach into Israeli territory and store all types of weapons. However, in that same amount of time, the that Islamic group Hamas has invested in the construction of these sophisticated tunnels, it has only built 2 hospitals, 20 schools, 3 towers, and 3 malls. Hamas is holding hostage the development of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

http://www.withoutbordersmagazine.com/hamas-is-holding-the-palestinian-people-hostage/

 

I just don't see what the US is getting out of this dubious and expensive liability which certainly damages its moral standing internationally.

 

I think first and foremost it's regarded as a pragmatic geopolitical issue as opposed to a public relations one predicated on short to medium term economics and morality and ethics. .

 

I'd say the economic argument is a non starter given the ever increasing flow of dollars in one direction. I'd also say if anything the morality and ethics argument is on even shakier ground in light of current events. Given the firestorm this has brought to the US before and the potential for that to happen again I just don't see what the US upside is in any of this

 

We don't like Muslim terrorists. Maybe you don't have a problem with it, but we do. Hamas, Boko Haram, ISIS, al Qaeda and whatever else they want to call themselves are all the same---evil. I would still like to think that the US fights evil.

 

Yeah, I can see how you arrive at your analysis. I think it's a complex issue. The flow of dollars appears on the surface to be in one direction but I think it's a wee bit more complicated than that. I think U.S strategists look at what they perceive the longer term economic benefits to be by way of evaluating the situation in cost-benefit terms in the long run. The crucial aspect here is the question of geopolitics and strategic positioning in terms of gaining future access to resources in the region. Israel acts as a kind of colonial staging post in order that these ends be met. But of course it's not purely one way traffic.The relationship is a mutually beneficial and reinforcing one. But the fact that some within the U.S establishment are questioning the U.S approach is significant I think. Increasingly, it seems to me, American politicians are questioning whether the short to medium term costs (not just financial) is a price worth paying in terms of the perceived long-term benefits. It's an on-going debate that's happening within the high echelons of power as we speak.

 

Ethnic minority my tail, they are arabs, they Arabs have 350,000,000 strong population and own 99.98% of middle eastern land. Israel has the remaining whopping 0.02%.

 

Again you're missing my point, Alexa. I believe UN can get away with asking $1,080 in donations to feed one Palestinian family because they can - people "feel" for Palestinians and will feel good about themselves donating large amount of money for Palestinian cause. Another reason is that donating to Palestinians people feel like they're doing something fighting Zionism.

No one "feel" for Africans quite the same way, that is why trying to ask for $1,000 to feed African family will look stupid.

 

This habit Americans have of branding all Arabs as one and the same has not served you well

 

UN partition resolution divided the land between Jews and Arabs, not between Jews and Palestinians....And they entire arab world invaded Israel several times on behalf of their Arab brethren in Palestine....Please forgive the Americans for actually paying attention and noticing how Arabs brand themselves.

 

That was many decades ago now. Whats the US excuse for still getting involved in this today given Israels unassailable regional nuclear superpower status ? What action have the Palestinians ever taken against the US that warrants the level of hate we see across the mass of threads here ?

 

Do you have evidence of this from non Israeli sources ?

No I'm afraid you are wrong because that tag belongs to its oppressors who recieve $3.15 Billion per annum in direct aid from the US but that doesn't include the $12 -17 Billion in under the table military aid.

All that aid yet no hunger problem to address. Go figure

 

Right...Hamas spends billions of its hard-earned tax shekels on tunnels, training and rockets. Get real. If they have billions to spend on all that, why is the world giving them aid?

 

The US does not need an excuse, Israel and the US are allies, the US and Israel share democratic values and hatred of terrorism... Moreover the US has its own objectives in the Middle East, not necessarily coinciding with Israel's but being on good terms with the and having a lot of influence over the only regional superpower does not seem like a bad strategy.

 

A simple 'no I don't have any evidence for this claim' would have sufficed here

 

What possible objective can the US have in the Middle East that would be facilitated by any alliance with Israel ? On the contrary I would have thought such an alliance has always been at the very heart of your problems within the region

 

you asked Dutch why he started this thread and I gave you (my) reason - because Hamas already spends billions on its military needs and the amount of food aid Gaza gets far exceeds the feeding needs of the populations. That's why this thread was created - to discuss this issue. Some of us can actually put two and two together. Duh.

If you still do not understand why the thread was created you probably don't want to.

 

Influence on the decision making proces of the only superpower in the most explosive region of the world.

You would have thought wrong.

Any more questions? Why are you even participating in these discussions if all you are doing is asking questions because you have no idea what you are talking about and a simple journalist from Kazakhstan has to explain you such basic concepts....Take a few classes and come back.

 

Hamas spends billions on its military does it ? These wild claims just get made up on the hoof and then get blurted out without any substantiation whatsoever.

What have these Palestinians ever done to you or your country that you go through such hoops to invent stuff like this ?