Archive for October 15th, 2014
Donors pledge $5.4bn for Gaza reconstruction?
Donation Stretching for an entire decade?
Reconstruction to last 7 years , just to look what is was a few months ago?
Global donors have pledged a sum of $5.4bn in aid to reconstruct the Gaza Strip amid warnings that the Palestinian territory remains a “tinderbox” following the summer war between Hamas and Israel.
The pledged amount surpasses the $4bn which Palestinians had asked for during the conference to reconstruct the enclave, after the 50-day Israeli military campaign Operation Protective Edge in July and August.
A savage and racist preemptive war that left 2,200 killed and 11,000 injured and total devastation of hospitals, schools , power plants….
“The participants pledged approximately $5.4bn,” Boerge Brende, Norwegian foreign minister, said during the closing statement at the Cairo conference which Norway co-hosted.
Khalid al-Attiyah, the Qatari foreign minister, who is in the Egyptian capital for the conference, announced his country was pledging $1bn in aid.
The US promised $212m to meet what John Kerry, secretary of state, described as an “enormous” challenge in Gaza.
Kerry also urged renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, telling the conference that both sides needed to be helped to make “tough choices” for lasting stability.
| Gaza remains a tinderbox, the people desperately need to see results in their daily lives.
Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general |
“The people of Gaza do need our help, desperately, not tomorrow, not next week, they need it now,” Kerry told the gathering of about 30 global envoys and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
European Union member states will contribute a total of $570m to Gaza, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. Germany pledged $63m and Norway about $13m.
There is widespread concern that – after 3 destructive conflicts in the past six years – any help to Gaza will eventually be lost in the enclave’s cycle of violence.
Ban expressed the fears of many when he told the conference the situation in Gaza remained potentially explosive.
“Gaza remains a tinderbox, the people desperately need to see results in their daily lives,” Ban said.
The Palestinian government unveiled a 76-page reconstruction plan before the conference, with the lion’s share of assistance to build housing.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, said Gaza’s need was desperate.
“Gaza has suffered three wars in six years. Entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed,” he said.
Peace efforts
Kerry’s pursuit of a long-elusive peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April after a difficult nine-month process.
There was little prospect of fresh talks any time soon.
Israel and the Hamas movement that dominates Gaza have yet to even translate their temporary August truce into a long-term ceasefire.
This summer’s conflict killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, while attacks by Gaza fighters killed 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Note 1: Naomi Wolf commented on FB
Donations for Gaza…and…in a real shift — 212 million from the US as Kerry says now is the time to help rebuild Gaza.
This may seem like poisoned words or too little too late.
(Well, post-apocalypse) but really it represents a BIG crack politically in the ironclad AIPAC stranglehold of US state dept. policy
It means that debate among US Jews is diverse on Gaza and that means Congress has more room to do the right thing.
Note 2: The British Parliament voted Yes for a Palestinian State by a vast margin (274 to 12)
Note 3: Sweden recognized the Palestinian State.
And for that we can thank…all of you and everyone who spoke out.
It will not bring back lost loved ones or rebuild lost homes (except some literally) but it is a significant shift in the political wind. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/donors-pledge-cash-gaza-reconstruction-2014101212584558621.html
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 15, 2014
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem
Passive Omission bias versus Action bias
Fatal consequences resulting from inaction seem more anodyne and less reprehensible than active decision
Federal Drug Administrators have this tendency of withholding drugs that kill 20% of the terminally ill patients but do save 80% from certain death. Why?
The dead patients will have tremendous media impact and you’ll be out of a job pretty quickly.
What’s the difference between the legal option of abiding by the “Do not resuscitate” and the active but illegal euthanasia?
Practically nothing: it is the moral distortion resulting from the passive bias that is at work.
Sitting passively on a bunch of miserable shares feels better than actively buying bad shares.
Neglecting to declare income tax feels less immoral than faking tax documents.
When asked to vote by raining hands, we wait to see where the vast majority stand so that our hand will be drowned: No harm done.
Public servants owe their position by refraining from taking drastic decisions, and they stick to this Omission bias.
There is a difference between Action bias caused by fuzzy and uncertain situations and driven by instinct and omission bias caused by intelligible situation.
We are the lousy and poor descendants of cautious ancestors: Who refused to dissent from the in-group consensus, moved with the tribe, and invented all kinds of excuses in order to be spared front line positions in battles.
We are the descendant of those who survived long enough to procreate
Adonis Diaries 