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Rabbi Shea Hecht is chairman of the board of NCFJE (National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education). He is a Rabbi and activist in the Jewish community. As a life strategist, Shea's expertise centers on family crisis intervention- particularly as a marriage counselor and helping troubled youth and a drug abuse and cults counselor. He has spent many years fostering racial harmony and diversity and he is a liaison between the government/law enforcement and the people.
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By Rabbi Shea Hecht
April 17, 2007
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It's an old problem and, really, it's an old piece of news, too. It's politics in its finest form. Nonetheless, I think it's worthy of comment. Sometimes because of its commonness we become immune to the import of politics.
In February of 2007, Israeli authorities charged that members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were digging up sewage pipes in the Gaza area so that the pipes can be used for Kassam rockets.
The charges were made after the PA accused Israel of causing sewage to be spilled on Gaza's main north-south highway by not allowing needed pipes to move through border crossings.
And then, in March of 2007 the pipes in the Bedouin village, Umm Naser, exploded. The city was flooded when the wall of a large cesspool sewage pool collapsed. The sewage ran and people died. Palestinians reported deaths, injuries and that 70 percent of the houses were completely submerged in the sewage following the collapse.
And when PA violence doesn't allow help to get through to the needy PA, who gets blamed? Of course, Israel.
Muhammad Dahlan, member of the Palestinian legislative Council, said "The causes of this incident are the Israeli occupation, the security situation and the disregard and the indifference of the responsible bodies."
Palestinian Environment Minister, Dr Yousef Safia, also blamed Israel for the flooding. According to Safia, Sweden and the EU have provided the Palestinian Authority with the funds necessary to construct a modernized sewage system which will divert its contents to the ocean. Safia claims - with no facts to back up his claim - that Israel had threatened to bomb construction workers and the sewage pipes should the project begin.
Within moments, keeping to media standards, there are Muslims from Gaza interviewed so they can air their accusations and once again, it's those "poor people in the Gaza who suffer from the tyrannical Israelis." No questions about why the PA allowed the pipes to sit around and be created into Kassam rockets, no query about where the money set aside for the renovation project is, no inquiry as to why the PA allowed this situation to deteriorate so badly so that lives were lost in a very avoidable accident. The poor people in the Gaza are left to suffer from the terrible consequences of the politics game that their leadership plays.
The backdrop of this argument is the terror that the Kassams rain down on the Israelis daily and the anarchy in the Gaza strip now that the PA has control. According to reports there is a danger of the United Nations formally declaring the Gaza a dangerous zone - which would hamper efforts to help the residents there altogether because all international organizations would have to leave in the face of such a move. All this points to a government that has no idea what is going on in the territory under their control, which leaves them no room to blame others for anything that goes wrong.
The truth is that those who were contracted to do the work on the sewers were, and still are, afraid to come and repair the sewage pipes. They said it isn't safe for them to work due to the security risks in the area. Umm Naser is not too far from the Israeli border. Terrorists routinely fire rockets at Israel from the dunes near the sewage plant - rockets made with the sewage pipes - and Israel counters that with artillery fire.
Incredibly, Israel offered humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority, following the sewage facility collapse, yet in keeping with the old political grind, the PA refused to accept Israel's help, except for allowing one of the wounded to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital. And just in case the Israeli's thought the sewage mess and the deaths and destruction it caused would slow the PA down, they were out to prove otherwise. Even after the sewage pipes burst, PA terrorists continue to fire Kassam rockets towards Israel.
And, in a beautiful accusation of same old politics, if the Israeli's retaliate against this terror visited upon them, they are "preventing the PA from fixing their sewage problem."
When I was young and just out of Yeshiva, I started getting involved in community activities. I was working with several colleagues on a few projects for the benefit of the community. At one point, we ran into a snag because of the problem of "political turf."
When I went to discuss this with my father, Rabbi JJ Hecht, OBM, and explained to him that because of politics the community could not be helped he told me, "Shea, this is the way of politics. Over the years politics hasn't just killed projects; it has destroyed cities and countries too."
I think this conversation encapsulates the whole issue. My father understood politics. The PA complaints are not about humanitarian issues nor do they even have a legitimate complaint. Their stories are lies - the lies that encompass politics. And even if the people of Gaza have to suffer or lose out from their political wrangling, political terror or their political neglect - they don't care. For the PA it's politics as usual.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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