A revealing post by Evelyn Gordon at Contentions tells us a lot about Palestinian priorities:
If you want to understand the real reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been unsolvable for decades, one fact suffices: Palestinian leaders and activists would rather deprive their entire population of fresh water than allow an Israeli company to land a contract.
And if that assertion seems far-fetched, just consider what befell UNICEF last week when it sought to move forward with plans to build a desalination plant in Gaza.
According to both the UN and the Palestinians themselves, Gaza has a desperate shortage of pure drinking water. An official report issued by the Palestinian Water Authority last year stated that 90 percent of Gaza’s water supply is polluted, posing a serious threat to the health of Palestinian residents. A report issued the previous year by the UN Environment Program put the figure at 95 percent. Thus, if ever a place was in desperate need of a desalination plant, it’s Gaza. So UNICEF decided to step into the breach.
The agency’s policy, as its spokeswoman subsequently explained in an effort to justify its behavior, is always to buy from Palestinians if a qualified Palestinian vendor exists. Unfortunately, Palestinian companies don’t make desalination plants. But a world leader in the field happens to sit conveniently just over the border from Gaza, so UNICEF innocently thought the best solution, in terms of quality and cost-effectiveness, would be to invite bids from Israeli firms.
At that point, all hell broke loose. Gaza’s elected Hamas government announced that no Israeli would be allowed to set foot in Gaza. The Palestinian Contractors Union condemned UNICEF, announced a boycott of the agency and warned fellow Palestinians against cooperating with Israeli bidders. Other Palestinian groups threatened to stage protests against UNICEF and shut down its offices.
Awaiting comment from Peter Beinart.
Okey-dokey, then, let the Gazans drink ditch water. And when they all come down with cholera, let Egypt handle the medical crisis.
As Golda Meir said, “until they love their children more than they hate us, there will be no peace” (or words to that effect).
These people are insane with hate for Israel. To deprive yourself of clean water out of hatred is beyond insane. Of course the leaders probably have all the clean water they want trucked in from Egypt. Let the peasants play the part of pawn . . .again.
With the Egyptian state currently failing and Sinai reverting to an almost Somalia-like lawless area don’t plan on too much potable water being made available from the southwest. Heck, Gaza is but a microcosm of what is about to happen to the residents of Cairo over the coming year! Just make that border fence as impermeable as possible to keep the looming self-inflicted humanitarian disaster contained.
correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t there 2 desalinization plants in the Gaza strip, that were handed over to the Palestinians in the Gaza land grant, that were totally destroyed within, what was it, 2 months??
Well, yeah. That’s Jewish water. You can tell just by looking at it, right?
It’s OK, I’m sure the UN will fly in Perrier for them in mass quantities and indefinitely.
If Israel ran the place the standard of living would probably go up a hundred fold and with many jobs.
Nose, spite face.
“If you want to understand the real reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been unsolvable for decades, one fact suffices: Palestinian leaders and activists would rather deprive their entire population of fresh water than allow an Israeli company to land a contract.”
No, that one reason does not suffice. The problem is far larger than water. Get a clue, Evelyn Gordon.
Actually, I think it does. And the sad thing is, none of this surprises me a bit. “The Pali problem” has resisted half a century’s worth of effort from damn near the entire Western world, and every single time it comes back to the Palis themselves failing to make the rational choice. I’m almost beginning to think that there must be something genetically wrong with Palis: they began hating at an age when most children are still too young to understand the concept, and they seem to be patholotically incapable of the most basic forms of logic. I’m a pretty firm believer in “it’s not the race, it’s the culture”, but in the case of the Palis, the two things don’t appear to be separable.
Yes and the hatred preceded occupation and became even more vicious (if possible) after Israel left Gaza judenrein (as their German predecessors would put it)
This one-way hatred is the sole cause of the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-”Palestiinian” conflict…just as the genocide of the Jews in WW2 was the result of the very same hatred
Irrational hatred and envy and a doctrine of Islamic supremacy is the reason these maniacs take such joy in killing babies and sacrificing their own children in their barbarous culture of death worship.
If Israel gives them so much as a drop of water, they’re stupider than the U.N.
If the paleostinians want to go thirsty rather than do business with a Jew, let them. Self annialation (sp?) of your enemy is much more cost effective than using your bullets and bombs.
Remind me again which nation in the area is widely accused of practicing “apartheid”…
If fascistic muslims wish to poison themselves with polluted water, who are we to interfere with their choice?