You probably know that along with blowing up bridges, roads and additional infrastructure in Gaza, (as well as shooting a helicopter missile into the offices of the Palestinian prime minister this morning), the Israeli government blew up the area's main power plant Wednesday morning, plunging more than 700,000 Palestinian families into a crisis over clean water formerly powered by electricity, and cutting off power to the hospitals and clinics in Gaza where kidney dialysis patients are no doubt suffering as I type. What you may not know is that you are about to pay for this particular piece of 'collective punishment.'
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According to Haaretz:
The power station began operating in 2002, reaching full commercial capacity in 2004. The owners of the power station insured it, through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, for a sum of $48 million due to "political risks." OPIC is a U.S. government authority that insures U.S. investments in developing markets.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
It is a credit to all parties currently negotiating that Israel will be forced to extend electricity from its own sources into Gaza while the station is repaired but still, this is some $15 to $20 million of our tax dollars to repair it, a process estimated to take six months. [I know, I know - a piffle in terms of "... the $5,525,800,000 complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997."] http://www.wrmea.com/...
There has been a deafening silence here regarding the current Israeli invasion into Gaza. Some posters have evinced compassion fatigue, saying the problems between Israel and the Palestinians are too complex to even discuss, generally disintegrate into arguements, or are never productive. As long as this holds true, we will continue to pay through our collective bloody noses - both in military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. If I cannot appeal to a sense of justice over clear contraventions of international human rights by Israel through its disproportionate response to the kidnapping of poor Corporal Gilad Shalit by non-governmental actors in Gaza, can I at least appeal to your pocketbooks?
No wonder we have no money to repair our roads and bridges, support our public schools or provide health care to our citizens. Is there any doubt that the 2003 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers on our deteriorating infrastruce has gotten worse? http://www.usatoday.com/...
As we expend our blood and money in the Middle East, can we not discuss the dollar costs (at least!) of propping up Israel - the only country in the region to have nuclear arms and a massively overdeveloped military? What kind of collective guilt makes it improper for an American to ask why we must continue to do this? Why can't we stand with the Israeli peace movment Yesh Gvul, currently protesting the Gaza invasion, without being called an anti-Semite? I for one am sick of it.
Oh, and another 'piffle' for Iraq - http://nationalpriorities.org/...