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Dec. 15, 2013
Daily summary - Sunday, December 15, 2013
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Main News
Prisoners complain about the cold and prison administration refused to enter blankets
Minister of prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe, said that Ofer prison administration refused to enter winter blankets for prisoners. Qaraqe told radio “Ajyal” that the Ministry prepared about 1,500 winter blankets and in coordination with the competent authorities of the Ofer prison, and after getting the approval, manager of the Ofer prison refused to enter the blankets. Qaraqe noted that these practices aims at tightening pressure of prisoners, adding: "at a time when the prison administration prohibits entering blankets, they do not provide prisoners with enough blankets, especially under this weather conditions, the lack of necessary blankets worsen the situation of prisoners, especially the sick ones." (http://www.alquds.com/news/article/view/id/478064)
“Civil Defense” warn citizens of Freeze
“Civil Defense” called citizens to stay at their homes in the early hours of the morning in anticipation of freeze, especially in areas hit by snow. Media and Public relations manager at civil defense Maj. Mustafa Bani Odeh urged citizens not to go out in the morning hours, especially with vehicles. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=657121)
Entering 1.2 million liters of fuel to Gaza today
Israel decided to enter 1.2 million liters of fuel to the Gaza Strip today morning. According to Israeli site "Walla" this decision came following a meeting of the General Coordinator of the Israeli army with representatives of the international organizations working in the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon. The website added that the meeting was held to assess the preparations for entering equipment to the Strip in coordination with those organizations through crossings with Israel. It was agreed to enter 1.2 million liters of fuel to the Gaza Strip including 800,000 liters of petrol and diesel for transportation, in addition to the 400,000 liters to run the power station. The amount of industrial diesel that will be entered to the power station is the first since two months ago, after the refusal of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to supply fuel to the station without value-added tax. (http://safa.ps/details/news/118191/%D8%A5%D8%AF%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%84-12-%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%88%D9%82%D9%88%D8%AF-%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%BA%D8%AF%D9%8B%D8%A7.html)
Haaretz downplays talks about potential progress in peace talks with Palestinians
Israeli daily Haaretz, said that the political storm in Israel earlier this week about the potential impact for progress in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks on the future of the ruling coalition in Israel is exaggerated and premature. Haaretz said in an analysis yesterday, those recent statements by US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Palestinian officials, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, clarifies that no serious progress occurred in this regard so far. The paper said that "If there is a crack in the political alliance between Finance Minister Yair Lapid and economy Minister Naftali Bennett, this would be due to the lack of compatibility and harmony between the two besides the coincidence of interests at the birth of their Alliance, and since their two parties are of two different audience of voters, and that they have totally different expectations even without peace negotiations, and that this dispute will in any case, make the two parties take difficult decisions in the spring of 2014." (http://www.amad.ps/ar/?Action=Details&ID=8295)
Abbas: "The occupation is responsible for power outage in the West Bank”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, held Israeli occupation responsible for the power outage in the West. Abbas said during an inspection tour in Ramallah that the problem of power outages caused mainly by the Israeli side, adding "we are currently holding intensive contacts to restore electricity to citizens." Abbas said that citizens are dealing with these difficult conditions actively, and that basic services of water and food are available, but we are experiencing a problem of a power outage. On the difficult humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Abbas said according to the official news agency “Wafa”, ”the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very difficult, so we sent an emergency aid of food and gas and water suction vehicles, and tomorrow we will supply fuel to the Gaza Strip via Israel with the support of the State of Qatar.” (http://www.qudsn.ps/article/34818)
Mashaal Praises President's efforts to bring aid to Gaza
Official news agency “Wafa” said that President Mahmoud Abbas received late Saturday, a call from the head of the political Bureau of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, who praised the President's efforts in all fields, especially in entering aid to the Gaza Strip. Qatar had donated 10 million dollars to the PA for the purchase of industrial fuel to the Gaza power plant. President Mahmoud Abbas asked Prime Minister AL-Hamdallah to start buying fuel as of Saturday morning. Fuel is expected to enter the Gaza Strip today morning. (http://www.wattan.tv/ar/news/81930.html)
Arab Doctors Union warns of a health catastrophe in the Gaza Strip
The relief Committee of the Arab Doctors Union said that the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip threatens of a health catastrophe, which will have catastrophic consequences in the medium and long term. The Committee said in a statement that “the lack of medical supplies, medical consumables and fuel for hospitals puts the lives of nearly 2 million people at a high degree of risk, and threats their lives, especially most vulnerable groups of older persons, pregnant women, chronic patients and disabled as well as children, especially newborns, if taking into account that there are more than 60,000 new births annually in the Gaza Strip.” (http://www.pnn.ps/index.php/local/75653-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84-pnn-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%8A%D8%AD%D8%B0%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AB%D8%A9-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9)
Yediot Ahronot: Jerusalem under siege; hundreds of Israelis without electricity for third day
Yediot Ahronot published a report about the disastrous situation in the occupied city of Jerusalem due to the snowstorm that hit the city. The newspaper said the snowstorm revealed defects in infrastructure in Israel leaving hundreds of Israelis angry at Ministers and officials. An official at the civil defense that the snowstorm resulted in 3 Israeli victims, saying that the civil defense staff find it difficult to open roads either Interior or leading to Jerusalem because of the heavy accumulation of snow. (http://www.pnn.ps/index.php/israel/75680-%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AA-%D8%AD%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AC-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A6%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%83%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB)
Haniyeh: fruitful contacts to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip
Prime Minister of the disposed Government of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said that his Government holds contacts with various regional, international and Arab parties regarding the siege of the Gaza Strip, and the crisis following the recent snowstorm in Palestine, saying that these contacts are fruitful and has led to good results. Haniyeh reviewed in press statements during checking Government action in areas affected of the storm in the North of the Gaza Strip, saying that the government offered accommodation centers, suction water that flooded homes and the distribution of blankets and aid to affected citizens. Haniyeh thanked the State of Qatar which donated $ 5 million as an emergency aid for those affected by the storm, in addition to $ 10 million to run the power plant in Gaza for the coming four months. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/260038/%D9%87%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%81%D9%83-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9/)
"Livni": a Palestinian State in Exchange for the security of Israel
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said that an establishment of a Palestinian State would be for the security" of Israel. The Jerusalem Post quoted Livni when speaking before students of the Tel Aviv University, saying: "Israel must understand that it should choose between building another house in an isolated settlement, and the security of Israel, my choice is clear: peace and security, not settlements and isolation." Livni said that "the peace process will be applied gradually, and Israel should not allow that conditions in the West Bank be copy of the Gaza Strip." (http://www.qudsn.ps/article/34815)
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Headlines
We apologize for not providing front page headlines today due to the weather conditions
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Front Page Photos
We apologize for not providing front page photos today due to the weather conditions
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Arab Press
Cut from the same cloth: Mandela and Barghouti
By Micah Reddy
Often called the 'Palestinian Mandela', Marwan Barghouti's political trajectory is eerily similar to the late leaders.
One thing that we can be sure of is that Mandela's death will be followed by historical whitewashing on a grand scale. It is already happening.
We have seen an unprecedented outpouring of global grief as world leaders looked to the southern tip of Africa to offer their condolences; some a little more disingenuously than others. Even the embattled Bashar al-Assad took a moment in between the shelling and slaughter in Syria to offer his sympathies, saying (apparently with a straight face) that Mandela's life taught a lesson to oppressors.
That Mandela has been eulogized by pretty much every single world leader can be seen as a testament to his abilities as a reconciling leader and pragmatic statesman. But it is also because the memory of a complex life like Mandela's offers a lot to pick and choose from and, however consciously or subconsciously, his legacy will no doubt be neutered by those with uncomfortable truths to hide.
Mandela the "Black Pimpernel", the co-founder of an armed resistance movement who uncompromisingly supported the right of the oppressed to resist, will be tamed and tempered before entering the official history books. His legacy may be hollowed of its radical content and reduced to a few saccharine words - love, compassion, forgiveness.
When Conservative Party voices in the UK gush over Mandela's legacy they are careful to skirt around the awkward fact that they were no friends of the ANC during some of its most trying times, Thatcher having famously dismissed the movement in 1987 as "a typical terrorist organization". Those on the right in both the UK and the US, have yet to face up to their complicity in apartheid.
Over time Israel would draw ever closer to South Africa and the two pariahs would close ranks against a tide of international opinion.
Israel's amnesia
But the worst case of selective amnesia was seen in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu, who responded to the death of Mandela by saying, "He was the father of his nation, a man of vision, a fighter for freedom who avoided violence. He was a humble man who provided a personal example for his nation during the long years he spent in prison."
Predictably, there was no acknowledgement of the historical alliance between apartheid South Africa and Israel. In 1948, when both apartheid and the state of Israel came into being, the two countries would hardly have seemed likely bedfellows - just a few years earlier Afrikaner Nationalist leaders had openly been emulating Hitler and supporting the German war machine. But over time Israel would draw ever closer to South Africa and the two pariahs would close ranks against a tide of international opinion.
While Mandela and his fellow Robben Islanders were locked away, the two states co-operated economically and militarily, with Israel playing a crucial role in busting the sanctions imposed on South Africa. Testimonies by Israeli agent-turned-Hollywood billionaire Arnon Milchan, as well as a recent book by Sasha Polakow-Suransky, show strong evidence for secret nuclear cooperation, too.
And even as South Africa's right-wing allies in the West were falling by the wayside, Israel tried to maintain close ties with the National Party. For the Israeli leadership, it seemed, no amount of apartheid brutality was distasteful enough for them to question their relationship with South Africa. And to do so, would only have invited charges of hypocrisy and some very uncomfortable self-reflection.
It was only in the late 1980s that Israel, pushed by its Western backers, reluctantly started to put a little distance between itself and the apartheid regime. When Mandela was released soon afterwards, one of the first leaders he decided to meet was Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. Mandela told the Palestinians "there are many similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO. We live under a unique form of colonialism in South Africa, as well as in Israel."
By this time, the first Intifada had erupted and Palestinians had brought the struggle for independence closer to home, no doubt encouraged in some ways by the resistance to apartheid. It was the Intifada that catapulted Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to prominence. The 54-year-old Barghouti, who has widely been referred to as the Mandela of Palestine, is likewise "a fighter for freedom who avoided violence", to borrow Netanyahu's words.
Ahmed Kathrada, who was jailed alongside Mandela at Robben Island, launched a campaign to free Barghouti and all political prisoners.
Leading from prison
Barghouti's political trajectory so far looks startlingly similar to the one Mandela took. Barghouti too was faced with an intransigent state that answered legitimate, non-violent resistance with repression. By the time of the second Intifada, which began in 2000, Barghouti was in charge of Fatah's armed wing. In 2002, he was arrested and later handed down five life sentences, spending three years in solitary confinement.
Behind bars, he commands tremendous respect among Palestinians who look to him as a unifying figure. He is seen as the only leader who could bridge the seemingly intractable Hamas-Fatah divide, and this is the real reason Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders fear him. It is not because he is a diehard extremist of any kind - long before his imprisonment he showed a very real willingness to engage with Israelis; he has been critical of attacks on civilians while holding firm to his belief in popular resistance; and he has called for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. And it is for these reasons that Barghouti offers the best hope for a just and lasting peace. He may yet succeed Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president from behind bars.
Recently, Ahmed Kathrada, who was jailed alongside Mandela at Robben Island, launched a campaign to free Barghouti and all political prisoners. Roughly 5,000 Palestinians, many of them minors, remain in Israeli jails, where they are often deprived of the right to a fair trial. If Netanyahu is serious about peace - and we have no reason to believe that the Israeli government is acting any less cynically than usual in this latest round of negotiations - then he should release Barghouti unconditionally.
As Kathrada said, not doing so would "[disregard] what has proven to be the case in other conflicts - that prisoners, once released, can be instrumental in achieving peace. The unconditional release of political prisoners is a powerful signal that the hardened enemies of yesterday are finally ready to become peace partners today."
Leaders from across the world have gathered for Mandela's funeral and the occasion offers an important opportunity for global dialogue. Obama, Abbas, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have all made it down to South Africa, but Netanyahu did not attend, speciously citing financial reasons. It makes his tribute to the departed freedom fighter sound all the more astonishing in its hollow hypocrisy. (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/cut-from-same-cloth-mandela-barghouti-201312117482344204.html)
Palestinians and Israelis can coexist if occupation ends
By Hussein Ibish
The unstable and unhealthy relationship of dominance and subordination, of discipline and control through violence, built into Israel’s occupation was graphically illustrated this week in two separate, tragic and bloody incidents.
Last Saturday, a 15-year-old Palestinian child, Wajih Wajdi Al Ramahi, was shot in the back and killed by Israeli occupation forces. The soldiers were sniping from a watchtower near the Israeli settlement of Bet-El. There are conflicting accounts of what happened, but even the official Israeli military version as it now stands is utterly damning.
The Israeli army says it deployed soldiers to “ambush” and “apprehend” stone-throwing Palestinian youths. In other words, the soldiers were lying in wait for the children. They duly appeared, and seeing the soldiers, according to the Israeli army, began throwing rocks from a distance of 150 meters (therefore posing no actual threat). The Israeli military says then “the squad commander began the procedure for arresting a suspect and shooting was only in the air.”
And yet somehow Wajih ended up lying on his face, dead on the ground, shot in the back by the army of occupation. Nothing in the official Israeli account begins to justify or explain what happened to him. Everything points to what can only be described as a calculated ambush that led to a completely indefensible homicide.
Lest anyone think this incident is a bizarre aberration, not only have 23 Palestinians been killed by Israeli occupation forces this year in the West Bank, the history of the Al Ramahi family is an object lesson in the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
This family originates from the village of Muzayriah, which was destroyed by Israel in 1948. Residents of that town and 36 other destroyed villages, including the Al Ramahi family, now live in the Jalazun refugee camp, near where Wajih was shot and killed.
His father, a Fatah activist, was jailed by Israel from 1972-1992. Occupation forces destroyed two of the family’s homes and boarded up two more. The family says two other close relatives were killed by Israeli troops in the past 15 years: Mohammed Ahmed, 14, and Mohammed Jamal, 21. To cap it all off, Wajih’s older brother and two of his cousins are currently in Israeli custody and awaiting trial.
But the violence is a two-way street. There’s another Palestinian in Israeli custody today, formally indicted this week for murdering an Israeli soldier last November.
Sixteen-year-old Hussein Sharif Rawarda, from Jenin, is accused of stabbing and killing 19-year-old Eden Atias while he was asleep on a bus in northern Israel. Rawarda claimed he was acting on behalf of his jailed uncles. But his father, who condemned the killing, said his son was apolitical and probably motivated by economic distress.
The two grievances are inextricable. The entire system – social, economic and political – that Israel operates in the occupied territories can only be described as separate and unequal. The particular stressor on any occupied individual may manifest as social, political or even economic, but they all arise from the violent system of domination by a foreign occupying power.
Although it was written long ago and about a different time and place, Frantz Fanon’s 1961 essay Concerning Violence – for all its undoubted historical and ideological anachronisms, and naive enthusiasms – remains the best overall guide to the psychological dynamic between the oppressor and the oppressed.
Its descriptive contrast between “the settlers’ towns” and “the native town” is uncannily evocative of the present day occupied Palestinian territories. And his evaluation of the psychology of these relationships applies as precisely to Israelis and Palestinians as any Fanon may have had in mind more than 50 years ago.
Fanon describes precisely the deforming and dehumanizing impact on both the occupier and the occupied: “The violence of the colonial regime and the counter-violence of the native balance each other and respond to each other in an extraordinary reciprocal homogeneity.”
And so 15-year-old Wajih lies shot in the back like a stray dog, while 16-year-old Hussein is about to stand trial for murdering 19-year-old Eden in his sleep.
Routine tragedies demonstrate how and why the status quo is simply unmanageable, with millions of disenfranchised Palestinians living for decades under Israeli military rule with no end in sight. The relative calm that has recently prevailed, and that is now fraying, cannot be maintained if the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. For everyone’s sake, conditions for Palestinians must be immediately improved, and in overt preparation for independent statehood.
The relationship of occupied Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces is essentially that of prisoners and prison guards. There is an ordered, legalized hierarchy of power and privilege inherent in the occupation. There is nothing hard-wired in either Israeli or Palestinian culture that makes people on either side relate to each other as they do.
Instead, each individual acts out the position to which they are assigned in a highly structured interaction between rulers and ruled. The same formula could be transplanted between any two other national groups anywhere in the world with similar results. A mere reversal of fortunes would likely see a concomitant reversal of roles.
Violence, incitement and abuses can and should be minimized by all authorities. But there is only one way to actually end this vicious circle of inhumanity. The occupation must end, so Israelis and Palestinians can live, at long last, not as the oppressors and the oppressed, but side-by-side as citizens of equally sovereign, independent states. (http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/palestinians-and-israelis-can-coexist-if-occupation-ends#full)
Five points for John Kerry to consider
By Rami G. Khouri
We seem to have arrived at that inevitable moment that we all knew was coming, when the United States would stop trying to be a low-key and ineffective mediator between Israelis and Palestinians, and instead play a more decisive role by offering its own proposals on a permanent peace agreement. Press reports on the apparent American approach of proposing a framework agreement offer a range of expectations. Most of them are depressing from the Palestinian perspective, because the American government still sees Israeli security, rather than mutual and equal national sovereignty and rights, as the centerpiece of its proposals.
The few leaks available also seem to continue the American official tradition of paying much more attention to core Israeli needs than to Palestinian ones – such as demanding some form of clear Arab recognition of the Jewish nature of the Israeli state, rather than demanding any level of Israeli recognition of the crimes committed against Palestinians in 1947-1948, which created the Palestinian refugee problem in the first place.
Nevertheless, we should withhold judgment and wait until the Americans put their ideas on the table. At that stage we could then assess matters on the basis of facts, rather than leaks and rumors.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s intense pursuit of this issue – this is his 10th visit to the Middle East since assuming office – reflects a deeper motivation that is both striking and somewhat unclear. The best explanation for Kerry’s energy on this issue that I have heard from Americans close to the Obama administration is that the persistence of the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in their present form has become a strategic liability for the United States in the region, because public opinion in the Middle East sees the U.S. as heavily favoring Israel and its colonization of Palestine, rather than being an impartial mediator. This hurts the U.S. in the region in many ways, including its security interests.
This point also has been made in pubic by senior American military officials. So the U.S. is wise to make substantive changes in the two areas that matter most in this respect – Arab-Israeli issues and relations with Iran (the third area, American support for Arab dictators, has been taken in hand by Arab citizens themselves who have given up on any American or European assistance).
What should we look for to find out if the U.S. is more serious than it was previously about brokering a just and permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord? I would suggest five markers to watch:
First, legitimacy: Does the proposed American framework agreement address core issues that matter to both sides, or only the superficial or temporary issues needed to avert renewed short-term violence by both sides? Legitimacy requires addressing the issues that matter to the protagonists, which was not done sufficiently in the past.
Second, legality: Does the proposed American framework reflect and respect existing international law, global conventions and United Nations Security Council resolutions? Is it anchored in legal dictates that are globally respected, or only in regional balance-of-power equations or bizarre domestic policy flows in the United States?
Third, equality: Does the proposed American framework give equal weight to the rights, demands and aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike? Or does it favor the needs of one side over the other? The U.S. historically has paid much more attention to Israeli security than to Palestinian national integrity and sovereignty, and a repeat of this approach would only result in renewed failures.
Fourth, compassion: Does the proposed American framework understand and touch the inner human sentiments of Israelis and Palestinians? Does it really grasp the Israeli need and right to live in peace and be accepted as a normal and legitimate country in the region? Or the Palestinian need to end the refugee problem and reconstitute a national community enjoying integrity and sovereignty? Does Washington feel the pain and humanity of both sides?
Fifth, hearts, stomachs and security: Does the proposed American framework give equal weight to the three arenas where a lasting and just peace accord must make a credible mark in order to succeed? These are “hearts” (what it means deep inside to be an Israeli or a Palestinian, see point 4 above); “stomachs” (socio-economic development, opportunity, and prosperity, including tens of billions of dollars in new gains for both sides); and, “security,” the verifiable certitude that your kids can go to school and return home without being bombed, colonized, shot, expelled, placed under siege or imprisoned, as has happened to both sides.
Genuine peace cannot be bought with money, forced with security guarantees, or achieved with feel-good happy talk of coexistence. It requires all three to converge, which has never happened in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which is why we are again still trying to make this happen today. (http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Dec-14/241024-five-points-for-john-kerry-to-consider.ashx#axzz2nVuZLQQi
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Opinions
The storm… lessons learned
Al-Quds Editorial
With all the rain and snow that started falling in the country during the storm over the past three days, and the delight felt by children as they watch this white view for the first time in their lives, especially since we have not seen such snow for a long time. Still there are a number of questions to be raised, as there are many lessons to be drawn, whether official or popular so as to avoid as much damage and loss and minimize the suffering of citizens in any similar situation in the future.
There is no doubt that the storm was not surprising, global and local meteorological forecast sources predicted it relaying on scientific data more than a week ago, however, with the start of the storm power outage began in vast areas for hours, and for days in other areas, in addition to blocked roads for long hours, and clogged sewer causing a flood in a lot of roads, streets and water flooding homes in some areas. With our appreciation for all the efforts made by the competent authorities in their respective areas of competence, still the question is: weren’t we ready for such a storm as we should? And are infrastructures of electricity, sewage and water are not qualified to deal with this much rain and snow?
Power outage for long hours on large areas have caused suffering to citizens who rely on electricity for heating or for those patients who need electricity to run medical equipment in their homes, such as oxygen, just as blocked roads and not opening it prevents citizens form reaching hospitals or clinics, and this apart from causing paralysis of public life.
The other question arises concerns the extent of disparagement of meteorological forecasting, despite all the preparations, but if these preparations were consistent with the reality of what we saw, we could have reduced the losses and damages and alleviate the suffering of citizens of freezing, floods, landslides, in addition to snow and water trapping large areas.
This also applies to the serious losses of farmers in the fields, barns and poultry farms, which raises a question about who is supposed to compensate farmers, or who will compensate citizens whose homes collapsed or cracked by the weather conditions.
Another thing was observed, many bakeries and shops closed their doors, which caused a shortage of goods, and the question here is: can’t we ensure a continued operation of bakeries in such circumstances?
In total, despite our appreciation for all the efforts made by the competent authorities according to the existing capabilities, unfortunately, We have to say that there are clearly deficiencies in electricity infrastructure, and the ability to fix errors in real time, and in civil defense and municipal efforts in opening streets and main roads at an appropriate time, as there are clearly deficiencies in sewage infrastructure of and rain drainage points. We refer to all of these while not ignoring all efforts made with the existing capacity, but we aspire for the best and avoid damage, loss and suffering that can be avoided.
And at the grassroots level, it is clear that there is a need for initial preparations in each house, starting from ensuring safe heating even in case of power failure, as well as lighting in addition to security measures and everything can be repaired in preparation for any storm, it is inconceivable that we have more victims because of cold or lack of heating, it is also cannot inconceivable not to find solutions to prevent water leaks into homes or to find solutions to the shortage of bread or some consumables.
Finally, this storm revealed our failures, but we are convinced that the lessons learned and developing all positive efforts and energies of the competent authorities, and close cooperation with citizens would reduce damages, losses and suffering. (http://www.alquds.com/news/article/view/id/478066)
The “Palestinian State" lie
Al-Khaleej Editorial
When Israel control the Palestinian Jordan Valley bordering with Jordan, keeps its settlements in the occupied West Bank, and continuing its Judaization in Jerusalem. When Israel oversees air and land and resources, with the condition that the proposed “State" would be demilitarized. When all this happen, then what is the difference from the current situation, other than replacing occupation with another one under the name of a "State"?
It is better to keep the current occupation, that contrasts with the international legitimacy and all resolutions, and not establish a state under occupation and name it the “state of Palestine”, and not repeat "Oslo agreement" and give "Israel" guiltlessness certificate as not an occupying racist state, racism, leaving it not responsible as an occupying state under international law and its responsibilities and duties for the Palestinian people.
US Secretary of State John Kerry proposing Israeli "Army" deployment along the Jordan Valley, bordering with Jordan, implements a strategy the Zionists sought always for, fulfilling religious myths considering that "Judea and Samaria" are part of "Israel".
"Israel" want through negotiation to get what it wants, without offering anything to the Palestinians, and the United States which said to play the role of "honest broker" acts to achieve this goal through the extortion of the Palestinian side, and pressing it, and claim that it seeks a settlement resulting in the establishment of a Palestinian State living side by side with Israel.
Kerry's proposal with deploying Israeli army in the Jordan Valley means that "Israel" is at the borders of the River Jordan, eliminating the existence of a Palestinian State, how can the borders of a State to jump over the territory of another State, as if the borders of Northern Italy, for example, be at Switzerland's northern border, or the northern border of Mexico be at the borders of southern Canada?
Geography and history together are being circumventing for "Israel", maps are altered and adjusted to suit Israel, and eventually to make history serve myths.
These are not negotiations; this is a trap to impose a fait accompli on the Palestinians in the name of a lie called the "Palestinian State." (http://www.alkhaleej.ae/studiesandopinions/detailedpage/95ca9adc-efe9-4e1c-af28-7f070df5d1f6)
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