So....is war in the Middle East imminent?

[Kev]

Here's an interesting link to health and literacy statistics in the Middle East

CAMERA: Will Massive Infusions of Aid Rescue the Palestinian Economy?

Amazingly these cruelly persecuted people living in intolerable conditions have the second highest life expectancy, the second lowest infant mortality rate and the highest literacy rates in the entire Arab world.

Also one of the highest primary school attendance rates.

Why does THIS never get mentioned. You would think from the media that these people were living in refugee campst and dying daily from plague and famine, and yet their standard of living is better than ANY Arab nation other than Syria.

Interesting.......

[Kirkland Laing]

JERUSALEM — As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.
Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.
Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.
However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.




Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn't about security | McClatchy


Economic warfare. Lovely. So it's not about weapons, it's all about the Binyamins.




A 2010 World Health Organization report stated that "chronic malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has risen over the past few years and has now reached 10.2%. Micronutrient deficiencies among children and women have reached levels that are of concern." According to UN OCHA:"Over 60 percent of households are now food insecure, threatening the health and wellbeing of children, women and men. In this context, agriculture offers some practical solutions to a humanitarian problem. However, Israel's import and access restrictions continue to suffocate the agriculture sector and directly contribute to rising food insecurity.



Israel has not permitted supplies into the Gaza Strip to rebuild the sewage system.Amnesty International reports that 90-95 percent of the drinking water in Gaza is contaminated and unfit for consumption. The United Nations even found that bottled water in Gaza contained contaminants, likely due to the plastic bottles recycled in dysfunctional factories. The lack of sufficient power for desalination and sewage facilities results in significant amounts of sewage seeping into Gaza's costal aquifer--the main source of water for the people of Gaza.



etc. etc.


What exactly is the blockade of Gaza? by Yousef Munayyer | The Middle East Channel

[amat]

I'm not stupid Nameless and I don't need an article from the National Socialist Review to tell me about how we filtered weapons into Afghanistan to fight the commies. The guy who wrote it conveniently ignores the fact that the Russians were slaughtering the Afghans to get their pipeline to the sea, it was either us or them.

The article could have been deduced to the last paragraph, we fucked up in ignoring Afghanistan after the Russians retreated but that's the only way we we fucked up there. We needed someone to fight the Russians and only those people were willing to step up for us.

[Nameless]

I'm not stupid Nameless and I don't need an article from the National Socialist Review to tell me about how we filtered weapons into Afghanistan to fight the commies. The guy who wrote it conveniently ignores the fact that the Russians were slaughtering the Afghans to get their pipeline to the sea, it was either us or them.

The article could have been deduced to the last paragraph, we fucked up in ignoring Afghanistan after the Russians retreated but that's the only way we we fucked up there. We needed someone to fight the Russians and only those people were willing to step up for us.

That's the thing. US didn't ignore them. They helped Talibans to stay in place and even invited them to Washington to promote their image as an allied regime. They knew what they were all about but it was very ok for them, as long as they deliver.

"In March 2001, several Taliban officials, including Sayed Rahmattulah Hashimi, Mullah Omar's personal advisor, were invited to Washington by their U.S. lobbyist, Leila Helms, the niece of former CIA Director Richard Helms. The agenda included discussions of extraditing bin Laden as well as facilitating American companies' access to oil reserves in central Asia. The delegation met with representatives of the Directorate of Central Intelligence (DCI) and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department.

This visit provoked concern and criticism in Washington over how Hashimi obtained a visa, a plane ticket, security clearance and access to American institutions -- including the State Department and the National Security Council -- despite travel restrictions on Taliban leadership imposed by U.N. sanctions (the official answer was that Hashimi fell below the rank of senior official covered by the sanctions.)"

US - Taliban Oil pipeline negotiations. - Democratic Underground