Chutzpa

According to AFP:

Palestinian medical experts fear a looming health crisis after Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip unless patients are guaranteed access to life-saving treatment beyond the territory.

While Israel regards its departure from Gaza as signalling the end of its 38-year occupation, the Palestinians argue that Israel will remain an occupying power as long as it retains control of its borders and is thus still obliged to meet the health needs of the local population.

"I fear a worsening of the health situation after the withdrawal from Gaza as a result of the Israeli cordon," said Dr Majdi Ashur, president of the Palestinian relief committees.

"Israel is refusing to recognise its obligations as a continuing occupation power by meeting basic health needs of the population and we do not foresee a resumption of proper freedom of movement in the short term," he told AFP.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Outside the concrete walls that surround Badran Jamil Ahmed Abumansi's home, historic changes are taking place. . .

Yet in Abumansi's home, . . . it has gotten worse.

That's because Abumansi, 38, like hundreds of thousands among the 1.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza, has been dependent economically on the state of Israel.

In 1991, during the first Palestinian intifada -- the uprising began in Gaza in 1987 -- one-third of employed Palestinians worked in Israel, according to the World Bank. By 2003, during the second intifada, that figure had dropped to just 9 percent.

For 20 years, Abumansi, was one of the fortunate ones.

In 1985, when the Tel Aviv chocolate factory where he worked with his father and brothers went out of business, Abumansi quickly found a job doing anything that needed doing at a Tel Aviv restaurant where he used to have lunch.

Since then, he has struggled to maintain his precarious economic hold.

A Chicago Tribune editorial wonders:

All of Gaza belongs to the Palestinians.

And now comes the hard part: What will they do with it?

Will Gaza bloom with jobs and opportunity, drawing tourists to the pearly Mediterranean beachfront, showing the world that the Palestinians can, indeed, run an efficient state? Or will it fester into "Hamastan," a mecca for terrorists and an emblem of another Palestinian failure to seize opportunity?

I predict long-term unemployment, if this is a typical job interview:

In a statement issued in Gaza City, Islamic Jihad said: "The enemy should prepare coffins because we will respond quickly and decisively in the depths of the Zionist entity."

Shortly afterwards, a rocket fired from north Gaza crashed near the Israeli town of Sderot, causing no damage or injuries.

I also agree with Banagor:

I have to laugh at the expectations of the Palestinians who are demanding that “movement in and out of the Gaza strip” is a must.

Why? Because apparently they won’t have jobs without it.

I have to ask: why don’t they get some jobs in Egypt? Why does Israel have to support them? I thought all they wanted was “their” land back? You mean to say that they want Israeli money as well? I thought they hated depending on us. O glorious Palestinians, where is your pride? It’s okay to shoot Jews if they don’t pay you blood money? Is that it?

Can you imagine the gall?

No imagination is necessary: just listen to Mr. Abumansi's prediction, "If Israel opens its doors for the workers, no suicide bombers will come through, but if it keeps it closed, then operations will happen."

And where is the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas? Not cleaning his own house, but faulting Israel:

Late Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, killing five Palestinians, at least three of them armed. A few hours before that, a Palestinian stabbed two young Jewish men in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing one and seriously wounding the other.

Abbas blamed Israel for inciting the sudden escalation with its deadly raid in Tulkarem. "This murder intentionally aims at renewing the vicious cycle of violence," he said.

Mark Steyn is right:

[T]he world deemed Palestinians “deserving” of a state ten, three, six, eight decades ago, and they’ve absolutely no interest in getting it up and running. Any honest visitor to the Palestinian Authority is struck by the complete absence of any enthusiasm for nation-building – compared with comparable pre-independence trips to, say, Slovenia, Slovakia, or East Timor. Invited to choose between nation-building or Jew-killing, the Palestinians prioritise Jew-killing – every time.

It's childish and Kos-esque, I know, but: screw 'um.

(via LGF)