ITS ALWAYS ISRAELS FAULT SAYS ABBAS.WELL I
GOT NEWS FOR ABBAS.WHY DOES ISRAEL HAVE TO GIVE USE MONEY.WHEN ALL USE
DO IS IS MURDER INNOCENT ISRAELIS.USE CLAIM YOU WANT A STATE OF YOUR
OWN.BUT USE LEACH OFF THE WEST FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR JUST TO
MAKE BOMBS TO KILL ISRAELIS.YOU LEACHES OF CASH.YOU CAN'T PAY YOUR
EMPLOYEES SALARIES. BECAUSE ALL USE DO IS BUILD BOMBS AND CHEMICAL
WEAPONS TO TRY TO KILL EVERY ISRAELI IN ISRAEL.IF THOSE BILLIONS OF
DOLLARS USE GET FROM LEACHING OFF THE WEST WENT INTO JOBS AND CREATING
JOBS.THEN THERE WOULD BE TRUE PEACE IN ISRAEL.BECAUSE USE LEACHES WOULD
NOT HAVE TO COUNT ON THE WEST FOR HANDOUTS.GAZA WOULD BE MAKING ITS OWN
CASH.NOT JUST LEACHING OFF THE WEST TO MAKE AND BUY WEAPONS TO DESTROY
YOUR SO CALLED PEACE PARTNER IN THE PEACE PROCESS ISRAEL. BALESTINIANS IF
YOU REALLY WANT A STATE OF YOUR OWN.YOU BETTER START CREATING REAL JOBS
FOR YOUR PEOPLE.HOW CAN YOU EXPECT A STATE THATS NOT EVEN IN YOUR
VOCABULARY.USE CAN NOT EVEN PRONOUNCE THE NAME PALESTINE BECAUSE USE
CHANGE THE P IN PALESTINE TO A B.WELL GOD DONE A GREAT JOKE ON USE IN
THIS SITUATION.GOD IS REVEALING THROUGH YOUR ARABIC LANGUAGE HOW
HYPOCRITICAL ARABS AND ISLAM REALLY ARE.GOD MADE SURE YOU CAN NOT EVEN
PRONOUNCE THE NAME OF YOUR STATE YOU CLAIM TO BE YOURS.SO THE
BALESTINIAN PEOPLE WILL LIVE IN A STATE CALLED BALESTINE.AND WILL STEAL
HALF OF JERUSALEM FROM ISRAEL.AND THEN BESIDES THAT-YOU BALESTINIANS ARE
TRYING TO FORCE ISRAEL TO PAY ALL YOUR BILLS.SO USE CAN GET A FREE
STATE-STEAL JERUSALEM.GET BILLIONS FROM THE WEST TO BUILD BOMBS TO TRY
TO DESTROY INNOCENT WOMEN, CHILDREN AND MEN ISRAELIS.I'D SAY
BALESTINE-USE CAN NOT EVEN CREATE JOBS TO MAKE MONEY FOR YOUR OWN
CITIZENS.HOW CAN USE POSSIBLY RUN A STATE OF YOUR OWN WITH THE BILLIONS
NEEDED TO KEEP THAT STATE RUNNING.AND BUILD BOMBS TO KILL ISRAELIS AT
THE SAME TIME.HOW-WHEN ALL THE SUCKER NATIONS OF THE WORLD SUPPLY USE
MURDERERS WITH CASH.-THATS HOW.SO DON'T YOU DARE BLAME ISRAEL FOR
ANYTHING. WHATEVER USE ARE GOING THROUGH ITS BECAUSE USE CAUSED THE
SITUATION. SURE NOT ISRAEL.IF I WAS ISRAELS LEADER.GAZA WOULD BE
ISRAELS-AND EVERY ARAB WOULD HAVE BEEN FORCED INTO OTHER ARAB-MUSLIM
COUNTRIES. BECAUSE IF I WAS ISRAELS LEADER.I WOULD NEVER STAND FOR THE
ARABS LEECHING CASH FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO BUILD ROCKETS TO KILL MY
BRETHERN THE JEWS.IF I WERE A JEWISH LEADER OF COURSE.UNFORTUNATELY I'M A CHRISTIAN GERMAN STICKING UP FOR ISRAEL.I WOULD PROTECT MY
CITIZENS LIKE GOD WILL ALWAYS PROTECT ISRAEL FROM ITS ENEMIES.THANK YOU
KING JESUS THE GOD AND MESSIAH OF THE WORLD AND ISRAEL FOR KEEPING YOUR
PROMISES TO ISRAEL.BECAUSE IF IT WERE NOT FOR YOU GOD PROTECTING
ISRAEL-THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED FROM THE EARTH A MILLION TIMES
OVER.
Abbas blames Israel for Palestinian fiscal crisis
In interview on PA television, Palestinian leader says government won’t be able to pay employees’ salaries next month
October 12, 2013, 3:16 pm
2-The Times of Israel
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday blamed Israel for the economic crisis in the
Palestinian territories, reiterating the findings of a World Bank report
earlier this week which accused Israel of limiting PA income by
restricting access to the majority of the West Bank.“The
economic situation is very difficult and the central reason for this is
the Israeli occupation,” Abbas said in an interview with Palestinian
government television. “Israel exploits our resources and lands which
directly leads to an increase in the deficit which we must contend
with.”According to Abbas, Palestinian Finance
Minister Shukri Bishara informed him that the PA won’t be able to pay
government salaries unless it receives international aid. The
Palestinian government employs approximately 150,000 of the nearly 2
million Palestinians living in the West Bank.In January
2013 the Palestinian government said it was in “extreme jeopardy”
because of a financial crisis it pinned on Arab countries’ failure to
send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. At the time, prime minister
Salam Fayyad said the crisis had worsened in recent years, and the
government, the Palestinian Authority, wasn’t able to pay the salaries
of its employees.Earlier this year the PA’s 2013 budget deficit was expected to reach $1.4 billion; the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency cited the deficit as nearly $500 million. A World Bank report published earlier this week accused
Israel of squeezing the Palestinian economy out of billions of dollars
by restricting access to Area C, which comprises some 61 percent of West
Bank territory but is under full Israeli civil and security control.The report said the Palestinian economy could
add $3.4 billion in potential value a year, or 35 percent of the 2011
Gross Domestic Product, if Palestinians are allowed to develop the
restricted area. The bank says the deficit of the Palestinian self-rule
government, currently dependent on foreign aid, would drop by half,
thereby reducing “the need for donor support, and reduce unemployment
and poverty rates.”During his interview, Abbas called on
expatriate Palestinians who succeeded in making a living abroad to aid
the Palestinian Authority.“I call on all wealthy Palestinians everywhere
to support small projects. If every wealthy Palestinian took care of a
family or opened up a small project for them, this would help to
mitigate the crisis,” Ma’an quoted the president saying.“We must take responsibility for the law, we
are working to improve the situation and reduce unemployment by
supporting small business owners,” Abbas said.Abbas’ statements came amid renewed peace
talks between Israel and the Palestinians that began at the end of July.
The negotiations teams are scheduled to meet again this week.
How a Nazi planner shaped early Israel
A plan used in the 1950s to build a system of towns and villages in the northern Negev was based on a theory developed in the Third Reich, to be used for populating an Eastern Europe cleansed of Jews. Did Zionist planners not know, or not care?
Israeli planners, for the most part, have not
grappled with the fact that one of the dominant planning doctrines in
early Israel was developed by a geographer in the Nazi party. And while
Barnes says the doctrine is tinged by its Nazi associations, most
Israeli planners deny that Christaller’s professional life had any
bearing on it.
“Christaller presented a theory. Anyone can
use or learn from it as they see fit but there is no connection to his
past,” Gideon Biger, a professor in Tel Aviv University’s Geography
department, said. (Full disclosure: I attended a class Biger taught
while a student in the department, during which he spoke at length about
central place theory.)
A true-blue brown shirt?
It is difficult to know how devoted
Christaller was to the Nazi cause. A Social Democrat, he fled Germany
for France on his bicycle in 1933, after Adolf Hitler took power, for
fear that he would be persecuted by the Nazis.
Walter Christaller. (photo credit: Courtesy)
It was the same year that he published his
seminal thesis “Central Places in Southern Germany,” which became the
lodestar of the central places movement in geography. Christaller
returned to Berlin several years later, taking a job in the Nazi Soil
and Planning Department under SS man Konrad Meyer. It was there that he
was tasked with creating a plan for Warthegau, which the Nazis intended
to cleanse of Jews, Slavs and Poles as a test case for what the Third
Reich hoped would be the creation of a greater Germany-conquered Eastern
Europe, in accordance with the concept of Lebensraum (“living room”).“I have no evidence that he was an
anti-Semite,” Barnes said. “His own records were destroyed and he asked
his son to burn his papers. There is very little information about what
he actually believed at the time … He got sucked up into that
bureaucracy, but it’s not clear if he even believed in it.”After the war, Christaller joined the
Communist cause (and was rumored to have worked for the Stasi) and
became widely respected in planning circles, winning the Victoria Medal
from the Royal Geographic Society in 1968.The question of whether Christaller was a
true-blue brown shirt or just an academic trying to get ahead while the
Nazis were in power is one that cuts to the heart of his legacy. No
definitive answer has ever been given, but the warm welcome he received
in international planning circles as early as the 1950s, and the fact
that he is still widely taught in schools across the world, including in
Israel, testify to the fact that most were happy to forgive, or not
take seriously, his past.While his Nazi history was never a secret, it
was not until his death in 1969 that the true extent of his associations
with the party reverberated through the planning world.In 2012, Barnes and Claudio Minca coauthored
an article exposing “the dark history” of Christaller and his theory.
Next year, a second paper will be published by Barnes, comparing
Christaller to Final Solution architect Adolf Eichmann, not in the
severity of his crimes but in the fact that he was a “desk killer,” or schreibtischtaeter in German, a bureaucrat who efficiently helped carry out the Third Reich’s plans.“He had some belief in what he was doing,”
Barnes said. “Not only did he revive the plan for Warthegau but he
helped to arrange for the transfer of migrants who are going to go to
the empty farms.”Christaller is far from the only Nazi to
escape the taint of his actions under the Third Reich. Dr. Werner von
Braun, the father of the German V-2 rocket program, was famously
co-opted by the US to help get the country’s nascent space program off
the launch pad; filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl remained a sought-after
photographer despite being a major part of the Nazi propaganda machine;
and Martin Heidegger is still considered a giant of philosophy despite
his relationship with the Nazi party, thanks in part to the efforts of
Hannah Arendt to clear his name.Ideas too, seeped out of Nazi Germany and into
accepted modern discourse. Maps of North Africa used by German Field
Marshall Erwin Rommel were utilized as recently as the 2011 NATO
campaign in Libya. According to Haifa University’s Dr. Arnon Golan, who
was the first Israeli academic to write about Christaller’s Nazi past in
1997, the Israel Defense Forces also bases some of its tank warfare
doctrine on maneuvers innovated by Rommel as he swept through North
Africa. And the idea of regression to the mean, an accepted scientific
principle, had its roots in the study of eugenics.So too, despite its dark past, central place
theory proved popular for many European and American planners in the
1950s and 60s, with champions of the program either ignoring or not
knowing about Christaller’s Nazi past. (A plan for Christaller to
conduct a speaking tour in the US in the 1960s was stymied not because
he had been a Nazi, but because he was a Communist).
A tempting formula for growth
Central place theory, which is based on the
relationship between cities and their surroundings in southern Germany,
calls for a hierarchy of small farming villages, larger towns and bigger
cities, with each rung providing a different level of service for area
residents. Using a mathematical model that places the cities, towns and
villages in a hexagonal pattern, proponents of central place theory
hoped to be able to efficiently direct development for maximum economic
benefit, while maintaining a high quality of life.For Israel in the 1950s, central place theory
proved a tempting way for planners to decide where to direct growth,
particularly development towns and farming villages to be populated by
the influx of new immigrants. Planners engineered a hierarchical system
from small farming villages, or moshavim, to large cities, and in many
cases they were placed with geopolitical considerations, such as Kiryat
Shmona on the border with Lebanon, and Ashdod, which was intended to be a
second port out of rocket range.But nowhere did central place theory play as
large a role as it did in the mostly empty Lachish region, a flat and
arid expanse sitting between Israel’s southern coastal plain and the
southern end of the West Bank.“As most of the development towns were planned
as service centers for rural districts around them, it seemed relevant
to apply central place theory to determine their location and size,”
planner Arie Shachar wrote in 1971.
The settlement of Gat, a precursor to Kiryat Gat, in 1946. (photo credit: public domain, Wikimedia commons)
In the Mandate period, the Lachish region had
been dominated by the Arab towns of Iraq al Manshiya and Faluja. During
the War of Independence, the area saw heavy fighting between Israeli and
Egyptian forces and all the inhabitants left, either by choice or by
force, according to different historians.What was left was an empty area
in which a purer form of Christaller’s theory could be applied “They
found a lot of empty spaces and were
troubled about how to better use their resources to develop the
country,” said Ilan Troen, a professor at Brandeis University and the
author of “Imagining Zion,” about Zionist planning. “The people who were
engaged in planning had it in mind in creating a modern society.
Christaller was a leading person in that regard.”What was created, and
what still exists today,
was a system of small villages feeding into larger service centers,
which all fed into the large development town of Kiryat Gat. Everything
is placed, as much as possible, according to mathematical models and
hexagonal patterns pioneered by Christaller and later revised by Auguste
Losche, another German planner who was able to find success despite
rebuffing the Nazis.
Christaller and Kiryat Gat
Most planners maintain that Israeli officials
at the time had no idea about Christaller’s past, only that he and his
theory were popular in the West, where it was applied in the Netherlands
and the US, among other places.“Thanks heavens they didn’t know
everything
about Christaller,” Troen said. “He engaged in the kind of activities
that would have offended and been considered outrageous.”Golan said that
David Amiran, the father of
modern Israeli planning who played a large role in the Lachish project,
told him that planners at the time had never heard of Christaller and
certainly not his Nazi past.“They took planning as something universal.
They didn’t take it as something that derives from Christaller,” Golan
said.Most planners and historians are quick to
point out that despite Christaller’s associations, central places is a
sterile theory with no connection to National Socialism, and that it was
developed before Christaller joined the Nazi party. According to Golan,
the theory even predates Christaller by several decades, though
Christaller nonetheless became its poster boy.However, some say shades
of the theory’s
journey through the Third Reich are embedded within its cold sterility
and efficiency for developing a new Germany — hallmarks of Nazi
ideology, which balanced cruel science with a völkisch commitment to
nationalism.“It connects to the kind of Nazi ideology
forged in the countryside,” said Barnes. “It begins with the farm
itself. And it moves up all the way to the large urban centers. The
habitation makes the connection between these two different ends, one
the celebration of the rural and the other high modernism and science
and industrial productivity.”
Barnes has not studied Israel’s application of
central place theory. But, he says, if Israel’s planners did use it, it
would be akin to Jerusalem choosing a Wagner tune for its national
anthem.“You must always take into account historical
context,” he said. “Personally, I am very suspicious of any theory that
presents itself as the embodiment of rationality and pure logic.”Golan,
however rejects Barnes’s parallel,
saying that Wagner was a symbol of anti-Semitism, unlike Christaller who
was “not the spirit of Nazi Germany.”So too, Golan says, Israeli use of
central
place theory need not be tainted with the fact that its original
innovators wanted to use it for evil.“The fact that you use the same
theory doesn’t show you use the same ideology,” he said.In Poland, the
idea would have been used to
transport Germany into a newly-conquered area. In Lachish, the idea was
not to transfer Zionist city-country ideology, but rather just to find
the most efficient way to put people, farms, towns and cities into a
newly empty area that needed to be filled, in order to shore up Israel’s
hinterlands, in what was then considered the northern Negev, and to
keep Tel Aviv and the coastal region from overcrowding, a very real
concern at the time for Israeli planners who feared Israel could turn
into a binodal Australia redux.Instead of becoming a strong
self-sustaining
regional center, though, Kiryat Gat today is mostly seen as a poor
backwater, kept afloat only by government subsidies — which helped spur
Intel to put a plant there — and its proximity to Tel Aviv.“Models or
paradigms are neat. Reality is messy,” Troen said. “The realities of
Palestine in the 20th century were messy.”
Kiryat Gat as seen from the air today. (photo credit: CC BY-SA Amos Meron, Wikimedia commons)
In 1997, Golan wrote that it was too simple
for planners to just disregard Christaller’s Nazi connections because of
the “objectivity” of his theories. “It seems … that it is rooted in the
complex relations between Israelis and their painful past and that
understanding the social and cultural dimensions of theories such as the
central place theory, might contribute to a revaluation of the agenda
of recent Israeli geography and the research of the shaping of Israeli
landscapes,” his paper reads.According to Troen, it’s impossible that
Israeli planners, most of whom had been educated in Germany and
maintained contacts with the post-war European planning community,
didn’t know about Christaller. But relating to him for Israelis then was
no different than their dilemmas over whether or not to buy German
appliances.At the end of the day, central places provided
an important model for a country that also learned to live with Bosch
washing machines and strong diplomatic ties with Bonn and Berlin.“Jews had to make decisions about how to
relate to the products of Nazi Germany,” he said. “Zionist planners saw
that as bitter irony. These are the unexpected connections that seem so
absurd and so tragic.”Follow Joshua Davidovich on Twitter
TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES IN THE STORY
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JEREMIAH 47:1-7
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN/ARABS) before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
2 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north,(NORTHERN TSUNAMI POSSIBLY) and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses,(ISRAELS ARMY) at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;(ISRAEL POSSIBLY NUKES GAZA)
4 Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN FAKE ARABS) and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza;(NUKED POSSIBLY) Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
6 O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? (MEDITTERANEAN SEA) there hath he appointed it.
EGYPT
ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south ( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS-MUSLIMS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them,(BEFORE THE NUKE GOES OFF) and behind them a desolate wilderness;(AFTER THE ATOMIC BOMB GOES OFF) yea, and nothing shall escape them.(EVERYTHING NUKED)
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate,(SIBERIAN DESERT) with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
JEREMIAH 8:7
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times;(MIGRATION TIME) and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming;(IN MIGRATION SEASON) but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.(WW3 MIGRATING BIRDS EAT ISRAELS ENEMIES FLESH AND BLOOD)
In Gaza, Hamas feels the squeeze
Although Israel has boosted supplies, Egypt’s crackdown on smuggling tunnels has raised prices in the Strip, angered residents, and cost the Islamist government a fortune. It’s still training terrorists, though
October 12, 2013, 3:54 am
2-The Times of Israel
ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — At first
glance, everything seems peaceful and serene. I’m standing at the
northern tip of the Gaza Strip, the point where the barrier between
Israel and Gaza ends as it descends gradually into the sea. And nothing
separates the sands of Israel’s Zikim beach from the northernmost beach
in Gaza.Two
Palestinian fishermen row their raft into the sea, hoping to catch some
fish to sell and bring home a few shekels. Today, the rest of Gaza
beach is empty. On weekends, it is packed with people seeking recreation
and relaxation.The northernmost homes of the al-Shati refugee
camp, a few kilometers south, are visible in the distance. This is the
home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Further south are the Gaza
beach hotels, generally empty except for the foreign journalists who
stay from time to time.This single position where I’m taking in the
view is one of the biggest headaches for the Israeli security forces.
Those fishermen could, theoretically, row out to sea towards the
imaginary border inside the water and easily swim to the Israeli side in
a matter of seconds.This hasn’t happened. For now, Hamas has no
interest in launching a terrorist attack from Gaza or initiating
military confrontations.But Egypt’s exhaustive crackdown on Hamas, and
on its smuggling tunnels running into the Sinai, is giving rise to
fears that the Islamist group may attempt to escalate tensions with
Israel, in a bid to force Egypt to open the Sinai border for commerce
and trade.
That’s why in recent weeks it has been the
Israelis, of all people, who have attempted to dissuade Cairo from
enforcing a hermetic blockade on the Gaza Strip. Squeezing Gaza too
tight will likely cause upheaval in the region, which will result in a
new round of violence between Israel and Hamas.For most Gazans, though, the closing of the
tunnels has translated into a new reality in which, while most products
are still available, they are much more expensive than before Egypt made
its move.
A city underground
During the years of Israel’s tight blockade on
Gaza, from 2007 to 2010, hundreds of tunnels were dug out, very close
together, along the narrow strip of land that forms the border between
Egypt and Gaza.
The spokesperson for the Egyptian Border
Police reported last week that the Egyptians have closed 1,055 tunnels
since January 2011, 794 of them in the nine months since January 2013.The tunnels were one of the Hamas government’s
primary projects. The industry employed up to 40,000 people, and
provided nearly 40% of the government’s budget. The tunnels were of
varying lengths and widths, but the majority shared a purpose – to
smuggle in all types of merchandise, from missiles and military
equipment to snacks and cigarettes. Subverting the Israeli blockade, the
industry proved highly profitable, too, for private entrepreneurs.Hamas monitored the tunnels closely and
heavily taxed the tunnel owners. Each entrepreneur would pay taxes to
the Rafah Municipality for a license to begin digging. Once the tunnel
was dug, taxes were charged on all products brought through it, but the
goods were still cheaper than anything flowing legitimately through the
Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.A seven shekel ($2) pack of cigarettes from
Egypt, for example, would sell for 10 shekels (almost $3) in the Gaza
shops; the tunnel owner made two shekels and Hamas one shekel per
smuggled pack.The system worked for everyone: The tunnel
owners earned their commission, residents of Gaza enjoyed exceptionally
cheap products, and Hamas benefited from the tens of millions of dollars
in taxes that it accumulated each month.The first stage of the Egyptian war against
the tunnels began when the Muslim Brotherhood was still in control.
After 16 Egyptian police officers were killed near the Rafah border in
August 2012, Cairo realized that terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda
were using the tunnels to receive military equipment from Gaza and were
smuggling people through the tunnels to facilitate fighting.This was the trigger for Egyptian military
action. Approximately half of the tunnels were closed down. But the most
dramatic shift began in late June 2013, several days before the
widespread protests against Morsi led to his ouster. The army took
advantage of the Brotherhood’s weakness and launched a massive operation
along the Rafah border, shutting down 90% of the tunnels there.The financial implications for Gaza and the
Hamas treasury were immediate and the situation has not improved since.
“For six years, we grew accustomed to buying everything, and cheap,” a
Gaza resident told me. “Gasoline was only three shekels per liter.
Cigarettes cost ten and milk was sold for four shekels. Now, it’s not
that we’re lacking anything. Trucks constantly enter Gaza via Kerem
Shalom. But the prices have more than doubled.”
The Coordinating Office for Government
Activities in the Territories, understanding the potential for escalated
violence in Gaza as a result of the lack of merchandise, has lately
allowed over 430 trucks to bring products into Gaza via Kerem Shalom on a
daily basis.But according to the Gaza resident, the
problem is cost, not availability. “People earn the same salaries as
before, if they work at all. But the prices have skyrocketed. People
cannot afford to buy gasoline for eight shekels per liter or cigarettes
for 25 shekels. The Gaza markets are suffering a recession, and this is
holiday season,” he said, referring to Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the
Sacrifice, which begins next Tuesday.Hamas is also hurting. “Just
picture the situation: Nearly all the men in Gaza smoke. But the taxes
collected on smuggled cigarettes from Egypt are gone,” a Gaza vendor
said. “Half a million liters of fuel were transported through the
tunnels daily and each liter contributed 1.5 shekels to the Hamas
treasury. They paid thousands of dollars in taxes for each car that was
brought in through the tunnels. The same was true for construction
materials, snacks, everything.”The
lack of income has impacted Hamas government salaries. Hamas withheld
last month’s wages in order to save the money for Eid al-Adha. The
government apparently plans on granting a 1,000 shekel bonus to each of
its 50,000 employees for the holiday.
What does Hamas do now?
“Hamas now has nothing to offer the
Palestinian community in Gaza,” said a Palestinian analyst, who asked to
remain anonymous. “Let’s look a few years ahead. According to the UN,
by 2020 there will not be a single drop of water in the Gaza Strip that
is fit for human consumption. What can Hamas do about that? Very little.“But even today, the financial situation in
the Gaza Strip is deteriorating rapidly. The government’s income has
declined — because of the tunnels, but also because of a decrease in
outside contributions. The money that the Muslim Brotherhood once raised
for Hamas from its members in Egypt has dried up. Unemployment rates
among the younger generation in Gaza have never been higher and the
majority of university graduates cannot find work. What kind of future
can Hamas offer these thousands of young adults who cannot afford to buy
a house or even to get married?”Hamas, this analyst said, is facing “one of
the most severe economic and political crises in its history — because
of the events throughout the Middle East. Its mother-movement in Egypt
has once again been outlawed and now operates underground. Its ally in
Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has his own local Intifada to deal with due to
the rising costs of fuel. The movement has been pushed to the sidelines
of the civil war in Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer a
central player even in Jordan, where protests against the royal family
have tapered out.”Hamas’s only supporters, he said, “are Qatar
and Turkey, while all other Arab countries including Egypt, the UAE,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain oppose them. There isn’t even anyone
left to mediate between Hamas and Fatah, if Gaza decides to take the
[internal Palestinian] reconciliation route.”This analyst believes that while there is a
possibility of escalated violence against Israel, its unlikely. “It’s
not on their agenda, despite the financial crisis. One faction, led by
Haniyeh, claims that the current circumstances in the region leave Hamas
with no choice but to reconcile with Fatah. A second group argues that
Hamas must show no signs of weakness at this time and must hang tough
until circumstances change for the better. A third group advocates
reconciliation, but only in six months’ time, once the negotiations
between the PA and Israel come to an end. At that point, they believe
that Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] will have no choice but to
accept that the talks with Israel failed, which will weaken him
politically. They want to reconcile from a position of strength.”For now, Hamas leaders are waiting to see if
Egypt will change its policies towards Gaza. These leaders cannot even
leave the Strip; Cairo has forbidden them from crossing through the
Rafah border terminal.At the same time, Hamas is constantly building
up its military forces in case its leaders do choose the escalation
route. It has set up a training camp for members of its military wing,
not far from Gaza’s northwestern border, on the ruins of the Dugit
settlement. The camp is named Askelan — a reference to Ashkelon, further
up the coast in Israel.A tall watchtower constructed at the camp is
clearly visible from Israeli territory. From this elevated vantage
point, Hamas activists observe activity on the Israeli side of the
border. Since the last major flare-up in November 2012, they’ve been
watching relative quiet. There are no guarantees that it will last.
