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Friday, February 16, 2018

Another Hint Of Things To Come In the Middle East

Here's a news item of great importance that no one is covering.  Egypt has closed its border with Gaza to diesel fuel exports.  This cuts off the flow of fuel used in Gaza to power the electricity grid.  As of now, the residents in Gaza get electric power only three hours per day.  This lack of electric power has been an ongoing problem for a few years in Gaza, but the move by Egypt makes the situation much worse.

What does this mean?  It increases the misery of the people in Gaza who live under the rule of the terrorist organization Hamas.  That misery, however, is nothing new.  Hamas has done next to nothing to improve the lives of the residents of Gaza.  In the last few years, Hamas has gotten aid of close to half a billion dollars to improve the infrastructure in Gaza.  It used the cash and materials to pay for missiles and to build tunnels into Israel that could be used in military attacks.  The Israelis have discovered and destroyed many of those tunnels, so the money used was wasted.  Meanwhile, things just got worse for the Gazans.

One possible result of the terrible conditions in Gaza might be for the people there to overthrow Hamas.  That's not very likely.  Hamas has weapons while the average Gazan does not.  An uprising might well be suicidal for the participants.

Another possible result is the collapse of Gaza into something akin to a death camp.  That might require Israel or Egypt to occupy Gaza to bring order and provide necessary food and services.  That is something that neither country wants to do.  Such a move would also, no doubt, be met by ongoing resistance from Hamas.

The most likely result is that things will continue without change.  The alternative is that the suffering in Gaza will become the spark for the next war in the region.

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