Starving in the Dark

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/


Israel's Appalling Bombing in Gaza
Starving in the Dark


-snip-

Nevertheless, politics should not be the greatest international concern. For over in Gaza, one appalling act must now eclipse all thoughts of "road maps" or "mutual gestures": on Wednesday, Israeli war planes repeatedly bombed and utterly demolished Gaza's only power plant. About 700,000 of Gaza's 1.3 million people now have no electricity, and word is that power cannot be restored for six months.

It is not the immediate human conditions created by this strike that are monumental. Those conditions are, of course, bad enough. No lights, no refrigerators, no fans through the suffocating Gaza summer heat. No going outside for air, due to ongoing bombing and Israel's impending military assault. In the hot darkness, massive explosions shake the cities, close and far, while repeated sonic booms are doubtless wreaking the havoc they have wrought before: smashing windows, sending children screaming into the arms of terrified adults, old people collapsing with heart failure, pregnant women collapsing with spontaneous abortions. Mass terror, despair, desperate hoarding of food and water. And no radios, television, cell phones, or laptops (for the few who have them), and so no way to get news of how long this nightmare might go on.

But this time, the situation is worse than that. As food in the refrigerators spoils, the only remaining food is grains. Most people cook with gas, but with the borders sealed, soon there will be no gas. When family-kitchen propane tanks run out, there will be no cooking. No cooked lentils or beans, no humus, no bread ­ the staples Palestinian foods, the only food for the poor. (And there is no firewood or coal in dry, overcrowded Gaza.)

And yet, even all this misery is overshadowed by a grimmer fact: no water. Gaza's public water supply is pumped by electricity. The taps, too, are dry. No sewage system. And again, word is that the electricity is out for at least six months.

The Gaza aquifer is already contaminated with sea water and sewage, due to over-pumping (partly by those now-abandoned Israeli settlements) and the grossly inadequate sewage system. To be drinkable, well water is purified through machinery run by electricity. Otherwise, the brackish water must at least be boiled before it can be consumed, but this requires electricity or gas. And people will soon have neither.
-snip-
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and our american tax dollars are helping the crazed Israeli govt. commit genocide

we can sit on the couch in comfort, muching snacks and watch them die

are we proud yet

[juajen]

1. No, not proud. Sad, really sad.

N/T

[Poll_Blind]

2. I genuinely believe that most Americans would be appalled...

...if they were actually aware of what is going on over there. However, there are a great many mechanisms in place (sometimes in surprising places) which don't cover the issues altogether, color the news heavily with bias or simply report what they want to.

  There are many well-funded organizations in the United States which would very much like this model to continue functioning, effectively keeping a great number of Americans mostly in the dark about such an important issue.

PB

[midnight]

3. Why in the hell would the Israeli soldiers be ordered to bomb

the power plant that generates the energy for the Gaza? I thought there was some agreement last year when the Israeli people gave this part of the land back to the Palestinians. Can someone explain this?

[donsu]

4. the Israeli govt. is out of control

nt