Gaza Under Siege (yet again)

Seems that Gaza has become the world's most environment-friendly region, burning no energy whatsoever - well, because they pretty much don’t have any.

Gaza has been running on generators for the past three days, and that includes hospitals, which have become exactly like war zone clinics: not enough beds or medical supplies, and barely any electricity to keep people alive - which means no heating by night. And Gaza is cold in January. A local health official said hospitals faced a catastrophic choice between cutting "electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients" or stopping operating theatres.

Oh, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence spokesperson pretends that "If they shut it down, it's not because of a fuel shortage, but because they want to create the impression of a crisis”.

Gosh, I’m going to puke the lemon sorbet I just had.

The latest Bush visit to the region has been so insignificant that the only thing pundits found to discuss is why he stopped to listen to the US and Israeli anthems in the Tel-Aviv airport, while his protocol people striked out the same ceremony from his schedule in Palestine.

The overly-cheerful are glad he said that outposts must go - outposts being, well, the equivalent of Settlements to the Settlements, full of overly-zealous Jewish extremists who believe that not only the West Bank should belong to the Jewish people, but so should Jordan. Yalla. Not a word on the real settlements, though - ‘il va de soi’ that these are okay.

Should we feel insulted? Nah. Not worth it. We should, however, raise hell over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Seriously.

UPDATE -- For those in Palestine and in Israel, a convoy will head to Gaza on Saturday the 26th, bringing water, filters, and other emergency goods. More info on http://www.end-gaza-siege.ps/IndexEn.htm