- On May 8, Haaretz Service and Reuters headlined, "PLO
executive committee approves new peace talks with Israel," saying:
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- "The Palestinian Authority on Saturday got the green
light to restart peace talks with Israel after the PLO's executive voted
to approve indirect negotiations," excluding Hamas - the legitimate
government after Palestinians overwhelmingly elected them in January 2006.
Instead, coup d'etat leader (whose presidential term expired in January
2009) Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will
participate, PLO spokesperson Yasser Abed Rabbo saying that "negotiations
will take one form: shuttling between President Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu." Talks have now begun.
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- Obama's Middle East special envoy, former Senator and
Walt Disney chairman, George Mitchell will do the honors, trying to force
Palestinian negotiators to accede to Israeli demands and declare success,
until inevitable new violence forces a restart of the whole process at
some future time. The charade continues.
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- Recurrent negotiations have gone on for decades, always
with the same result. Rita Mae Brown (in her book "Sudden Death"),
and some say Albert Einstein, called it insanity, or the practice of "doing
the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
In this case, results are what Israel predetermines, Palestinians having
no say whatever about a process designed to fail.
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- For a detailed analysis, see this writer's article titled,
"Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception."
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html.
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- Justifiably, Hamas objected to being left out, calling
the proximity talks "absurd" because they'll "give the Israeli
occupation an umbrella to commit more crimes against the Palestinians.
Hamas calls on the PLO to stop selling illusions to the Palestinian people
and announce the failure of their gambling on absurd talks."
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- On May 7, the Chinese Xinuah news agency said that the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also rejected talks
as "ill and absurd, whether direct or indirect," given numerous
earlier failures, or as honest peace brokers explain: besides excluding
its legitimate government, how can Palestinians negotiate in good faith
without a willing partner.
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- They've never had one in Israel, nor do they this time.
As a result, expect another round of peace process hypocrisy, producing
rhetoric but nothing else, or what this writer earlier called the tragedy
and travesty at Annapolis, the last bogus November 2007 effort.
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- Negotiations are one-sided. Israel makes demands and
offers nothing. Abbas has been co-opted to go along, so failure is again
assured. Yet President Shimon Peres claims Israel is "committed to
peace" and a sovereign Palestinian state, a cantonized one encroached
on for as much West Bank land as Israel wishes and all East Jerusalem,
an international city under a UN Trusteeship Council, as much a rightful
Palestinian capital as for Israel.
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- A topic not to be discussed, nor the right of return,
a legitimate state, the preferable one-state solution, and the end to 43
years of oppressive military occupation. Not important enough to be on
the agenda nor the legitimate rights and concerns of a sovereign people,
set up again to be betrayed.
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- With new peace talks underway, the Palestinian Centre
for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that from April 29 - May 5:
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- -- Israeli security forces continued to attack Palestinian
civilians and property in the West Bank and Gaza;
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- -- seven Palestinian civilians, including two children
and a journalist, were shot and wounded;
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- -- nonviolent West Bank protesters were assaulted;
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- -- the IDF fired at Palestinian farmers in Gaza border
areas;
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- -- their forces conducted 23 incursions in West Bank
communities and one in Gaza;
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- -- in the West Bank, they arrested 40 civilians, including
eight children, three journalists, and two human rights workers;
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- -- Gaza remains under siege while West Bank free expression
and movements are restricted;
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- -- home and other Palestinian demolitions continue;
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- -- Separation Wall construction continues a process of
separation, isolation, and annexation of 12% of Palestinian West Bank land;
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- -- East Jerusalem ethnic cleansing continues;
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- -- West Bank and Gazan agricultural lands are being
destroyed;
- -- regular settler attacks on Palestinians occur; and
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- -- settlement expansion goes on unabated.
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- In this environment, peace talks have resumed, but there's
more. On May 7, Jerusalem Post writer Caroline Glick headlined, "Column
One: Time to plan for war," saying that Obama's "repeated abdication
of responsibility (for) preventing nuclear non-proliferation leaves it
on Israel's shoulders" to prepare for the:
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- "coming war (in which) Israel will have only one
goal: to destroy or seriously damage Iran's nuclear installations. Every
resource turned against Iran's proxies must be aimed at facilitating that
goal. That is, the only thing Israel should seek to accomplish in contending
with Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas is to prevent them from diverting Israeli's
resources away from attacking Iran's nuclear installations."
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- It gets worse, advocating a "preemptive strike against
Hizbullah's missiles and missile launchers, Syria's missiles, artillery
and launchers, and Hamas's missiles and launchers....These are dangerous
times. Iran, which seeks to position itself as a regional superpower, has
been emboldened by the Obama administration's abdication of US global leadership.
Only Israel can prevent Iran from endangering the world. But time is of
the essence."
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- Glick advocates all-out war at a time Iran, Hezbollah,
Hamas and Syria pose no threat. Only Israel and America's presence do,
a topic unaddressed in her article nor are new proposed peace talks.
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- However, her column serves a purpose. Besides highlighting
Israel's belligerency, she acknowledges its "undeclared nuclear arsenal
(that) only threatens those who would attack the Jewish state with the
intention of annihilating it." She assumes because Israel never used
it, or failed to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as Iran
did, that it "has the right to develop a nuclear program," weapons,
of course, because Dimona doesn't generate electricity.
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- Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is hard
line on Iran, demanding unspecified action if it won't abandon its nuclear
ambitions, besides:
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- -- once wanting all Israeli Arabs and Arab Knesset members
who met with Hezbollah and/or Hamas executed;
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- -- favoring Israeli Arab loyalty to a Jewish state as
a condition for citizenship or face expulsion otherwise;
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- -- assassinating "militant" Palestinian leaders,
ones committed to equality and freedom;
- -- abandoning the peace process and earlier agreements
like Camp David and Oslo; and
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- -- on his first day as foreign minister said "those
who want peace should prepare for war."
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- Suffering Palestinians in crisis aren't his concern,
nor Gaza's siege, its electricity crisis, and its humanitarian impact,
the topic addressed below.
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- Under Siege, Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis - One of Many
Problems is its Deteriorating Electricity Supply
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- Under nearly three years of siege, inadequate power supply
persists, now less than earlier since January 2010 as the "UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory"
reported.
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- On May 7, it explained that:
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- "Since January 2010, there has been a serious deterioration
in the supply of electricity in the Gaza Strip. (It's because) Gaza's sole
power plant, the Gaza Power Plant (GPP), is able to produce only half the
electricity that it did (earlier), due to a lack of funds (for required)
industrial fuel," after the European Commission's subsidy ended despite
the great need.
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- Worse still, Israel limits amounts of all goods and services
entering Gaza, including essential to life foods, medicines, and fuel.
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- Pre-2010, most parts of Gaza got from 8 - 12 hours of
electricity most days. Now it's 6 - 8, so more than ever, "all aspects
of daily life (are impeded), including household chores, health services,
education, and water and sanitation services."
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- The situation is chronic, serious, and deteriorating,
dating from June 2006 when Israel bombed and destroyed six GPP transformers.
Five months later, production resumed at a 65 MW capacity compared to 140
MW or more previously.
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- Under siege since June 2007, the ability to get spare
parts, needed equipment and fuel was greatly impeded, the result being
inadequate electricity for 1.5 million people, including for essential
facilities like hospitals.
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- Currently, GPP operates one turbine producing about 30
MW of electricity, half its 2009 amount and less one-fourth prior to June
2006. Gazans lucky enough to have them use generators, but if operated
improperly they can be dangerous, causing fires, explosions, or carbon
monoxide poisoning.
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- Inadequate electricity also hampers hospitals that also
use back-up generators. However, they can't run non-stop. Doing so causes
damage, and spare parts are hard to get. As a result, elective surgeries
are postponed or not done, deferring to critical ones or emergencies.
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- Water and sanitation facilities are also impacted. For
example, Gaza City's sewage treatment plant requires 14 days of uninterrupted
power to properly complete the treatment cycle. Without it, 60 - 80 million
liters of raw or partially treated sewage is discharged into the Mediterranean
Sea daily.
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- Pumping water also requires electricity, but because
pumps can't operate continuously, households especially can't get enough
(at most from 5 - 7 hours a day), raising hygiene and health concerns.
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- Education is affected by darkened classrooms, inadequate
refrigeration to store food for schools with canteens, dirty rest rooms,
the inability to run equipment like computers, and other impediments. Agriculture
as well for irrigation, fodder production, adequate lighting for hens to
lay eggs, and various other functions.
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- Gaza needs from 240 - 280 MW of electricity daily. About
42% is bought from Israel, around 7% from Egypt, and the rest depends on
GPP that can only supply 13% of the Strip's needs, far short of enough.
The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company then apportions output through
scheduled service outages in some areas to feed others. The situation in
untenable and deteriorating, short of committed outside help. Israel and
Washington have impeded it or cut it off entirely to make all of Gaza scream
- a slow-motion genocide agenda affecting 1.5 million people.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
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- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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