Never Again!
[I have just posted the latest blog of Zena from Beirut:
http://beirutupdate.blogspot.com/
Zena is a talented young artist who exhibits both in Beirut and NYC, as one can discover from her website and reading through her blogs which recount the growing horrors of events in Lebanon. The similar on-going aftermath in Gaza is reported (below) by Gideon Levy.
I am particularly aware of the the effects of extreme heat on people, having ourselves just made it through a rough stretch of same here in NYC -- but with the aid of air conditioners and well-stocked refrigerators. I can imagine what people in Lebanon and Gaza are enduring -- and particularly their worries about the welfare of their children -- heat exhaustion to the virus currently raging through Lebanon as reported by Zena.
My children are now grown, but, as we are doing a stint of emergency baby-sitting for a young -- nearly two-years-old -- grandson this morning, I am all too conscious of the needs of the young. Had to rush out to find a bottle and baby food to cope until my daughter returns from an appointment.
The wars in the Middle East are manifestly the games of males -- macho in their eyes -- cowards in mine -- who are willing to attack defenseless women and children to further ego games of their own devising. May the gods -- or their own demons -- repay the Hasrallahs, the Olmerts and Peretz's, the Bushes and all others who wage war for no good ends with deadly weapons. Most of these characters have spent not a minute in the military. They do not realize the horrors involved in killing and being killed. For many, the former is the worse evil, as it will haunt one for the rest of a lifetime -- I have known some of those and how they suffered from the guilt of their actions -- the baby killer in the dock now is their true confrere. When I hear bush playing Jesus returned -- the stupid jerk -- I have to restrain myself from calling on the gods to punish him. Needless to say he is too ignorant and psychopathic to know the implications of what he is doing -- stay the course? What, yet another serving of child murders?
Pardon the rage here. But it is time for all of us who care about the welfare of young would-be mothers such as Zena, the children killed and terrified by random rockets in Israel, those killed and terrified in Lebanon, those who lost loved ones on 9/11, to say NEVER AGAIN! Yes, I know the origin of the expression and I hope those who have known the suffering of the Holocaust will join in stopping the scorched earth approach from on high launched by Israel's incompetent military leadership -- perhaps the growing protests of the Israeli reservists called upon to do this dirty work will be a starting point?
Let us hope. Ed Kent]
................................
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753203.html
Gaza swelters through summer without power
By Gideon Levy
It's hot, very hot, in the Gaza Strip. But over the last two months, ever since Israel bombed the new power station in the center of the Strip, the heat has become unbearable. The bombing has disrupted the supply of electricity to some 1.5 million residents; food in refrigerators goes bad, the patients in the hospitals groan, industry and work are paralyzed, traffic is gridlocked and there is a severe water shortage.
On the night of June 28, the Israel Air Force bombed the power station as part of Operation Summer Rains, destroying its six transformers. The assault was approved by the security cabinet, and was intended to pressure the Palestinians into releasing Gilad Shalit, the captured soldier.
The modern power station, financed by Enron in partnership with a Palestinian company, was completely paralyzed, and the Gaza Strip lost some 60 percent of its supply of electricity. Gaza buys the remaining 40 percent from the Israel Electricity Corporation.
On Sunday this week, the burned out and destroyed transformers were still lying near the power station's fence. Two were made by Israeli company Elco Industries, and four by the German ABB. The station, located between Gaza and Dir al Balah, was inaugurated at the end of 2001. It was to provide power not only to Gaza but to the West Bank too, after being linked in the future to the Israeli network.
Israel knew exactly what it was bombing, says station manager Dr. Drar Abu-Sisi. It's impossible to operate the station without the transformers. Replacing them would take at least a year - either by ordering new transformers or by hooking up to the Egyptian power network.
With a capacity of 140 megawatts, the power station was the most advanced in the Arab world. Israel could have paralyzed the station by simply stopping its fuel supply, without putting it out of action for months.
"Had they told us on the phone to cut the power off, we'd have done so right away," says Abu-Sisi, who is convinced that the bombing was politically motivated.
"It was a foolish attack, which only sows more and more hatred for Israel," he says.
Each transformer costs around $2 million, but the main damage is indirect - the loss of income to the power station, grave damage to all its systems that could rust, and the huge blow to the Gaza Strip's miserable economy.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman's Office told Haaretz yesterday that "the bombing was intended to disrupt the activity of the terror networks directly and indirectly associated with Gilad Shalit's kidnapping."
Meanwhile, the station's 160 workers are out of work and Gaza has electrical power for only a few hours a day. Those who can afford it buy generators, and everyone goes up on the rooftops at night to escape the burdensome heat inside.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
http://beirutupdate.blogspot.com/
Zena is a talented young artist who exhibits both in Beirut and NYC, as one can discover from her website and reading through her blogs which recount the growing horrors of events in Lebanon. The similar on-going aftermath in Gaza is reported (below) by Gideon Levy.
I am particularly aware of the the effects of extreme heat on people, having ourselves just made it through a rough stretch of same here in NYC -- but with the aid of air conditioners and well-stocked refrigerators. I can imagine what people in Lebanon and Gaza are enduring -- and particularly their worries about the welfare of their children -- heat exhaustion to the virus currently raging through Lebanon as reported by Zena.
My children are now grown, but, as we are doing a stint of emergency baby-sitting for a young -- nearly two-years-old -- grandson this morning, I am all too conscious of the needs of the young. Had to rush out to find a bottle and baby food to cope until my daughter returns from an appointment.
The wars in the Middle East are manifestly the games of males -- macho in their eyes -- cowards in mine -- who are willing to attack defenseless women and children to further ego games of their own devising. May the gods -- or their own demons -- repay the Hasrallahs, the Olmerts and Peretz's, the Bushes and all others who wage war for no good ends with deadly weapons. Most of these characters have spent not a minute in the military. They do not realize the horrors involved in killing and being killed. For many, the former is the worse evil, as it will haunt one for the rest of a lifetime -- I have known some of those and how they suffered from the guilt of their actions -- the baby killer in the dock now is their true confrere. When I hear bush playing Jesus returned -- the stupid jerk -- I have to restrain myself from calling on the gods to punish him. Needless to say he is too ignorant and psychopathic to know the implications of what he is doing -- stay the course? What, yet another serving of child murders?
Pardon the rage here. But it is time for all of us who care about the welfare of young would-be mothers such as Zena, the children killed and terrified by random rockets in Israel, those killed and terrified in Lebanon, those who lost loved ones on 9/11, to say NEVER AGAIN! Yes, I know the origin of the expression and I hope those who have known the suffering of the Holocaust will join in stopping the scorched earth approach from on high launched by Israel's incompetent military leadership -- perhaps the growing protests of the Israeli reservists called upon to do this dirty work will be a starting point?
Let us hope. Ed Kent]
................................
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753203.html
Gaza swelters through summer without power
By Gideon Levy
It's hot, very hot, in the Gaza Strip. But over the last two months, ever since Israel bombed the new power station in the center of the Strip, the heat has become unbearable. The bombing has disrupted the supply of electricity to some 1.5 million residents; food in refrigerators goes bad, the patients in the hospitals groan, industry and work are paralyzed, traffic is gridlocked and there is a severe water shortage.
On the night of June 28, the Israel Air Force bombed the power station as part of Operation Summer Rains, destroying its six transformers. The assault was approved by the security cabinet, and was intended to pressure the Palestinians into releasing Gilad Shalit, the captured soldier.
The modern power station, financed by Enron in partnership with a Palestinian company, was completely paralyzed, and the Gaza Strip lost some 60 percent of its supply of electricity. Gaza buys the remaining 40 percent from the Israel Electricity Corporation.
On Sunday this week, the burned out and destroyed transformers were still lying near the power station's fence. Two were made by Israeli company Elco Industries, and four by the German ABB. The station, located between Gaza and Dir al Balah, was inaugurated at the end of 2001. It was to provide power not only to Gaza but to the West Bank too, after being linked in the future to the Israeli network.
Israel knew exactly what it was bombing, says station manager Dr. Drar Abu-Sisi. It's impossible to operate the station without the transformers. Replacing them would take at least a year - either by ordering new transformers or by hooking up to the Egyptian power network.
With a capacity of 140 megawatts, the power station was the most advanced in the Arab world. Israel could have paralyzed the station by simply stopping its fuel supply, without putting it out of action for months.
"Had they told us on the phone to cut the power off, we'd have done so right away," says Abu-Sisi, who is convinced that the bombing was politically motivated.
"It was a foolish attack, which only sows more and more hatred for Israel," he says.
Each transformer costs around $2 million, but the main damage is indirect - the loss of income to the power station, grave damage to all its systems that could rust, and the huge blow to the Gaza Strip's miserable economy.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman's Office told Haaretz yesterday that "the bombing was intended to disrupt the activity of the terror networks directly and indirectly associated with Gilad Shalit's kidnapping."
Meanwhile, the station's 160 workers are out of work and Gaza has electrical power for only a few hours a day. Those who can afford it buy generators, and everyone goes up on the rooftops at night to escape the burdensome heat inside.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:03 AM
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