Gaza: Crisis, Hunger, and Plague

by Michael Lumish

As you can see from this recent Pierre Rehov video, Gaza is entirely filled with “crisis, hunger, and plague.”

The truth, of course, is that Gaza is poor. It’s not particularly poor compared to many other areas of the Middle East or the world, but poor it is … which is why Israel sends in tons of humanitarian aid on a weekly basis.

The problem is that there are those on the liberal-left who would have you believe that Gaza is like certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa, with children starving in the streets. It isn’t. They would also have you believe that Gaza’s poverty is Israel’s fault, due to the blockade. It’s not. If there were no blockade Gaza would still be poor. The reason for this is because the Gazans, themselves, voted into office Hamas, a vicious genocidal organization with an upfront Jew-Killing Agenda.

In 2005, when Israel ethnically-cleansed the Gaza strip of Jews, the Gazans had an opportunity. They could have raised up a political party devoted to the well-being of their people. They could have raised up a political party that might have said something such as:

Because we desire peace and the future prosperity of our children, we extend the hand of friendship to our neighbors to the east and look forward to a relationship based upon mutual respect and close economic cooperation.

If they had done something along those lines there is no reason why Gaza could not develop into Singapore-on-the-Mediterranean. But this is not Fantasy Land. There is what the Gazans could have done and there is what they did, in fact, do.

They voted in Hamas and Hamas sent between 8 and 10 thousand Kassams and Katyushas into southern Israel, making that area unlivable for years. Thus Israel and Egypt blockaded the strip.

These people are not children. It is long past time for the Palestinians to take responsibility for their own behavior. There is nothing that Israel can do to ease their plight so long as Hamas maintains its Jew-Killing Policy.

For some crazy reason, I find myself very much opposed to that policy.

I very much recommend against it.

One of the problems with our friends on the Left is that they tend to think that everything is always and forever up to the Israelis in all matters I-P. They infantilize the Palestinians, whom they hold responsible for nothing. This is a huge mistake because the Palestinians can easily do much to gain their autonomy and a measure of economic security for themselves and their kids. They can agree to direct negotiations without preconditions. They can finally accept a state for themselves, alongside Israel. They can go about building a decent future for themselves.

And, most importantly, they can stop trying to murder Jewish Israelis.

Everything is not always up to Israel. The Palestinians make their choices and have to live with those choices. Perhaps it’s time they started making different choices.

A little change is often nice.

{Cross-Posted at Lord of the Karmafishes.}