13 May 2010 By Stephen Lendman On May 8, Haaretz Service and
Reuters headlined, "PLO executive committee approves
new peace talks with Israel," saying: "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. 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. 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. For a detailed analysis, see this
writer's article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy:
Stillborn from Inception." http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html. 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." 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. 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. 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. 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. With new peace talks underway,
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
reported that from April 29 - May 5: -- Israeli security forces
continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property
in the West Bank and Gaza; -- seven Palestinian civilians,
including two children and a journalist, were shot and
wounded; -- nonviolent West Bank
protesters were assaulted; -- the IDF fired at Palestinian
farmers in Gaza border areas; -- their forces conducted 23
incursions in West Bank communities and one in Gaza; -- in the West Bank, they
arrested 40 civilians, including eight children, three
journalists, and two human rights workers; -- Gaza remains under siege while
West Bank free expression and movements are
restricted; -- home and other Palestinian
demolitions continue; -- Separation Wall construction
continues a process of separation, isolation, and
annexation of 12% of Palestinian West Bank land; -- East Jerusalem ethnic
cleansing continues; -- West Bank and Gazan
agricultural lands are being destroyed; -- regular settler attacks on
Palestinians occur; and -- settlement expansion goes on
unabated. 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: "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." 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." 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. 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. Israel's Foreign Minister,
Avigdor Lieberman, is hard line on Iran, demanding
unspecified action if it won't abandon its nuclear
ambitions, besides: -- once wanting all Israeli Arabs
and Arab Knesset members who met with Hezbollah and/or
Hamas executed; -- favoring Israeli Arab loyalty
to a Jewish state as a condition for citizenship or
face expulsion otherwise; -- assassinating "militant"
Palestinian leaders, ones committed to equality and
freedom; -- abandoning the peace process
and earlier agreements like Camp David and Oslo; and -- on his first day as foreign
minister said "those who want peace should prepare for
war." Suffering Palestinians in crisis
aren't his concern, nor Gaza's siege, its electricity
crisis, and its humanitarian impact, the topic
addressed below. Under Siege, Gaza's Humanitarian
Crisis - One of Many Problems is its Deteriorating
Electricity Supply 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. On May 7, it explained that: "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. Worse still, Israel limits
amounts of all goods and services entering Gaza,
including essential to life foods, medicines, and
fuel. 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." 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
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