Less than five months ago, much money was offered to redevelop the land, Gaza, after Israel had bombed the hell-out-of-i.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52005820090301
Naturally, it will not be the first time that the West (which financially and militarily supports the Israeli state) forgets Gaza—along with the promises to see that aid gets to those who need it for basic human development.
http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/2007/11/as-world-forgets-gaza-by-saleh-al-naami.html
Democracy Now, the United Nations, and other international organizations report that far too many promises have been made since the bombings in December and January.
“In Israel and the Occupied Territories, a top UN relief official says the Gaza Strip has yet to receive any of the $4.5 billion in reconstruction aid pledged by international donors. John Ging, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, says Israeli restrictions on goods and the US-led boycott of Hamas have prevented basic goods from reaching Gaza. Ging said, ‘Today the money is out there in pledges, and the people of Gaza continue to subsist in the rubble of their former lives, and the attention of the world has sadly moved on, which compounds the despair that people feel.’”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mkRiGbgZg
Israel apparently allows media to come in on some occasions simply to leave an impression that aid is getting through--but it seems to many observers just to be a facade overall.
It is not clear whether or not in this case of Israel we find one or two of the bullies who had beat up the old man as in Bertolt Brecht’s metaphor above.
However, it is clear that in the case of USA tax payers and Western donors Israel appears to be such a bully—i.e. someone who might make uncontrolled havoc in the region if the USA and Europe don’t allow it to keep more than bread crumbs heading for Gaza and the West Bank.
NOTE: To be fair, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza also appear to be one or two of the bullies described by Brecht, i.e. as far as the Arab world of donors is concerned.
AMERICAN MONSTER BANKS AND AIG
http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine10122008.html
I don’t know about you.
