THE REBUILDING OF GAZA AND POVERTY IN ISRAEL
US: Israel must play role in rebuilding Gaza
And the article goes on to say:
The Palestinian government has unveiled a 76-page reconstruction plan for Gaza, calling for $4 billion to rebuild the war-battered territory, with the largest amount going to build housing for some 100,000 left homeless
We do think that Israel will need to play a role in Gaza reconstruction," Psaki stressed, questioned about whether the Jewish state had a responsibility to help repair the damage it inflicted.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4579150,00.html
My first reaction to this statement is "WHY"? Why should Israel be expected to contribute even one cent towards the rebuilding of Gaza? Rather, shouldn't Gaza, as the aggressors, pay us the estimated 9 billion shekels (around $2.6 billion) it cost us to protect ourselves against their attacks, and rebuild our damaged buildings? Of course we know they do not have the money, but why not? After all Gaza has received more aid money than any other country in the world over the past years. But where did it go? To building up the infrastructure, building hospitals and schools, better housing and creating jobs? No, it went into building miles upon miles of underground concrete tunnels and bunkers, buying arms and munitions, including something like 10,000 rockets to fire at Israel. Any money left over after that went into lining the pockets of certain high officials, building their luxury homes and paying for Khaled Mashal's hotel bill as he hid out in Qatar while his people's homes were being destroyed. In my opinion it should be those countries, especially Qatar, that have poured aid money into Gaza in the past, knowing full well what it was being used for, that should be rebuilding Gaza.
The call for Israel to help rebuild Gaza seems to be predicated on the idea that Israel caused the destruction and therefore should bear responsibility for the rebuilding (see my highlighting above). Is that fair? We didn't start the war. We didn't want it. For years we have been bombarded with rockets from Gaza. What were we supposed to do? It was them or us. The fact that so 'few', some 78, Israeli's died in the ensuing battle is not because Hamas was careful to avoid hitting Israeli population centers, rather they did the opposite. They deliberately aimed their rockets and missiles at population centers. Their aim was to terrorize and kill as many civilians as possible. That they did not succeed was because of two main reasons, first the Iron Dome anti-missile system which shot down many of the largest and most potentially damaging missiles, and secondly (and more importantly) the supernatural protection of God. In contrast the fact that only some 2,200 Gazan's died, and at least half of those were not civilians, was due to the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces took extreme measures to protect the population of Gaza, often at great cost to us.
In the early days of the latest Operation Protective Edge (15 July 2014), Ynetnews published a lengthy article entitled "Hamas got rich as Gaza was plunged into poverty"
Here are some excerpts from that article:
With multi-million-dollar land deals, luxury villas and black market fuel from Egypt, Gaza's rulers made billions while the rest of the population struggled with 38-percent poverty and 40-percent unemployment. ...
In 2012, a Jordanian website reported that Mashal had control of a massive $2.6 billion, in large part deposited in Qatari and Egyptian banks. This is likely Hamas' accumulated assets from years through donations, as well as its investments in various projects in the Arab and Muslim world. It is also known that, among other things, Hamas has invested in real estate projects in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Dubai. And, according to reports, Mashal did not always separate Hamas money and his ownhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4543634,00.html
For more on this see
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/18801/hamas-gets-rich-people-gaza-starve/#V3jbjyZHwW0F2s7S.97
It seems to me that if anyone is morally responsible for the plight of the people of Gaza it is Hamas, its leaders and its supporters. Let them finance the rebuilding of Gaza, and not the Israeli taxpayer.
The recent war with Hamas in Gaza
cost Israel an estimated 9 billion shekels. To cover these costs, the recently approved 2015 State Budget will include a 6 billion shekel ($1.6 billion) increase in defense expenditure, and
a 2% cut on government spending across the board, including cuts
in spending on education, health and welfare. It may sound like an egalitarian
move, but in reality it is the poorest sectors of society that will suffer
most.
Although Israel is a wealthy nation
and has a relatively stable economy, the distribution of wealth within is
embarrassingly unequal. Israel has the highest rate of poverty amongst any of
the countries of the developed world according to an OECD report released
earlier this year. Israel has a poverty rate of 20.9% almost twice that of the
OECD average of 11.3%.
The annual household disposable
income in Israel stood on average at $18,500 while the bottom 10% of society stood
at $3,600 compared to an OECD average of $23,100 and $7,100 for the bottom 10%.
Israel continues to maintain a
lower social spending rate of 15.8% of GDP compared to the OECD average of
21.9%
These are sobering statistics, but
what do they mean on the street? It means that 1 in 3 Israeli children go to
bed hungry every day!
I have had the privilege to live
amongst both the richest and the poorest of Israelis during my 30 odd years in
Israel. The contrast is shocking. My first apartment was in a
neighborhood in Netanya where families of 5-8 people lived
in squalid, single roomed houses. We would sit outside in the evenings while
huge rats played in the rafters above our heads, and cockroaches scuttled
unheeded around our feet. A lot of our social life was conducted during
the wee, small hours of the night, as we walked the streets trying to
find some cool air or relief from the intense stuffy heat of our homes. On the
other hand I have also rubbed shoulders with the incredibly rich in their
museum-like homes filled with priceless antiques. It is wrong and our
government seems to be little interested in doing very much about it.
The statistics are also misleading.
The poverty level in Israel is defined as follows:
According to the report, an
individual with a monthly income of less than NIS 2,820 and couples earning
less than NIS 4,513 per month are considered to be living below the poverty
line. Furthermore, a family of five individuals must earn more than NIS 8,500
to be considered above the poverty line. http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Annual-report-shows-17-million-Israelis-living-below-poverty-line-335255
There
is no way an individual earning 2,820 shekels a month, or a family of five earning just 8,500 shekels a month, can live in Israel. Here
in Jerusalem it is impossible to find an apartment for rent below
3000 shekels a month, and most are more than 4000 shekels a month. The
result is that many more than the reported numbers are living in
actual poverty, finding great difficulty in paying for utilities and
putting food on the table. Food and housing costs have been
spiraling upward in recent years. Since 2005 the price of food has risen 31% while in
the European Union it rose only 20% in the same period. http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-News/Food-prices-have-risen-more-than-50-percent-faster-than-Europe
The Bible has a great deal to
say about fair business practices and the proper treatment of the poor. Recently we in Israel observed the fast day of Yom Kippur, in which most Israelis, even the so-called secular, fast for 25 hours, abstaining from food and water meticulously in the hope they will thus atone for their sins and be inscribed in the Book of Life.
However the LORD has this to say about fasting:
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:Isaiah 58: 6-9 NJKV
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
The Israeli government's first responsibility is towards its own people. If you pray for Israel, then pray for justice and a righteous distribution of wealth amongst our own people first. That is not to say we should not care about nor help others, including the displaced of Gaza, and Israel is often first to do so when other nations experience catastrophe, but the poor and needy in Israel must not be overlooked nor shortchanged. Let those who caused and financed the catastrophe in Gaza be the ones to rebuild it.
