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March 3, 2009 Why rebuild Gaza?
A cynical joke in Israel defines ceasefire as the Israelis cease, the Arabs continue to fire.
Except it isn't a joke. A month and a half after Israel ended its campaign to stop rockets launched by Arabs in Gaza destroying Israel's southern territory and killing and injuring Israeli citizens In an official protest to the United Nations, the Israel's Ambassador Gabriela Shalev noted that "there have been nearly 100 rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip" since the ceasefire on January 18, or over two per day. These have been increasing in number, with 12 rockets were fired at Sderot on March 1 alone. More landed in Israel yesterday and today. So Daniel Pipes asks Was I the only one rubbing my eyes in disbelief yesterday, as the Egyptian government hosted an "International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Economy for the Reconstruction of Gaza"? (snip) Apparently those who live in fantasy land--and that includes the U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton (D)--believe peace is defined by continuing to fire rockets, spewing hate and promising more, and worse, is yet to come. In other words, reward war by Arabs and punish Israel for wanting peace. (Tellingly, no one nation offered Israel even a penny to reconstruct the large areas of Israel damaged by over seven years of daily rocket attacks.) At the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, attended by delegations from 71 states, plus 16 regional, international, and financial organizations. Its stated goal was to raise US$2.8 billion, of which $1.3 was for rebuilding what had been destroyed in the course of Israel's recent war on Hamas (the rest would be sent to the Palestinian Authority to help improve its standing). The actual amount raised at the conference was $4.5 billion which, when added to previously committed funds, means the grant total for Gaza and the PA comes to $5.2 billion, to be disbursed over a two-year period. A delighted Egyptian foreign minister called the amount "beyond our expectations." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it "a very productive conference" Clinton has now seemingly succumbed to the Obamamessiah aura, thinking the two of them can succeed after more than 3000 years (long term) or 61 years (short term) of failure to convince Arabs to accept the existence of Jews/Israel. As Pipes speculates My best guess: this permits them subtly to signal Jerusalem that it better not attack Gaza again, because doing so will confront it with a lot of very angry donor governments – including, of course, the Obama administration. Why then are they doing this? Pipes suggests Is this ignorance or mendacity? I suspect the latter; no one is that dumb. I respectfully would like to extend that answer and slightly disagree. Yes, they are that dumb; they believe their "mendacity" will go unnoticed, be believed by those who want to justify the destruction of Israel. And then they can all proudly say they've finally solved the problem. After all, that's the way its historically been handled. |
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