The continuation of my Israel experience thread

**Hooahguy** · 01-20-2012, 14:01

Ok so I know this is wierd, but my institution has Net Nanny on its computers, which I find is an inadequate and paranoid program. So I went to look at the latest post, which was Hax's, but I couldnt because it was blocked for gambling. What the

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So if a mod could shut down the other thread because I wont be able to access it from now on. Yeah, I know, this place blows.

Though I did subscribe to the thread so I was able to read Hax's post:

Last night, I attended a lecture about the Gaza strip. I won't say too much about exactly what kind of people there were, but let me tell you, I felt a Zionist in comparison. Death glares when I dared mention Hamas' manifest that contains anti-Jewish slurs.

The speaker (dr. Sara Roy, from Harvard) had some interesting things to say though; with the embargos on exports and imports that have gradually been put in place since the 1990's up until the siege of 2006, along with the dismemberment of the Palestinian state, in essence severing the Gaza strip from the West Bank economically, have ground the Gazan economy to a near-halt; 30 to 35% of all people are unemployed, with unemployment amongst the youth hovering around 49%. The private sectors is nearly completely gone, only the public sector has grown, with about 14%.

Of course, the problem is that once people have nothing to live for, they're not afraid of doing anything. In my opinion, the siege and blockade of Gaza is more a threat to Israel itself than to anyone else.

She also noted that the issue of Israel being a Jewish state is something the Israelis themselves should decide.

Quite valid. People with nowhere to turn to will turn to drastic measures. Though the blockade arguably does have an effect, for weapons shipments have been intercepted because of it, I think it does overall more harm than good, since weapons are coming in anyways through the Egypt side, but I guess the blockade is slowing the rate in which weapons are coming into Gaza.

Also my friend was reading the book "World War Z" where it has a chapter where there is a civil war in Israel between the Haredi and the rest of the country. I honestly wouldnt be suprised if that happened.

**Vladimir** · 01-20-2012, 14:11

Interesting opinion. It reminds me of what was said about Iraq: We invaded a subsidized welfare state with a poor work ethic and told them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Naturally, they objected.

Gaza is a welfare state. I don't buy the "unemployment" numbers because a lot of money flows into the country. People who work in the black market still make money but are also counted as unemployed. If they wanted to, they could turn their prime strip of real estate into the next Monte Carlo but their culture won't allow it and they'd loose their sources of free money.

The comment earlier about pride is important because their pride won't let them move on.