[geeks] more on dune

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 12:01:33PM -0400, Patrick Finnegan wrote:

>Sure, why make people have to live in the deserts of Africa to make them
>live in the equivalent of a 3rd world country.  Just cut off their food
>and water until they do what you want.

The following is a rant, but IMHO I was just ranted upon, so I feel that I
can rant back. If you disagree with what I say feel free to respond, if
you don't want to hear or read it, feel free to delete it.

That is one of the most insulting things I have ever heard you say,  as it were.

First of all, they are NOT our responsibility. 

Second Gaza is not the deserts of Africa, it is on the coast of the 
Mediterranean sea. No more a desert than the Rivera is the deserts of Europe.

When we were responsible for them we built hospitals, power plants,
desalination plants and they had plenty of food.

They still have those. Although they have converted one of the hospitals into
a military headquarters. We upgraded it a few years before we left on the
Israeli model which hardens the emergency and surgical departments. 
Hamas has taken it over, using the hardened areas as their headquarters
and the "soft" ones as human shields.

We even had a thriving greenhouse business which instead of taking it with 
us when we left, The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation bought for them to
use. It did not last a day before the new owners destroyed it.

If it had been left operating, it would have provided enough fresh lettuce
tomatoes, green onions and herbs for all of the salads in Gaza and most 
of them in Israel.

They have plenty of food, plenty of electricity and plenty of water. They even
used to have internet cafes and home internet until Hamas started closing them.

Take a look at any of the pictures of Gaza city, even the one's of Tony
Blair's sister in law when she was there. Except for the HEBREW on the
packages she could have been in a Tesco or any other large supermarket.

They get it all from us, because although they get plenty of money from you,
their elected leaders spend it on arms and swiss bank accounts. Somehow
they never seem to be able to pay their bills.

If anyone makes them live like a third world country it's YOU because you
pour money into their crooked government and ask for NO accountability.

Look at their money. They don't use Egyptian money, Jordainan dinars,
US dollars, Euors, Hamas or PA printed money, they use Israeli shequels. 

That's right, they want to drive us into the sea, but the only currency
they trust is ours.

Egypt also has a border with them. It lets nothing through and shoots anyone
that tries to come across. Compared to them our border with Gaza is open.

Somali Moslems escape the ethnic cleansing in their country, find their
way north and end up in Egypt. From there they try to cross the border into 
Israel. Why not stay in Egypt or sneak into Gaza? 

Because the Egyptians and Palestinains shoot them on site. We take them in,
give them housing, medical care and jobs. At one point we announced we would
stop and did not because if we left them on the Egyptian side of the border,
they all (men, women and children) would have been shot where they stood.

They also could go to any of the other Moslem countries, but no one wants
them. 

There are many smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, some big enough to
bring cars through. Sometimes we close them, sometime Egypt does. Egypt also
pumps poison gas in them.

Since Yassar Araft died, his successors have not been honest, but certainly
less crooked. Appointing Fayad as Prime Minister was forced accountability
on Fatah, which is still a crooked terrorist organization, but at least they
spend some of the money on their people and someone is watching them
to make sure they do it.
>
>As time goes on, I realize more and more how inhumane some people who
>are driven by religious beliefs can be (and it bears little relation to
>which religion they follow).

I'll disagree with that. Being Jews (although they are not) we were far more
charitable when they were under our governance and still are although they
claim they are at war with us.

Many Christians are charitable.

Many Moslems, for example the Bahai (who were thrown out of Saudi Arabia and
thrive in Israel), the Sufi, and all of the non Arab Muslims of east Asia
are too.

That's Obama's problem, he was attended Indonesian Moslem schools where
Islam is very much a religion of peace and love and can't really wrap his
head round it the Arab (Wahhabi) notion of it being one of conquest and hate.

>
>Can this thread die yet?  It's about as enjoyable as watching a
>religious war over vi vs emacs.

Delete key broken? 

End of rant. We now return you to our regularly scheduled boredom.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
I do multitasking. If that bothers you, file a complaint and I will start 
ignoring it immediately.