As Israeli settlements thrive, Palestinian taps run dry. The water crisis reflects a broader battle
As Israeli settlements thrive, Palestinian taps run dry. The water crisis reflects a broader battle
Across the dusty villages of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli water pipes don’t reach, Palestinians say they can't get enough water to wash their clothes — let alone irrigate their farms.
The struggle for water access in this strip of fertile land reflects a wider contest for control of the West Bank — and in particular the Jordan Valley, which Palestinians consider the breadbasket of their hoped-for future state and Israelis view as key to protecting their eastern border.
“People are thirsty, the crops are thirsty,” said Hazeh Daraghmeh, a 63-year-old Palestinian date farmer in the Jiftlik area of the valley, where some of his palms have withered in the bone-dry dirt. “They’re trying to squeeze us step by step,” Daraghmeh said.
"There are none so blind, as those who will not see."
We're dealing with drought and water restrictions in the US, too. Is it because we're genocidal lunatics who hate citizens of certain states?
The real complaint here isn't that the Palestinians are going thirsty. It's that they aren't getting enough water to farm?
I'm not quite sure what Palestinians thought was going to happen when they rejected peace offer after peace offer, and turned instead to non-stop terrorism.
Did they think Israelis were going to say: "oh, sure, you're constantly launching thousands of rockets at our kids, but hey, let us spend a ton of money upgrading your infrastructure for you."
Palestinians are vastly outmatched militarily, so for decades they've had exactly two options: make peace with Israel on their terms, or keep doing terrorism, and hoping that they'll get international sympathy when Israel retaliates, and that international pressure will force Israel to ... accept a peace treaty that leaves Israel with indefensible borders and an influx of Palestinian citizens that would use their vote to turn Israel into a Jew-hating Muslim theocracy.
At a certain point, you'd think Palestinians would start caring more about their kids' futures than their hatred of Israel.
If they'd accepted peace under the offer made during the Oslo Accords, they would have had their own state for about 30 years now, with the ability to grow an economy, manage their own infrastructure, etc.
Palestinians signed both Oslo accords and neither accord created a Palestinian state ... so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
For those who don't want to read a whole article:
The Oslo Accords were a cycle of negotiations and agreements. With every round, it looked like they were getting closer to an agreement.
In the end the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat killed the negotiation at camp David. He would not budge on several issues, but key among them was "right of return".
Essentially "right of return" would instantly give full citizenship and voting rights to a vast amount of fantastic anti-Jewish Arabs, who would very shortly thereafter have been able to vote Israel out of existence by turning it from a democracy into a Muslim theocracy. And like all other Muslim theocracies, they would have been terrible if not genocidal to their Jewish citizens.
Arafat not only quit the peace process, he declared a "second antifada" ... meaning a new call for the most foul terrorism: blowing up school buses, ambulances, targeting Jewish children for death, etc.
A bit later when Arafat died, we found out WHY he killed the peace process: while his people were impoverished and suffering, Arafat himself was hoarding nearly A BILLION DOLLARS in what was supposed to be humanitarian aid money for this people.
Arafat stopped the piece process because war was allowing him to retain power, and grow his obscene wealth.