T. Belman. It is obvious that there is a massive campaign to build support for some kind of relief. Fortunately some people are telling the truth. NO STOP GAP MEASURES. ISRAEL SHOULD INSIST ON THE EMIGRATION OF THE REFUGEES NUMBERING 1.3 MILLION, IN EXCHANGE FOR WHICH, ISRAEL WOULD ANNEX THE LAND.
Expert observers of the current situation in Gaza are challenging the assertion by the IDF Chief of Staff who said that Israel could soon face another war with Gaza-based terror group Hamas as a result of humanitarian and economic conditions.
By: Steve Leibowitz, WORLD ISRAEL NEWS
The world press is filled with stories of an alleged “humanitarian crisis” underway in the Gaza Strip. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot gave credence to the stories this week when he told the cabinet that Israel could face another war with Hamas in Gaza as a result of the deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions in the coastal enclave.
Eisenkot cited the lack of electricity, drinkable water, and food in the Gaza Strip, and advocated stepping up aid to the territory.
His logic is that an economic collapse would make a war scenario inevitable. As a result of Eisenkot’s view as well as that of other top security officials, Israel is for the first time weighing the idea of sending food and medicine to the Gaza Strip, and thereby prevent the deteriorating conditions from spiraling into violence,
World Israel News (WIN) spoke to several expert observers, and could not find one that agreed with Eisenkot’s assessment or his conclusions.
Prof. Hillel Frisch from Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies has conducted extensive research on the economic situation in Gaza.
Frisch told WIN, “I cannot understand how Eisenkot and the IDF reached their conclusion. I understand why Hamas says there is a humanitarian crisis. They have been plundering the aid money for years. They tax every aid truck entering the enclave. I understand Israeli industrialists including Osem and Strauss who make money selling food to Gaza.”
“I even understand local Israeli mayors whose residents are employed to bring the aid to the Gaza crossings. We know that it requires only 50 trucks daily to stave off a real humanitarian crisis. There is no crisis. There has been an economic deterioration caused by Hamas greed and mismanagement but nowhere near a humanitarian crisis.
“I also reject these notions of allowing Gazan workers to enter Israel to generate income or having Israel build Gaza an island port off the coast. Ashdod port is only an hour away. Lack of a port is not the reason for economic problems in Gaza,” said Frisch
According to Frisch, Hamas is deterred with each round of fighting they are concerned about the pain Israel can inflict upon them. “It’s almost embarrassingly simple. The IDF wants to avoid another round of fighting by giving aid. That kind of thinking is not in Israel’s interest,” Frisch said.
‘Hamas could not care less about the people’
Dr. Mordechai Kedar from Bar Ilan University told WIN, “Gaza is in dire straits because the Hamas government could not care less about the people and cares only about those on its own payroll like security forces and teachers, Hamas spends on missiles and terror tunnels rather than on projects to make life better for the people. ”
“They rely on Israel and all the rest of the aid givers who take care of their poor people so that they can spend on their own interests. The so-called humanitarian crisis is exaggerated. What is true is that there is no hope and no future in Gaza with Hamas running things. They have no idea how to run a state. They are a Jihadi terror group controlling a territory and its people.”
David Bedein, Head of the Center for Near East Policy Research has closely monitored aid to Gaza. Bedein told WIN, “thirty nations are giving food aid to the Gaza residents through United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on a regular basis. All of the supplies go through Hamas. Gazans tell me that the supplies arrive at Hamas controlled warehouses, but they are not distributed. Eighty-one percent of the Gaza, population live in UNRWA camps but they are not receiving the aid that was sent. Donor countries are being duped. There is a total lack of supervision. If there is a humanitarian issue it’s of Hamas’ doing.”
In an article Prof. Frisch published in the Jerusalem Post this week, he commented, “The most important factor behind real humanitarian crises – the specter of mass hunger and contagious disease – is first and foremost the breakdown of law and order, and violence between warring militias and gangs. This was the story of Darfur, Somalia, the Central African Republic. In such a situation, the first to leave are the relief agencies, then, the local medical staffs, local government officials and anyone professional who can make it out of the bedlam, leaving the destitute to fend for themselves. Nothing could be farther from such a reality than Gaza.”
“Similarly, there is not one news item announcing the departure of a single foreign relief agency or its workers, the closure of one human rights organization in the area. Nowhere is there any evidence that the World Health Organization, which rigorously monitors the world to prevent the outbreak of contagious disease, is seriously looking at Gaza,” Frisch wrote.
@ Edgar G.:
It just occurred to me…I wonder if Hamas would have the chutzpah to charge extra for
“improvements”….like the “underground cities” (extra accommodation) the piles of “building rubble”, the “tunnels” ready for the subway trains they were going to put in..??
What they need to do the deal is a New York Real Estate Salesman…. Oh we already have one, I forgot, but he’s on OUR side…….??
@ Ted Belman:
I heard Egypt $22,000 and Jordan $37-40,000. And I’m sure Government “sponsored” would get it done for less…….. Even including kickbacks off the top…….a way of life in that area.
It may interestyou to know that a colleague of mine did a study on the cost of housing in Ciaro.
Newly constructed apartments cost $25,000 per apartment. 1.2 million refugees would need 250,000 apartments costing $6.25 Billion. A mere pittance.
Egypt is building a new Cairo to the south east of the old Cairo to house 15 million people. If 10% of that were allocaterd to the Gaza refugees, it is a done deal.
Housing is double that price in Jordan. Even so, the cost of housing in Jordan is a mere fraction of the cost in Judea and Samaria.
Bottom line is, accommodate the Refugees and other Palestinians in Jordan or Egypt.
If you want a permanent peace, then ask Egypt to relocate all residents of Gaza to Southern Egypt. Give them land with villas and vegetable gardens. Give them a desalinization plant. But get rid of them!
I can understand somebody saying that maybe now is not the most propitious time for a total war, a fight to the finish against Hamas, a fight to re-take Gaza.
I cannot understand anybody saying war is a bad idea in principle.
LIberals love to emphasize preambles and omit the main text to bolster their arguments. They never go past: remember what Amalek did to you and then jump to do not forget. But the passage is not redundant..
Same deal with the 2nd Amendment. They focus on the preamble: that there shall be a well-regulated militia, leaving aside the diffferent 18th century use of the word, regulated, and ignore the main text which is that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed!
“All we are saying is give [war] a chance.” John Lennon