E-Newsletter

On the morning of October 7^th, Hamas (the terrorist organization which currently governs Palestinians in the Gaza Strip) carried out a surprised attack on a number of communities in Israel. Hamas fired thousands of missiles in Israel, as fighters invaded Israel by land, air, and sea. 

Hamas’ brutality has been stunning. At the time of writing this column, they have killed more than 1,000 Israelis, including more than 200 people attending a music festival, and 27 Americans. There are stories of kidnapped families, murdered grandparents, beheaded babies, and burned children. All innocent civilians who were killed for no other reason that being in Israel.

These acts of terror are unconscionable, yet Hamas says their actions are justified. Ghazi Hamad, spokesperson for Hamas, said the attack was justified due to the attacks by Jewish settlers, against Palestinians, in the West Bank.

To the shock of many around the world, Palestinians and other Muslims agree, saying after years of injustice at the hands of Israel in the Gaza Strip, it’s only right that Hamas would react in such a way.

This thinking does not surprise me, however. Palestine has long blamed Israel for their suffering, while both its leaders and people have actively worked against their own self interests.

One such example is the destruction of greenhouses in the Gaza Strip.

From 1967 until 2005, Israel controlled the Gaza Strip. In 2005, Israel decided that it was best for Israeli military and citizens to leave Gaza, due to nonstop violence stemming from the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put forth a plan for Israeli disengagement, which was then ratified by the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament).

On August 15, 2005, Israel Defense Force (IDF) installations and forces were removed from Gaza. About 9,000 Israeli citizens were evicted from settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria in the West Bank and paid a lump sum by the Israeli government to move. Jewish cemeteries in Gaza were even dug up by IDF forces and the bodies were then reburied in Israel. By September, Israel’s withdrawal was complete.

As Israel pulled out, there was an international effort to preserve greenhouses in Gaza (built by the now-evicted settlers), which were to be taken over by Palestinians. The greenhouses had been very successful, producing vegetables and flowers that were exported around the world.

American Jewish donors bought the more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers and transferred them the Palestinian Authority (Palestinian leadership at the time). In all, about $13 million was spent on the project, which was set to provide thousands of jobs for Palestinians.

But instead of capitalizing on the flourishing agricultural industry supported by these greenhouses, the Palestinians destroyed them. Looters took off with irrigation hoses, water pumps, and plastic sheets. There were even reports of entire greenhouses being dismantled and carried away.

Some of the Palestinian police charged with guarding the greenhouses also joined in with the looters to steal equipment.[1]

Many blamed the Palestinian Authority, saying they did not provide enough security to prevent the looters from stealing.

The Palestinian economy was in bad shape, people were in desperate need of jobs (with unemployment estimated to be at about 50 percent), but Palestinians destroyed what could have been job providing infrastructure that was given to them.

Is that Israel’s fault?

Gaza has struggled to rebuild, made even worse by the election of the Hamas political organization in June 2007. Since the takeover by Hamas, Israel and Egypt have often closed their border crossings, making it extremely difficult to export goods out of Gaza.

And instead of investing in infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools, for its people, Hamas has used what funds they have been able to acquire to build weapons in order to attack Israel. In one instance, they dug up water pipelines meant to provide water for Palestinians in Gaza and turned them into missiles.

They have also built a network of military tunnels to smuggle men and weapons around Gaza and to access the Israeli border. These tunnels are often built under civilian areas in order to use innocent people on the surface as shields.

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely complicated, Israel has proposed a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, where each would recognize the other. The Palestinians, however, refuse to recognize Israel and still maintain their objective of the destruction of the state of Israel and elimination from Israel any person who came after the early part of the 20^th century.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov. 

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