Sabra and Shatila, forever ingrained in every Israel-basher's memory as Israel's failure to protect avowed enemies from a little payback action from Lebanese Christians.
So now it seems some Lebanese women are going to send their own aid flotilla to the poor, poor Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering under the lash of Israel's Occupation. (But didn't they evacuate in 2005? Hey, shut up with that..)
Uh, hello? What about the Palestinians in Lebanon? You know, the ones who are still living in all those refugee camps, the ones who, two generations later, are still living off the UN? The ones that Lebanon refuses to integrate into their society, their fellow ethnic Arabs, what about them? Are you telling me that they have to sail hundreds of kilometers to find some Palestinians to fawn over? Is anyone going to call them on this?
This just in (6/18/10 7:14AM): Lebanon Postpones Granting Rights to 1948 Refugees - Again
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
14 June, 2010
B'tzelem's New Math
B'tzelem reported on the conditions in the Gaza Strip, using some pretty creative numbers. Let's have a look, shall we?
93% of the water is polluted water, and there's no typhus epidemic? No malaria outbreak? I man, contaminating the water supply is the first rule in siege warfare, true, but where's the obvious end result to that? Right, let's move on.
95% of factories are closed. So that means if there are 100 factories, only five are open. Now, according to the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce, the last statistic we have to work with is from 1998, where there were 412 carpentry workshops employing 1002 workers (2.4 workers per 'factory'). Please note that they tout Israeli training as a benefit for investment consideration. OK, now let's take a look at that percentage, shall we? There are now, supposedly, only 20ish carpentry factories still open, employing 48 people. Hmm.. does that have to do with Israel's 'siege', or does that have to do with a glut in the market, overreported numbers, and every three people counting as a 'factory'?
The last time there was an Israeli 'blackout' in Gaza, tens of thousands of people took to the streets with candles, and the world decried Israel's 'collective punishment'. But now, blackouts last ten hours a DAY and there's nothing in the news? Really?
Forty percent unemployment, huh? I suppose I should feel bad about it, but then I remember that the people elected these leaders.
More that 70% rely on humanitarian aid? Guess they get it in the market (note the source of the website).
It's all a numbers game.
Source
At the end of 2009, 93 percent of the wells were found to be polluted with high quantities of chloride and nitrates, far in excess of the World Health Organization’s recommended levels. The water supply is defective, and thousands of residents are not even connected to the water grid.
93% of the water is polluted water, and there's no typhus epidemic? No malaria outbreak? I man, contaminating the water supply is the first rule in siege warfare, true, but where's the obvious end result to that? Right, let's move on.
The prohibition on bringing in raw materials and on exports has led to the closing of 95 percent of the factories and workshops in the area.
95% of factories are closed. So that means if there are 100 factories, only five are open. Now, according to the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce, the last statistic we have to work with is from 1998, where there were 412 carpentry workshops employing 1002 workers (2.4 workers per 'factory'). Please note that they tout Israeli training as a benefit for investment consideration. OK, now let's take a look at that percentage, shall we? There are now, supposedly, only 20ish carpentry factories still open, employing 48 people. Hmm.. does that have to do with Israel's 'siege', or does that have to do with a glut in the market, overreported numbers, and every three people counting as a 'factory'?
As a result of Israel’s policy, 98 percent of Gaza residents suffer from planned blackouts lasting up to eight or ten hours a day.
The last time there was an Israeli 'blackout' in Gaza, tens of thousands of people took to the streets with candles, and the world decried Israel's 'collective punishment'. But now, blackouts last ten hours a DAY and there's nothing in the news? Really?
Forty percent unemployment, huh? I suppose I should feel bad about it, but then I remember that the people elected these leaders.
More that 70% rely on humanitarian aid? Guess they get it in the market (note the source of the website).
It's all a numbers game.
Source
07 February, 2008
Power Talking
Power has been on the minds of Israelis and Israphiles quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. First, there's the buzz that Israel is going to pull out all the stops to create an electric car industry including car power stations, sales, and so on. The second is the power feed from Israel to the Abandoned Gaza Zone.
Going nowhere fast
Electric powered cars are a very sexy, futuristic, science-fiction-into-fact item that has been on the back burner for a very long time. In America it won't get off the ground until you get a Government that can will it into being, right in the face of the automotive industry. Can you imagine the trillions of dollars lost in infrastructure investment, factory redevelopment, mechanic retraining and who knows what else? Forget it; it's a lost cause without serious merit. Even the Prius is only a novelty.
Israel, with it's smaller size and greater ability to develop and adapt to new technologies (drip irrigation, cell phones, Internet usage), is a prime candidate to have a go at the electric car industry. We hate suckling at the teat of Arab oil almost as much as we hate the US Secretary of State opening her stupid yap. So great, we'll just abandon our gas-guzzling cars and all buy brand new $30,000 electric cars! Right? Wrong.
It's all well and good that instead of the pump we'll go to the plug, but if you trace that wire back into the wall, it connects up through the local transformer, across the high-voltage lines, through the substation, back through the transmission lines, all the way into the power plant. Now electricity is created in these big ol' machines called generators, which use heat to make them spin. Guess what they burn to produce the heat. Go on, guess. Did you guess oil? Good guess. So if we're consuming more electricity, we're still burning more oil.
In order to make this work, Israel has to consume its own fossil fuels in the form of natural gas from the Med fields it needs to assert its claims on in order to power it's electricity generating stations, macro and micro. Second, it needs to develop in tandem renewable sources of energy to feed the grid. The solar panel farm idea in the negev is a good start, but if we're looking at exponential in electricity consumption, we're going to need more than even the proposed 1GW plant to start. And while they're at it, the need to create a battery that can store the energy. Oh yeah, investments, too. And after all that, they're still going to have to fight it out with the major car companies whose imports may be significantly impacted. I'm thinking hydrogen in the 22nd century.
Oh, andif when Israel does bring it to market in whatever form non-fuel transportation takes, it'll be another interruptive technology, like cell phones, MMX microchips, bluetooth and all of the other great stuff we've done. I think a big ol' Made In Israel sticker on each one would do very nicely.
Collective punishment my ass
As a measured response to the ongoing terrorism coming from the Abandoned Gaza Zone, Israel has decided that it is going to reduce the amount of electricity it supplies. How much you ask? 5 percent in one of the ten power lines that supply the region For all you mathphobes, that 0.5%. Of the 120 megawatts (~120,000 homes) that's the equivalent of 6000 homes. Not exactly punitive measures for an area that has 1.3M people living there. Oh and it sucks for the Palis too because of their little stunt last time, with the candles and the meetings in darkness in the middle of the day (shades drawn, for effect). Now that's all played out. Even the media didn't feed on that with the same voracious appetite that they usually have for All Things Pali. This time they'll ignore it.
Israel has no responsibility whatsoever to keep the power on. It is a hostile territory. What about the women and children? They hand out candy when suicide bombers strike, so I could give a shit. If they want to keep the power on, the next time they see someone setting up a rocket launcher out their window, call the IDF.
Quite honestly, the way they live they only need it to power their television sets anyway. Think about it. New York City peaked at 13141MW. Gaza uses only 1% of that for 1/6 the population. We're not talking about a lot of power consumption to begin with, and since Hamas would rather drive everyone back into the ninth century anyway, Israel is actually advancing Hamas' political agenda. What about Egypt? What about them? It'll take eight years to build a generator station to supply the needs of Gaza, and they're in no particular hurry to please these Hamas pricks who encourage the Islamic Brotherhood.
So to recap: electric power is still fossil fuel power until Israel creates a real renewable energy loop and technological framework, and the Gaza power cutback serves to remind Hamas that they exist at the end of a leash Israel firmly holds.
Going nowhere fast
Electric powered cars are a very sexy, futuristic, science-fiction-into-fact item that has been on the back burner for a very long time. In America it won't get off the ground until you get a Government that can will it into being, right in the face of the automotive industry. Can you imagine the trillions of dollars lost in infrastructure investment, factory redevelopment, mechanic retraining and who knows what else? Forget it; it's a lost cause without serious merit. Even the Prius is only a novelty.
Israel, with it's smaller size and greater ability to develop and adapt to new technologies (drip irrigation, cell phones, Internet usage), is a prime candidate to have a go at the electric car industry. We hate suckling at the teat of Arab oil almost as much as we hate the US Secretary of State opening her stupid yap. So great, we'll just abandon our gas-guzzling cars and all buy brand new $30,000 electric cars! Right? Wrong.
It's all well and good that instead of the pump we'll go to the plug, but if you trace that wire back into the wall, it connects up through the local transformer, across the high-voltage lines, through the substation, back through the transmission lines, all the way into the power plant. Now electricity is created in these big ol' machines called generators, which use heat to make them spin. Guess what they burn to produce the heat. Go on, guess. Did you guess oil? Good guess. So if we're consuming more electricity, we're still burning more oil.
In order to make this work, Israel has to consume its own fossil fuels in the form of natural gas from the Med fields it needs to assert its claims on in order to power it's electricity generating stations, macro and micro. Second, it needs to develop in tandem renewable sources of energy to feed the grid. The solar panel farm idea in the negev is a good start, but if we're looking at exponential in electricity consumption, we're going to need more than even the proposed 1GW plant to start. And while they're at it, the need to create a battery that can store the energy. Oh yeah, investments, too. And after all that, they're still going to have to fight it out with the major car companies whose imports may be significantly impacted. I'm thinking hydrogen in the 22nd century.
Oh, and
Collective punishment my ass
As a measured response to the ongoing terrorism coming from the Abandoned Gaza Zone, Israel has decided that it is going to reduce the amount of electricity it supplies. How much you ask? 5 percent in one of the ten power lines that supply the region For all you mathphobes, that 0.5%. Of the 120 megawatts (~120,000 homes) that's the equivalent of 6000 homes. Not exactly punitive measures for an area that has 1.3M people living there. Oh and it sucks for the Palis too because of their little stunt last time, with the candles and the meetings in darkness in the middle of the day (shades drawn, for effect). Now that's all played out. Even the media didn't feed on that with the same voracious appetite that they usually have for All Things Pali. This time they'll ignore it.
Israel has no responsibility whatsoever to keep the power on. It is a hostile territory. What about the women and children? They hand out candy when suicide bombers strike, so I could give a shit. If they want to keep the power on, the next time they see someone setting up a rocket launcher out their window, call the IDF.
Quite honestly, the way they live they only need it to power their television sets anyway. Think about it. New York City peaked at 13141MW. Gaza uses only 1% of that for 1/6 the population. We're not talking about a lot of power consumption to begin with, and since Hamas would rather drive everyone back into the ninth century anyway, Israel is actually advancing Hamas' political agenda. What about Egypt? What about them? It'll take eight years to build a generator station to supply the needs of Gaza, and they're in no particular hurry to please these Hamas pricks who encourage the Islamic Brotherhood.
So to recap: electric power is still fossil fuel power until Israel creates a real renewable energy loop and technological framework, and the Gaza power cutback serves to remind Hamas that they exist at the end of a leash Israel firmly holds.
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