[Parallax]

Glad you showed up, Mickey, I can use the help here.

[mickeyobe]

Glad you showed up, Mickey, I can use the help here.

Parallax,

I am weary of doing battle with these insufferable, anti-Semitic, thick skulled bigots.

They are not worth the time and effort that is wasted trying to reason with the
unreasonable.

I thought most of their kind perished with the third reich but I was wrong.

I have many more interesting things to do like emptying the cat's litter box.

No matter what the provocation I will not post any more letters in this particular forum. Indeed, I will not even read it.

Fortunately Pentax Forums has a multitude of interesting and informative fora to neutralize the bile that collects here.

I thank you for your past moral support and would suggest that you too abstain from this bilious forum.

Nothing infuriates them more than receiving no response to their hate mails.

Now, back to photography.

Mickey

[jeffkrol]

Seems to me Israel needs to win a few more hearts and minds (granted it may be difficult to impossible)

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday that Gaza must not be left "in the margins."

Addressing a conference at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, the UNRWA Commissioner-General warned that, following prolonged and repeated crises in Gaza "consciously or not, many embrace the self-fulfilling rhetoric that seeks to justify its exclusion as a place beyond salvation."

Bolder measures were needed to place Gaza on the road to recovery, Grandi said, noting that Israel's blockade of the coastal enclave was the "direct cause of debilitating, widespread poverty." Over 60 percent of Gazans were living below the poverty line, 40 percent were unemployed, and 80 percent relied on food handouts, he said.

"And yet we know that the statistics do not tell the whole story of a people whose dreams and hopes seem to have been deferred to a later time."

The UN Relief and Works Agency saw the effects of Gaza's ordeal "up close," measuring an abject poverty rate of over 30 percent among pupils at UNRWA schools, Grandi said, adding that the international community could not afford to "look the other way" while a Mediterranean community of 1.5 million people remained "locked out of the mainstream of normal interaction with the world."

International support would remain critical until the compounded effects of conflict, closures and internal political divisions were eliminated, Grandi said.

The UN official called for an end to Israel's siege of the territory, which he said had paralyzed the agency's extensive reconstruction plans for the Strip. Israel had only granted UNRWA permission to build a handful of the new schools needed, and as a result 40,000 children were turned away from UNRWA schools this year, he said.

"We are forced to 'double shift' almost all of our Gaza schools, administering one school in the morning and a second in the afternoon. We shall now have to start triple shifting, or create even more schools out of shipping containers."

Acknowledging that UNRWA has no political mandate, and is not involved in negotiations, Grandi said he would be remiss, as representative of a Palestinian refugee agency, if he did not convey the clear message UNRWA staff heard every day among Gaza's community: that Palestinian refugees were calling for national conciliation.
The UNRWA chief appealed for Palestinian unity to be restored "with a sense of urgency," so that the welfare of the people of Gaza was not "held hostage by politics."
Further, he said the destiny of Palestine's refugees was bound up in peace.
"As refugees emerged from - and exist as a consequence of - the 1948 conflict, it stands to reason that addressing their plight is a prerequisite for resolving the conflict. The extent to which refugee rights and choices are addressed in a negotiated settlement will affect the credibility of the settlement itself."
Grandi concluded that "Palestine refugees must not be ignored, and this goes hand in hand with the need to abandon the habit of marginalizing Gaza and keeping it in the shadows."

Maan News Agency: UNRWA chief: Gaza must not be marginalized
The best way to get 2 parties to settle is to get both to admit mistakes... My take is that is not in the current Israel policy........
As to the schools I admit it is not the "best choice" but denying schools w/ out an alternative location.. does NOT win hearts and minds....
Exclusive: 'No' to UNRWA school ?near Hamas base'

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA, confirmed the details of the report but claimed that the Hamas installation in question was severely damaged by Israel during Operation Cast Lead and questioned whether it still served as a military facility.
IDF sources said that the building functioned as a Hamas base during Operation Cast Lead and continued to serve as a base today.
Gunness said that due to the Defense Ministry’s decision, UNRWA would not be able to build the schools, and therefore thousands of Palestinian children will be educated by Hamas instead of the UN.
“There is an acute shortage of UNRWA schools in that area, and as a result of the shortage more children beyond the 39,000 who are already not receiving a UN education will continue to receive local education instead,” Gunness said. “It is a great pity that we can’t have children in Gaza receive a UN education based on universal values.”

At best the whole Isreal thing is a cluster duck, but until ALL sides (and I mean ALL) admit their errors it will remain a duck..........
sorry mickeyob but your "line in the sand" type message pretty much reflects how "not to get things done"

Originally envisaged as a temporary agency, UNRWA's mandate, which does not call for resettlement, has been regularly renewed. UNRWA's original roll of 700,000 refugees grew to include children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, some 4.7 million Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The agency's staff, some 27,000, is four times the size of the UNHCR workforce, deployed in every other conflict where refugees need help.

Sadly, this human tragedy was preventable. Arab leaders squandered the first opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state by rejecting the 1947 U.N. plan to divide British Mandatory territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean to create two states, one Jewish, the other Arab. The 1948 war Arab nations launched to snuff out the fledgling Jewish state produced the refugees.

The Arab world's refusal to integrate Palestinian refugees and the generosity of Western governments in providing more than 95 percent of UNRWA's funding has assured its existence. The United States provides more than 25 percent of UNRWA's $500 million annual budget. Arab nations, often first to rally for the Palestinian cause, account for about one percent, which speaks volumes about their genuine concerns for Palestinian well-being.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has perpetuated the illusory vision that one day the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees will ``return'' to what is now Israel. PA President Mahmoud Abbas began his U.N. General Assembly speech in September by praising UNRWA for aiding ``the Palestine refugees, who for more than 60 years still await the redress of their plight and the realization of their right to return to their homes and properties.''

Israel may accept, as it has done in the past with family reunification, a limited number of Palestinian refugees as part of a durable peace accord. But the new Palestinian state will have primary responsibility for developing and implementing the incentives and opportunities to move the 1.4 million in Gaza and the West Bank off of UNRWA handouts. UNRWA dependents in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria will need to be integrated by those countries, or find other willing hosts.

With vast experience spanning decades, UNRWA should have a vital role in its transformation into an agency that enables self-reliance rather than fostering a dependency culture across generations. Success will depend on international will and Palestinian leadership, with all involved recognizing that this task is essential to building the foundation for a viable Palestinian state that is part of a sustainable two-state solution.

Read more: Time to start planning for resettlement - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com
Think this is a pretty good synopsis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine
I honestly believe nobody wants the conflict to end, except the "small people"......

[Wheatfield]

Wheatfield,



As for your many Jewish and Israeli friends. An old overused antisemitic canard completely devoid of truth.

Mickey

Well, I'm glad you seem to know me well enough to lie about me anyway.
Amazing for someone who has never met me.
You appear to be one of those over the top Zionist extremists who plays the anti Semite card as soon as the going gets a little rough.
Unfortunately, that card no longer has any power. The world is on to your sort, and your baseless accusations are seen for exactly what they are, which is shamefully transparent lies and ignorant innuendo.