Palestinian militants ransack former Gush Katif greenhouses

Ge 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: Israel forever is bounded by he Nile on the West, and the Euphrates on the East. No man is qualified to have a thought or opinion otherwise.

"I am a respected academic, Marxist philosopher and a pioneer of the surrealist approach to ethics. Given these credentials, I have recently been offered a professorship at Tel Aviv University." You're welcome to visit and teach. One thing Israel IS is an epitome of the Jewish self-searching for reason and purpose. ALL ideas everyday are thrown around our universities, whether you like them or dislike them. That's why you'll notice that most of the discussions on either side of the issue are Jews. I'm not sure what your announcement of "I am a respected academic..." has to do with credentials. Credentials are usually a form of factual, respected references. You just told us who you think you are. Doesn't sound very credible to me, but it never stopped you before. When you do come, please let us know which flight you will be arriving on. A man of your stature deserves to be welcomed in the method most befitting you, and we will await your arrival with betted anticipation.

Gush Katif was Jewish for a very long time. Even Byzantine records depict some Jewish settlement there. It was given up during the 1920 and 1929 Rab riots when things were getting really hot...not much different than today. Jews were pulled out of that area and Hebron in order to save lives...not much different than today. It was even acknowledged by a Hamas spokesman who declared that they were so strong they even got Jews to abandon their own land.

Haaretz forgot to mention the Karni crossing closing! They also forgot to mention the reason why - terrorist threats. and who gets affected, like "Terrorist threats from the Pals seem to affect the Palestinian public more than the Israelis they seek to terrorize. While attempting to destroy anything remotely Israeli near Gaza and around its borders, they caused an IDF response which forced the closure of the crossing, leaving Pal produce to rot in the sun, causing millions of $$ in damage." Terror pays...but not for the Pals, it seems.

Leon, you're becoming too obvious! Do you want people to stop taking you seriously?

What else do you expect from a society of suicide bombers that can't target soldiers but civilians. Animals will behave like animals.

What else do you expect from a society of suicide bombers that can't target soldiers but civilians. Animals will behave like animals.

I am not surprised by their act of vandalism. They keep themselves poor and miserable so that they can blame the "zionists" for their so called oppression.

I'm sure our bleeding hearts will rationalize it: they were colonialist symbols & they had to go, the oppressed would never sell their honor by operating the racist equipment. The bottom line: you can give savage a computer, & he'll smash your head with it. Only the limousine liberals like Wolfensohn think it ain't so.

ah yes the irony oh so delicious. the 'brillian' wolfensohn and his dumb jewish friends should have given their money to help armless, toeless, blinded, rat poisoned jewish victms of the arab terror instead of flushing it down the 'palestinian' sewer.

The Gazans were quite right to destroy the greenhouses. I have it on good authority that one of the guards had seen a likeness of the Prophet in the folds of greenhouse netting, very similar to the common Christian phenomenon of the face of Jesus appearing in torillas and such like. As this was Jewish netting, the blasphemy was double and the guards had no choice but to make the greenhouses pay!

Post #2 was by me, but post #30 was by a weak imitator. And, in reply to Max Weber, #46, this is insulting, to suggest what I will do when I "will grow up": I am a respected academic, Marxist philosopher and a pioneer of the surrealist approach to ethics. Given these credentials, I have recently been offered a professorship at Tel Aviv University. I might come, as this shall be a wonderful opportunity to undermine the zionist entity from within.

Let keep ourselves away from racists thoughts. Muslims are not so different from ourselves. The problem is far more general: int'l aid goes to the pockets of the politicians, and people from stressed societies organize in maffia-like groups. Arafat is not different from Stroessner in Paraguay or Sadam Hussein, or King Luis XVI, a millionaire leading a hungry people, like Hamas is a nazi-like reaction to poverty and frustration. The rest is the same, brutality of human kind.

So as the Palestinians don't know how to use the Greenhouses (are you sure?), it's ok to have armed militias, who been hired by the Palestinian Authority to guard greenhouses, which were all under cultivation (and I must point out, using Palistinian help), rob them? Give me a break!

The Black Panthers used the same logic to brand the liberal whites as "worse than Jim Crow" blaming them for confusing black children into thinking that not all whites were enemies. In fact, even Lenin said that workers would "sell out" Communism for a piece of bread. Ergo, there should be no bread to sell out for.

They have a better chance of implementing law and order than another Israeli expeditionary force.

What did you really expect from these diobolical maniacs that the Bush administration and the EU and Russia and the rest of the world are trying to Democratize and Recognize as a civilised human race of people ? The USAID as well as europe and France and other contries have aided and abetted these modern day Nazi muslims .And if history is our guide then this should come as no surprise to you . What the world did to the Jews in the past they will continue to do until Mashiach comes and set up His Kindom and Throne in Jerusalem and build up the formoer ruins on the Temple Mount . The Goyim nations have never been on Israel's side and never will .They hate Israel and her Jews with a passion . Adonai made an eternal convenant with His people which can never be revoked .And the enemies that are in Israel today and surrounding her will Adonai at the end of the age destroy them .

It would appear that the first order of business for Hamas, if they ever gain and form a government will have to be domestic law and order.

Okay- I have to admit that this time I am gloating. I wasn't before but now I am. But seriously this is a bad sign that the impedis or kick start that the world wants to see for a viable Palestinian economy is faltering. I might be gloating outside but I am crying inside. If they need help then they should ask. Maybe this request for help can be a positive solid step forward.

Come on Leon, armchair Trotskyite that you are. I predict that a few years from now when you grow up you will either earn a living as a dentist or an accountant, this is what happens to all those in the West who dally with Marxism. Anyhow, good luck and all the best!

Since when was Gush Katif land belonging to the Jews? As far as I know Gaza was the home of the Philistines! Saving lives was top priority as far as I know the Commandments!

You are absolutely right. You properly quoted Golda Meir. Just one thing. If and when Jews return to Gush Katif it must be legal, and approved by both governments Palestinian and Israeli.

You couldn't be more right!!!

I admire your sense of humour!

Firstly I felt you were some kind of neo Marxist Trotskyite hermit sat in a bedsit somewhere trying to ferment a revolution from your keyboard. Interspersed with heavy bouts of drinking. Then I tended towards the agent provocateur theory. Make your point, stand back and enjoy. Now I see you as more of an excellent political satirist. Had I wanted to lambaste the Palestinians for their utter disregard for their own people I could have spent hours compiling a post to that effect. Far better that people reading this read your post instead. I couldn't have said it better... Yet I realise that you could indeed believe what you write(unlikely)or just enjoy provocation(possible). Regardless, your post ably demonstrates the futility of trying to sink money into the territories to solve its economic woes... The Palestinians should first attempt tasks within their capacity. Clearly technologically advanced Greenhouses were never going to be their forte. Far better to pursue activities more in keeping with their current limitations. Jihad training and disseminating propaganda are things they have shown an unsurpassed talent for.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Perhaps a bit silly to give greenhouses to the palestinians then!

Frankly, the Palestinians deserve everything that falls upon them. When will the world learn to stop throwing their money at these ungrateful people. They want to starve. Let them starve. They want to destroy there chances for exports and trade. Let them starve. Enough is Enough

He is usually one of the first ones to give us answers on Palestinians actions.

Those investors wo purchased the greenhouses (for the benefit of the Palestinian people) have now , maybe, learned the lesson that Israel has been sending for years.

Firstly I felt you were some kind of neo Marxist Trotskyite hermit sat in a bedsit somewhere trying to ferment a revolution from your keyboard. Interspersed with heavy bouts of drinking. Then I tended towards the agent provocateur theory. Make your point, stand back and enjoy. Now I see you as more of an excellent political satirist. Had I wanted to lambaste the Palestinians for their utter disregard for their own people I could have spent hours compiling a post to that effect. Far better that people reading this read your post instead. I couldn't have said it better... Yet I realise that you could indeed believe what you write(unlikely)or just enjoy provocation(possible). Regardless, your post ably demonstrates the futility of trying to sink money into the territories to solve its economic woes... The Palestinians should first attempt tasks within their capacity. Clearly technologically advanced Greenhouses were never going to be their forte. Far better to pursue activities more in keeping with their current limitations. Jihad training and disseminating propaganda are things they have shown an unsurpassed talent for.

irresponsible

Wilde Khayes! It was sure to happen - they eat their seedcorn!

There is only one thing missing in your article: Palestinian farmers threw out publicly over 100 tons of strawberries and tomatoes last week because Israel refused to reopen the Karni crossing during the harvesting time. That was hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenues lost for the Palestinian. That is the real damage.

Firstly I felt you were some kind of neo Marxist Trotskyite hermit sat in a bedsit somewhere trying to ferment a revolution from your keyboard. Interspersed with heavy bouts of drinking. Then I tended towards the agent provocateur theory. Make your point, stand back and enjoy. Now I see you as more of an excellent political satirist. Had I wanted to lambaste the Palestinians for their utter disregard for their own people I could have spent hours compiling a post to that effect. Far better that people reading this read your post instead. I couldn't have said it better... Yet I realise that you could indeed believe what you write(unlikely)or just enjoy provocation(possible). Regardless, your post ably demonstrates the futility of trying to sink money into the territories to solve its economic woes... The Palestinians should first attempt tasks within their capacity. Clearly technologically advanced Greenhouses were never going to be their forte. Far better to pursue activities more in keeping with their current limitations. Jihad training and disseminating propaganda are things they have shown an unsurpassed talent for.

Palestinians should be aware of all Zionist entrapments such as television and telephones. They should cut all contact with Zionist providers of electricity and opt for another alternative even if this means living by candlelight. Also they should return to better ways of transport such as donkeys and camels in order not to finance Zionist car agencies. The same goes for tractors, irrigation, vaccines, and anything bourgeois that comes from the Zionists. I envision a pure Palestinian state where its citizens will live only with what they produce with no outside and degrading imports.

there are still many olive trees left for the Gazan thugs.

Just confirms my opinion that radical Muslims are today's most evil danger. They don't know how to build. They don't want progress, all they are interested in is destroying any vestige that comes from the West even if this means forcing their population to live in abject conditions. On the other hand they use Western technology to plot their evil plans and use gullible Western countries to launch their attacks. I hope Europe will wake up and smell the coffee. The enemy is in our back yard.

The greenhouses are a water instensive form of agriculture, built in the driest and most crowded strip of land on earth. By the end of the Gaza occupation both the quantity and quality of water available to the Palestinian population had fallen well below the WHO minimum standards for human subsistence. At times people have had to boil their sewage to survive. It was a classic colonial enterprise, like cash crops in Africa, set up for the benefit of the occupier with no attention paid to the real development needs of the country.

The greenhouses meant nothing to the Palestinians.Those who did this thing only harm their own people. They have stolen from their own people and robbed them of an opportunity to do something good for the community. Palestinian people have been kept in poverty and in squalor, because it is to the benefit of the ruling parties to use this propaganda to "milk" the west for "financial assistance" under the guise to "assist" those poor Palestinians. How they deceive the west and use this money for their own political ends. Their top ranks fill their bellies every night on funds meant for their people, but the average Palestinian never sees that money, unless he becomes a martyr and his family receives it after his bloody death. If the Palestinians want to be independent, have a state of their own, be recognised then they have to get their act together. But as scripture says, "And the older shall serve the younger". Israel is the younger brother. Ishmael the older brother. Rina Rina

What this proves is that the "Palestinians" aren't interest in their own development, but rather to destroy the State of the Jews, piece by piece. Gush katif were model communities based on torah principles. There was no robberies, no sexual assaults, no muggings etc etc. Decent people living decent lives - a taste of the coming messanic era. And the world and the eirev rav couldn't take it and then made sure that it was totally destroyed.

We would like to hear their opinion! What will be their excuse? heheheh

Excellent. Fatah once again doing for Israel what Sharon, Peres and the IDF were too scared to do - destroying the Gaza greenhouses. What a wonderful Tu B'shvat gift to Israeli agriculture!!!

Arafat, Fatah and the PA for over 12 years have nurtured and sponsored a cluture of thuggery and thuggers, wasting more than half of the national budget on those security thugs that Israel and Arafat worked out as part of the deal for Arafat and the PA to become the subcontractor for Israel security in the Occupied territories. If we are to take out the 37,000 fictional employees within the PA and take out the 60,000 security thugs, we are left with 60,000 civil servant who are working and serving the nation. How could any one accept such government. The PA under Fatah proved it is nothing but a criminal enterprise.

animals behave with some sense. they kill only when they must eat and they function in their ecosystem. something that can't be said for the pals. at best i would call them a virus; multiplying and feeding off a host (israel) while trying to destroy it at the same time. If I were to draw a cartoon of the prophet muhammed as a donkey, the joke would be on the donkey.

Frikin' typical. Give almost anybody else in the world a chunk of land to govern with the help and assistance of the worlds nation and they would manage to get an economy going and get its people out of the dirt, instead they wallow in it and the misery. One of these days the world will really stop caring and tire of the wannabes that cry "wolf" and swat them like a house fly.

animals do not behave this way

Wolfensohn,a Jew,"bought" the property from the Zionists and "gave it" to the proud descendants of Ramses the Great.Would he have done so if he had calculated the property could be b vandalized?! No,obviously. So the money was misapropriated and a photo-Hollywood show was instigated.It was Israeli soldiers,dressed as the palestinians,who would have never dreamt about destroying their Sheherezade gardens,they created in sweat of they row under the whip of Jewish overseers

Once agian, the Palestinians prove that they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Gaza only flourished when the Jews were there, it will never bloom again, unless of course the Jews return.

"They don't have the means"...Here you go. "They don't know how to use it"...Here you go. "The occupation won't allow them to focus straight" Dumb is dumb, but the Pals take the cake on this one. They all seem to be able to make it to some Islamic University in the area, but no one has the drive to ask for a 50-page instruction booklet? These people farmed, and continued to farm, in other locations for years. What, suddenly they forgot how to plant? What seasons are good? None of them own an electrical device in their home? There is no excuse for this except that they cannot get past the victimization in order to tread a path for themselves, and it's their fault only. No one can drag a horse to water and make them drink, though you seem to think you can, and blame the horse's "owner". Jews showed up in Israel and made the damn place work, without all of this fancy equipment, without large influxes of cash, AND under fire. I'm sorry, but the bar has been set, Get to it!

These terrorists are just proving what is written in the Torah (Bible)..that the Land of Israel is fruitful ONLY for the Jewish people, and when they don't control it, it becomes a wasteland. I knew this would happen.

so who is surprised?

Since 3,800 dunams of greenhouses still exsist in assumed good order this isnt exactly a catastrophy. The question is though, will the rumored moderate arab populace of unoccupied gaza a)fire and imprison those criminals 'gaurds' responsible for the looting? b)turn the other check and blame the western aid agencies for preserving 'zionist' agricultural-infrastructure ? c) give the 'gaurds' a pay raise and slap them on the wrist in public while congradulating them for having the courage to fight the 'zionist plot' when no one else dared?

Some things should never be done: Burning the books and destroying the greenhouses in the desert. Doing this is not only wrong. It is a sin.

hey amira, just wondering, we got this uh, high tech agro equipmment just destroyed. probably in agro and gnp value beats the pruned hedges no?

Years after the fact, Mark Twain would still observe of his trip to modern Gaza that Palestine sits clothed in sackcloth and ashes! The Palestinians need to tear out the pictures of Arafat in their children's textbooks and replace the pages with wholesome education in the arts and sciences. Learning physics and mathematics is a lot tougher and less glorious than rampaging outside with a trigger-happy finger on a Kalashnikov, but the world would have witnessed budding Palestinian Gaza greenhouse roses in the morning sun being transformed to beautiful bouquets available for sale in Europe by the same afternoon. Israel did it! I saw it with my own eyes and marveled. I knew they were a people that truly found pleasure in her stones and favored the dust thereof because of their covenant with the land.

to quote the simpsons- 'worst p.r. campaign ever!!!' they may have the world's symapthy.. they certainly have the arab nation's sympathy! but what good has come of this? still living in 'camps' and raiding the UN and greenhouses while their people suffer. give up the revolutionary stuff and deal with Kadima's terms.

Well Izzy, I think you hit on one of the fundamental pathologies extant in the Haaretz discussion groups -- an overabundance of self-righteous zealots (of every conceivable political stripe) who take themselves oh-so-seriously and are devoid of any trace of a sense of humor or understanding or irony and sarcasm. Bunch of nitwits who must have IQ's smaller than their shoe size, if you ask me....

Never ceases to amaze. Civilization literally took a step back here. Look at the before/after pictures of the Gush and read about stuff like this. Productive communities, high-tech agriculture, neat homes, gardens, schools, and playgrounds turned overnight into...shit. So depressing.

I'm sure there are some in Gaza who dispair at the carnage, the poverty, the visionless eyes, the Islamic stampede that moves like locust over the land, destroying everything in it's path. I'm sure there are a few who understand the depth of depravity the Pals have displayed once again. It's much easier to tote a rifle then pull a plow. 'A foolish, little people' is how Peter O'Toole said it in L of Arabia. Keep this garbage of humanity away from us; this kind of behavior is taught and trained, heaven help us.

... with a greenhouse on his head?

What a shame.. Don't they realize that the world will not support them forever? That they must try to find a way to do things on their own? What does the Koran say about lazyness - dishonesty - honesty.

The Pals. can never miss the opportunity to miss another opportunity. They only know how to detroy. Just show me one single thing they have managed to build at anytime besides their hate educational system, where playtime envolves children strutting around in imitation bomb belts.

Not for thieves and usurpers. We see this manifesting itself time and again, and no matter what is done, it will not change. The land of Israel- including Gaza, belongs to the nation of Israel.

Seriously, after the settlers left, all the money in the world was not going to keep these things running. They got a screaming deal, some of the most sophisticated greenhouses ever built, paid for by other people, for their benefit. They did could not figure out how they worked. They could not effectively organize their operation. They could not work out the timing or keep the bugs or keep the equipment clean. They were lucky to get one small substandard crop of easy to grow strawberries out of it and it was down hill from there. They could not pay their workers, aid sent to them would not make it down the food chain without being stolen. They have kept themselves in poverty for decades deliberately and anyone who thought this generous donation was going to change anything has been deluding themselves.

they left us with these greenhouses and we do not know what to do with them. So we might as well take them apart and sell the scrap.

Where's your sense of humor (irony)? Rosgarten is celebrating the rejection of the false consciousness represented by the proposed creation of a civilized Palestinian society. Who among the Palestinians would want to betray the historical mythology they have surrounded themselves with? Why would they want a true nation where families can be raised and a community built, when, as the Palestinians have continually chosen, the nation can instead bask in victimhood and righteous, infantile rage?

Shame on all of you for gloating at the Palestinians misery. If the settlers would have left the shirt on their backs at Gush Katif instead of escaping to Israel with the shirts on their backs, the oppressed Palestinians would not have had a need to destroy the greenhouses. Where is your compassion for the oppressed?

If the people of Gaza cannot run a greenhouse, how could they run a state?

or cnn... no.. there are no pal kids posing nearby. i hope for the decent people in gaza that their tourist industry is thriving by now... errrrr also hope usaid takes notice of this. i'd rather grow food for the pals here in the us thn have them destroy it there. we could add some ganja, chill'em out a bit.

listen folks before we throw stones- either leon's post was a marvelous sardonic satirical ironic etc mockery of bs revolutionary waste or he truly is out of his mind. i think he was being ironic and made a helluva point. if no, he still made a helluva point, ie keep ur people poor fatah/hamas/all revolutionaries so u dont have to do real work. bonus- tv exposure and u get to fire guns in the air and hang with ISM chicks.

What! How dare you blaspheme by uttering the words "work" so close to the UNRWA and ISM offices in Gaza! There is some good incitement going on on the streets, and on the corner there are a group of PA kids being instructed on how bad Jews Settlers are, even if they can't see them, they can...they can...SMELL them...no, wait, they can DREAM about how Bad Settlers are! How dare you speak of WORK in Farms! Time to start a Riot! Get those PA kids to join and carry those Hamas flags and Rifles! How dare you speak of WORK in Farms!

Some ten thousand Jews lived in the Gush Katif for approximately thirty-five years, and built flourshing greenhouses and irrigation systems for growing flowers and crops. Gush Katif became the bread basket of Israel. For whatever reason, Ariel Sharon evicted the Jews and allowed the Arabs to return. One would have thought that the Arabs would want to continue a prosperous activity that was handed to them on a silver platter.

The Billions in stolen aid money Stolen by Corrupt PA officials from USAID, EU aid and UNRWA, could have built lots of Grrenhouses. They didn't need to TAKE the JEWS" Greenhouses. The Palestinians have acres of empty Sand to built LOTS of Greenhouses, they didn't need to take the JEWS' Greenhouses.

...is sick, mentally sick that is! What is the contribution of this person to this forum? Sick...really sick!

We all know how the Arab press will report this. "Jewish militants disguised as Palestinians, entered Gaza and destroyed the working greenhouses in order to prevent employment for the poor downtrodden Palestinians. The Jews should therefore rebuild these greenhouses." (and Wolfensohn and his friends probably will)

Binational state anyone ? I recall words of some palestinians I read about 3 years ago :"Leave us alone and we'll amaze the world!" I must admit I am amazed.

Not that anything will help as long as the world tries to fool themselves that there's a decent humanitarian and democratic future for the Palestinians, but this just AGAIN proves that they are nothing short of animals!

The people who were supposed to guard the greenhouses ended up looting them? All that monetary help from those US taxpayers and international donors to help the poor Palestinians rebuild their lives was wasted? We all know why, don't we? It's because of the OCCUPATION. I'm not sure whether we should be crying or laughing.

They were also to stupid to run the hot houses. Thanks guys, well done.

Most of the international donors, who paid millions of dollars for these greenhouses were Jews trying to help de Gazans. Now these structures and the croops were ransacked by militants, thugs and residents of a nearby village, there was even a exchange of fire between them!; it is always the same history with the palestinians...

Hey Palestine! The future's so bright, ya just gotta wear shades!

Thats what happens when you chase Jews from their land and give it to the Arabs.

I admire the visionary consistency of the Palestinian fighters. Using these greenhouses for economic purposes would have provided a burgeois employment to hundreds of people, thus supporting hundreds of families and reducing their revolutionary fervor. Also, the dire poverty exposed to the world media is on of their strongest weapons against the zionist entity, and nothing should be allowed to damage it.

Further to your assertion few days ago about the blosoming of the Negev during the great "prosperity" of the Arab residents of the Negev, a hundred years ago.- Well now you have a prove how such blosoming was arrived at. Read the book fy Father Felix Bovet, from the 1860s. You would come with the true achievements of the Arab residents, not only in the south bu all throughout the Land of Israel. Adios amigo, have another Calsberg while you are reflecting on the disaster that has befallen the ex-Gush Katiff. What a unnecessary disaster, poor workers, poor Gaza!