The Palestinians don’t control their water sources

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn5037-israel-lays-claim-to-palestines-water.html

Israel also bombed the power plant in Gaza.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0629-07.htm

You also aren’t telling the whole truth about the greenhouses.

Despite widespread looting after the Israeli withdrawal in September, occasional attacks from Palestinian militant groups looking to claim territory, and the challenge of managing their own crops for the first time, the Palestinian greenhouses produced over 12,000 tons of what one Israeli exporter who tested the fruits and vegetables called `very high quality` produce. Indeed, the tomatoes, tasted by this reporter, were as sweet as apples.

In November, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that called for the only goods crossing leading out of the fenced-in Gaza Strip, Karni, to remain open except in cases of exceedingly specific security threats.

But during the height of the harvest season, from January until now, Karni was closed by Israel more often than it was open, sometimes for weeks straight…

The result of Karni`s closure, Jabir said, is that only 1,500 tons of produce made it out of Gaza.
Instead of winding up on the dinner plates of Europeans, as was the plan, the cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers and strawberries were occasionally given away to charity groups but mostly dumped in the surrounding sand dunes

`Can you imagine what it felt like to dump the fruit out into the wadi?` said Tesir Farraj, 47, a father of 10 from Gaza City who spoke Hebrew from many years spent as a construction worker in Israel. `All we needed was a crossing or a port we controlled by ourselves and we could have sold all this to the world and brought in so much money. We could have had another 6,000 workers come here.`

Jabir blames `the Israeli occupation` for ruining what should have been a crowning achievement for Gazans. But he also pulls no punches in regard to the Palestinian militants who did their fair share in scuttling the enterprise.

So what happens after that infrastructure is built up… Israel bombs it?

Can you explain why Gazans are still living in refugee camps when they control their own territory and are more than capable of building their own apartment buildings and houses?

All while Israelis take away Palestinian land for their own settlements?

But I guess this fact doesn’t fit as neatly in your Israeli oppression narrative.

Yet nothing can penetrate your stereotypes about people who disagree with you.

Israel would be thrilled if Palestinians would use some of the billions of dollars in aid that have/continue to receive in order to build their own electricity/water infrastructure. Don’t you find it curious that none of this money has ever been used to build up the infrastructure and economy of the territories? Or even when Palestinians were handed agricultural greenhouses in perfect working order, they chose to destroy them rather than use them to generate economic growth? Can you explain why Gazans are still living in refugee camps when they control their own territory and are more than capable of building their own apartment buildings and houses? (think of all the job creation that can be going on!)

Believe me, the less we have to do with them, the better. Israel is not “controlling their infrastructure”. After 15 years, Palestinians have still not managed to build it for themselves, despite the billions they’ve received. But I guess this fact doesn’t fit as neatly in your Israeli oppression narrative.

I can bet you that the NYT’s won’t print the story about the rabbi who said Arab children should be hung from trees.

Eliyahu proposes “hanging the children of the terrorist who carried out the attack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/968729.html

Everyone should also visit http://www.btselem.org/English/ to stay abreast of what is really happening.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m down as hell to have this discussion–one story I didn’t get a chance to write on that has bothered me lately was a daughter who was murdered in Saudi Arabia by her father for chatting on facebook.

There are severe human rights issues at work here, and there is an ugly culture of destruction and hate being taught to new generations, generations, might I add, that provide perhaps the only hope of peace and understanding.

But the pitfall in bringing it up is one in which you risk feeding the unnuanced argument, or, as WUA accurately portrays, the “I was right and you were wrong” mentality.

Good post, and great question though.

People have been discussing it, nice of you to finally join the discussion we have been having for decades….