kolanuraven said:
aplusmnt said:
Does Obama not realize when you are broke you are broke! $900 million to people that hate us! I am tired of paying taxes to see it spent like this! We are going to help rebuild an area that we should be leveling with bombers. They say Hamas will not control the money, but bull crap Hamas will benefit from the money and plot our demise on the paper we paid for.
I am so sick of idiot politicians!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29352401
All Gazans are not bad......most of them are trapped like fish in a barrel....
but.... I think Israel should bear 99.9% of the repair of the area as they are the ones who destroyed it.
I have no problem with sending some aid in the form of food, supplies, medicines as that can do some good quickly and get into the hands of the actual people in need .
Just sending a big fat ck.....NO! It will be stolen and ' divvied' up between the radical parts.
Again, Israel should receive less of aid from us--as they get too much already--......and then send that $$$$ to Gaza....thus in a round about way Israel pays for the rebuild.
I would not trust Israel to send money since they won't even send food and fuel when needed.
I love to read this stuff. This is a long one folks.
The US sends money through the UN - not as good as it sounds.
Kola - while certainly entitled to your opinion - I believe you do not have the true picture of what happens over here - and the media battle has been won by Hamas.
I think you Americans should have kept the money though. Check out the UN leadership positions and who holds them some time. Ban Ki Moon is not the only boss.
I believe you should not spend one dime on Gaza - however the Arab nations will love you for doing what they have refused to do for many years.
Most money will eventually be funneled into tunnels and weapons - whether by cash or by barter.
It is not always money that exchanges hands. Concrete and wire are very valuable items. Food is often used for barter - in fact it is one of the best - especially the dried foods like milk powder and flour. They keep well in this climate and they transport easily. When folks are hungry they will give a lot to get a bit of food.
There has been a tonne of money sent into Gaza - and Hamas, who won the election through some serious intimidation and reportedly a few killings - spent it all on weaponry rather than infrastructure - keeping it's own people destitute. Purposely.
This despite the Israelis removing all Jews from Gaza and allowing the Gazans to decide their own fate. In fact Israel does not want to be involved in Gaza - they just want Gaza to leave Israel alone.
If this had happened, over time normal trade relations would have developed.
However the elected party - Hamas - is quite public that the only thing they want is the destruction of
the only democracy in the middle east - Israel.
They will spend every resource, including their own people to accomplish this task.
Israel is a democracy that allows Arabs to become voting citizens. That would never happen in any other middle east country. In fact, I believe the Israelis Arab parties won 6 seats in the very recent election.
Now - The deal to open the crossings is quite simple.
Stop firing rockets at Israel and the crossings will open. Some close friends wearing the target friendly "blue bonnet" dodged even more of them this week. Stop firing and the aid comes in the front door.
Rockets are now also being fired out of Lebanon in support of this continual firing from Gaza.
Hamas does not seem to believe peace to be worthwhile - so it keeps firing rockets as it has for 8 years.
Now before someone brings up the damages and the inequity of it.
If someone lived next door to you for 8 years and every day shot a gun at you as a non-combattant - or a rocket at civilians - which by definition are also crimes against humanity - which the Israelis are accused of on a daily basis - what would your response be?
Remember that you called the police every day and complained - as the Israelis called upon the international community - every day - yet nothing was done. I suspect you would have responded quite harshly.
This one piece of information is VERY important:
There also happens to be a mutual border with Egypt - The Rafah Crossing - who does have a crossing open at this time but is only allowing LIMITED aid into Gaza. Egypt will not allow Gazans to exit into Egypt to live. Some work permit holders can travel.
There is a reason for this.
Egypt does not want them. Never forget - aid could enter from one Arab country to another - but it does not.
Arab "brothers" do not support Gazans and Hamas. They seem prepared to see Gazans live out doors and go begging for food - just as Hamas is.
Egyption President Mubarik has publicly stated - Until the Palestinian Authority is in power in Gaza the Rafah Crossing is to remain closed.
I think that could be considered some serious political interference into Gaza by another ARAB nation.
Seldom if ever reported by the media
Anything to see Israel destroyed - and part of that destruction is the negative reporting brought about by the lack of aid getting into Gaza.
Remember - if the middle east Arab community was truly committed to peace and rebuilding Gaza - they could easily do the entire project with their oil money - straight through the crossing that is located in Egypt.
If they truly wanted to - they could feed and rebuild all of Gaza from the Rafah Crossing crossing.
This of course is seldom if ever reported on the news channels.
Hamas appears unwilling at face value to do anything except place all of its respources into the destruction of Israel -
and is willing to risk their own people to do so.
For peace to happen in Gaza two issues must be solved.
1. Palestinians and Hamas must make peace. At present they hate each other and war between themselves.
2. Hamas must stop firing rockets at Israeli civilians. That will not happen until Hamas leadership is removed - either by the people of Gaza - or by the PLO.
It is not as clear and one sided as the media makes it I can assure you.
Look at Israel like a honey bee hive. If you leave it alone it is productive and works on harmony with it's surroundings.
As does Israel with Jordan.
Kick it once too often and the entire hive comes out and attacks.
Never forget - Arabs in the middle east could do through Egypt what the US is about to do - send in a tonne of money. Huge mistake for the U.S. to do this in my personal opinion. Best to give it to the one country that watches your back in the middle east.
Apologies for the length but it is not as simple as most in the U.S. of A. think it is.
I am off to Syria and Damascus tomorrow for some quiet time in the big city at the Russian Roulette Traffic Circle.
Regards
BC