Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Here's the circular logic in action.
"They won't act like a civilized nation and upgrade their infrastructure, so we're going to embargo them to prevent them from upgrading their infrastructure.
See what nice guys we are? If they would just act like an autonomous country we would let them act like an autonomous country, but we they won't so we'll continue to not let them."
A third of Israeli water comes from internationally recognized illegal land settlements.
There's the 'two sides' thing, and then there's the rampant disregard for the rule of law and international opinion.
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Except that:
1) there is no embargo on the West Bank. We are talking about the West Bank here.
2) the cost of upgraded the water system is relatively low. If it hadn't been neglected it would have been in the 10s of millions, but now it's estimated in the low 100s of millions. To put that in perspective Arafat and his cronies continue to take billions of dollars a year. The US alone donates 500 million a year to the Palestinian Authority. Israel collecs over 100 million per month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians have launched over 10,000 rockets at Israel. Each rocket is composed of steel that could have been used to replace a water pipe.
3) A 3rd of Israel's water does not come from internationally recognized illegal settlements. Firstly, as previously stated the recognized boundary of the Golan Heights included a 10 meter buffer zone around like Tiberius. Syria was never meant to have any access to it. Secondly, Israel takes water from the West Bank pursuant to the Oslo Accords, which both sides agreed on. Thirdly, as previously stated, Israel has diversified its water sources. Now desalinated water makes up about 40% of israel's drinking water. That number is expected to reach 70% in the next few years.
Much easier to just blame all of the Palestinians' problems on Israel though.