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Gaza's Only Power Plant Knocked Offline
necro81 (917438) writes "Gaza's only power plant (see this profile at IEEE Spectrum — duct tape and bailing wire not included) has been knocked offline following an Israeli strike. Reports vary, but it appears that Israeli tank shells caused a fuel bunker at the plant to explode. Gaza, already short on electricity despite imports from Israel and Egpyt, now faces widening blackouts."
Israel is sure doing a good job in that area creating more enemies, if that is their intention, the plan is working.
Depending on just how freshwater is distributed in Gaza, and the infrastructure demands it has, this could mean a lot more heat exhaustion, and water-borne infection related deaths.
Even a smallish percentage of people being affected is a huge number of people dying in a high temperature densely packed urban environment.
In a word: no. Terrorism is almost definitionally non-government organizations engaged in violence to effect political change.
When governments do it, we call it various other things based on our own perspective of the situation: war, policing, tyranny, among others.
Do you propose that all concentration camps should be nuked? Gaza is a concentration camp. Until Israel gives all it's citizens equal voting rights, it is nothing more than one of earths most ugly prisons*.
* What does that make the Israelis?
Israel targeted the school deliberately, says it was warned after the fact *(It wasn't.) Then blamed Hamas. Now we know the truth, days later.
The question is will the US continue to veto UN action to hold this rogue terrorist state to task?
...from your territitory and chances are good that you won't get missles fired back at you. Sign a document to that effect and you will most likely have peace.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Obviously we do. Is there some magical threshold of people calling out wrongdoings that would be sufficient for you?
I hate how ambiguous this kind of assertion is. As if there was some unspecified "they" keeping us from discussing it. I've been called an anti-semite for condemning this kind of bombing before, but that just represents one more thing that particular person was wrong about.
This one seems to be caused by a tiny percentage of assholes on both sides. Peace will never be in the assholes' best interest as it will reduce the amount of control the assholes have over their populations. Dozens of times during my lifetime peace has been within reach, only to be shattered by some asshole on one side or the other. Until such time as leaders arise on both sides who are interested and committed to a peaceful solution, this situation will not change.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I can see how the people of Gaza could think so.
They see Israel as an outside force that periodically comes through town to kill everyone. They see Hamas as the only party willing and able to answer Israel's violence with some Palestinian violence. Whether or not that view of the situation accurately corresponds to reality is irrelevant; the fact of the matter is, the people of Gaza feel that in the current climate, Hamas represents their interests better than any of the other options.
Until the Israeli administration can find a way to change that perception (hint: continuation of the violence, marginalization, and blockage is unlikely to accomplish that goal), I expect continued support of Hamas and a continuation of desperate rocket attacks on Israel.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Also, I should point out that they (the people of Gaza) don't have voting rights. They used to. They voted in Hamas in free and fair elections. Of course, after Hamas consolidated power, they suspended further elections indefinitely. Hamas still enjoys widespread popular support in Gaza, but they'd be in power regardless, since elections are no longer held and there is no longer any democratic means of removing them from power.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
So... you're on the fence about which side to blame.
One person, one vote, one time
"the people of Gaza feel that in the current climate, Hamas represents their interests better than any of the other options."
Achille Talon
Hop!
Please, someone explain to me how seemingly rational and normal people who seem to have it all together and seemingly hold a good sum of beliefs that can be called measured and critical can demonize Israel for defending themselves...in an amazingly measured manner I must say...in a lion's den of homicidal and genocidal area of the world against a people who will accept nothing but their destruction (it's in their charter or something) when all these other dudes (who happen to be a designated terrorist organization) by NATO..I think, at least by the US)...and.... ...you know what, fuck it. People who complain about Israel and make martyrs out of HAMAS are truly fucking deluded or stupid.
You realise that those rockets Hamas has it was probably getting for free, and those tunnels it built were actually the main way to get food and supplies into Gaza due to Israels blockade on imports, as they limited total food shipments to just 136 truck loads a day, for the entire Gaza population of 1.8million...
Hamas are far from blameless, but they also aren't anywhere near 100% of the problem.
The irony is that early in this round of fighting rockets fired by Hamas into Israel hit power equipment in Israel used to supply power to Gaza knocking out power to tens of thousands in Gaza - a self inflicted goal on the part of Hamas. the Israelis promptly fixed it restoring power to tens of thousands of people in Gaza. I doubt that most people are aware in the first place that Israelsuppliez much of the power to Gaza or that the Palestinian governing authorities are perpetually behind in their payments for the power but despite that the Israelis don't turn off the power.
Anyway, I wouldn't read much into this story, it was probably a stray shell that caused the problem. In the this as in all other things, the Israelis are grossly inefficient at harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. If the wanted to harm civilians they would follow the lead of Syria, who has managed to kill more civilians in couple of years than soldiers and civilians that the Israelis have managed to kill in 65 years.
Incidentally the NYT reported yesterday that the civilian death toll in Ukraine has now reached 800 - if you add the 300+ Ukrainian army deaths plus the unknown number of rebel dead it is greater than the death toll in Gaza. Now comes news of 20 more civilian dead overnight including 5 elderly when an old age home was hit by shells fired by the Ukrainian army.
Trying to blame Israel for very real world-wide problem of Muslim-on-neighbor violence is missing the root cause. The Palestinians and most Muslims have been taught from age zero to hate the Jews because of the lunatic ravings of their "prophet." Their Qur'an is filled with war tactics and how to treat the enemy, which is everyone who doesn't believe in their god. And the vast majority of Muslims believe in Sharia law that enforces these barbaric 8th century laws. Browse thereligionofpeace.com for a few insights into the real source of the problem.
terror tunnels
Rush, is that you?
How do you distinguish a "terror tunnel" from the many tunnels used to smuggle food, clothing, potable water, and basic construction materials?
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Perhaps, if voting were the only way to establish whether or not popular support exists. Thankfully enough, some geniuses back in the day thought up this crazy idea called a non-binding "poll". Think of it as an election, but the results aren't used for anything other than publication.
Of course, even simple polls won't accurately gauge popular support for Hamas. Many external factors are at play here. For example, Hamas' popularity recently plummeted in a very serious way. Why? Because they stopped paying their employees (civil servants, military, etc.). Why did they stop paying them? Well, it's complicated, and I concede that I myself don't understand all the details. However, it seems that it has something to do with the recent formation of a Hamas-Fatah unity government and Israel's feelings towards Hamas. Let's just say that Fatah government workers are still getting paid, but Hamas workers' pay is suspended until they are vetted. Of course, people don't like when their paychecks stop coming it, so I'm not surprised to see a significant dive in their popularity ratings. However, it can be argued that this is the direct result of Israeli meddling in Palestinian affairs, specifically with the intent of weakening Hamas' popularity. In that context, it's not clear that Hamas is any less loved today than before the paychecks stopped.
Anyway, anyone with even cursory familiarity with Gaza agrees. Even Palestinians who oppose the brand of violent resistance espoused by Hamas sympathize with the movement. Israel's manipulation of the situation may cost Hamas some popularity, but it has no meaningful effect on popular support for violence against the state of Israel, which is at the core of Hamas philosophy.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
The people in Gaza are not Israeli citizens.
Israel does not control the civilian population in Gaza since it withdrew out of the Gaza strip in 2005.
Since I'm sure you'll mention the naval blockade, So for your information, the blockade was enacted in June 2007, when the Palestinians elected a terrorist organization (Hamas) to lead them, and started firing rockets in to Israel.
Btw, right after their election, Hamas eradicated PLO members from the Gaza strip (which were *relatively* moderate muslims), through a series of violent clashes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
Sigs are for the weak.
Why doesn't Israel just nuke that shithole?
Dude, because that's NOT how Israel works, nor would it serve their purposes. Dispute what you hear from the press, Israel is actually being very measured in their response and has gone to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Just nuking Gaza would not be consistent with what they are trying to do.
Hamas started it and reuses to agree to any proposed cease fire.
Doesn't matter who started it. That's an argument that children make to justify their own bad behavior. There is no innocent party here.
Israel isn't the group calling for the extermination, Hamas is.
Israel has turned Gaza into a large open air prison. Many people in Gaza are innocent of any criminal action and yet they are made to suffer along with the terrorists. Israel will not give any voice in government to anyone who is not Jewish. Israel is not remotely being a fair minded party here. They conquered this territory and haven't done a good job of winning hearts and minds. They aren't going to convince the extremists but they could have convinced the more reasonable people to deal with the extremists. There is no evidence I can see that this was ever tried with any serious intent.
Israel has also offered legitimacy to the Palestinian government in exchange for a cease fire and removing the language in the charter to kill all jews.
Hamas is not the Palestinian government. Neither is Fatah which is the other major political group involved. They are roughly akin to political parties with a percentage of their membership (particularly Hamas) who are radical. There are extremists in the Israeli government too and they keep provoking the Palestinians even when it is clearly not a good idea. Neither side is listening to what the other cares about and neither has been willing to do what it will take to bring peace.
If it's oiled wire, stored in oiled paper, it's actually meant for concrete work with re-bar, but is actually used most often to string low-charge electric fences. It is commonly used with horses in conjunction with white, vinyl warning fence. You get anywhere from 50-200 feet per spool.
Baling wire is substantially thicker, un-oiled, and comes in much larger spools; 500-1000 feet per spool.
The spools in oil paper are meant to be strung by hand and not intended to be used for tying anything long-term; hence the lighter gauge. In fact, it's meant to hold re-bar together long enough for the concrete to be poured, thereby securing the re-bar and negating the need for the wire. Baling wire is intended to be strung by machine, and exists mainly to tie things together for seasons (and hold together the entire Midwest's infrastructure). Square bales that use baling wire must be stored out of the elements, so the wire being un-oiled is not an issue.
To the GP: If you use baling twine, then your machinery sucks, sell that P.O.S. Oliver and buy something made in the last fifty years. I bet you run narrow base Allis-Chalmers too, don't you?
The people in Gaza are not Israeli citizens.
And yet Israel insists on controlling the territory. They may not get a vote but they ARE Israeli citizens until such time as Israel actually stops trying to control their political processes and truly leaves. Israel conquered the territory, they control what goes in or out and they fairly regularly send their military in. Even the maps show Gaza as a part of Israel. What they have done is to conquer a territory full of people who don't like Israel and never made a secret of that and then treated them badly for a long time. Shocking why things have gone badly.
Since I'm sure you'll mention the naval blockade, So for your information, the blockade was enacted in June 2007, when the Palestinians elected a terrorist organization (Hamas) to lead them, and started firing rockets in to Israel. Btw, right after their election, Hamas eradicated PLO members from the Gaza strip (which were *relatively* moderate muslims), through a series of violent clashes.
Yep, both sides are doing all sorts of evil things to each other. That's what happens in a civil war. Ever consider that a big part of the reason Hamas has such a large voice is because of the decades of stupid decisions by Israel? I totally get that Israel is a bit touchy given that they are surrounded by neighboring nations who have to put it mildly been quite hostile. But this is a conflict that will NEVER be won with bullets or walls. It will be won with cooperation and discussion and genuine caring about others.
Over at the Wall Street Journal Bret Stephens questions the claim that as many as 1,023 Palestinian lives have been lost in the conflict. The column is paywalled but can be accessed for free via the WSJ Opinion Facebook Page.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Israel claims that it is merely exercising its right to self-defense and that Gaza is no longer occupied. Here’s what you need to know about these talking points and more.
Israel has killed almost 800 Palestinians in the past twenty-one days in the Gaza Strip alone; its onslaught continues. The UN estimates that more than 74 percent of those killed are civilians. That is to be expected in a population of 1.8 million where the number of Hamas members is approximately 15,000. Israel does not deny that it killed those Palestinians using modern aerial technology and precise weaponry courtesy of the world’s only superpower. In fact, it does not even deny that they are civilians.
Israel’s propaganda machine, however, insists that these Palestinians wanted to die (“culture of martyrdom”), staged their own death (“telegenically dead”) or were the tragic victims of Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes (“human shielding”). In all instances, the military power is blaming the victims for their own deaths, accusing them of devaluing life and attributing this disregard to cultural bankruptcy. In effect, Israel—along with uncritical mainstream media that unquestionably accept this discourse—dehumanizes Palestinians, deprives them even of their victimhood and legitimizes egregious human rights and legal violations.
This is not the first time. The gruesome images of decapitated children’s bodies and stolen innocence on Gaza’s shores are a dreadful repeat of Israel’s assault on Gaza in November 2012 and winter 2008–09. Not only are the military tactics the same but so too are the public relations efforts and the faulty legal arguments that underpin the attacks. Mainstream media news anchors are inexplicably accepting these arguments as fact.
Below I address five of Israel’s recurring talking points. I hope this proves useful to newsmakers.
1) Israel is exercising its right to self-defense.
As the occupying power of the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Territories more broadly, Israel has an obligation and a duty to protect the civilians under its occupation. It governs by military and law enforcement authority to maintain order, protect itself and protect the civilian population under its occupation. It cannot simultaneously occupy the territory, thus usurping the self-governing powers that would otherwise belong to Palestinians, and declare war upon them. These contradictory policies (occupying a land and then declaring war on it) make the Palestinian population doubly vulnerable.
The precarious and unstable conditions in the Gaza Strip from which Palestinians suffer are Israel’s responsibility. Israel argues that it can invoke the right to self-defense under international law as defined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. The International Court of Justice, however, rejected this faulty legal interpretation in its 2004 Advisory Opinion. The ICJ explained that an armed attack that would trigger Article 51 must be attributable to a sovereign state, but the armed attacks by Palestinians emerge from within Israel’s jurisdictional control. Israel does have the right to
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The (very Muslim) Egypt is also blockading Gaza.
Explain that away, smartarse.
If you are curious why so many children are killed in Gaza, look at this footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Nobody is campaigning to keep the homosexuals unable to marry — they are unable to do so already. Not because they have no right — only because they have no ability.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Several important facts are missing from the summary. The only correct one is that, yes, Gaza's only power plant has been attacked.
However:
1. The effect of this power plant being out of commission is relatively minor. Gaza receives most of its electricity (and water), whether in war or peace, from, guess who - Israel. And no, they don't pay their bills (their debt is around $500 million). In fact the bizarre and twisted reality in the Middle East today is that the Israeli taxpayer is funding electricity for the enemy's rocket manufacturers.
2. The Israeli army has denied firing anywhere near the power plant and there is a high probability that the attack was a misfired Hamas rocket or mortar bomb, similar to other recent cases where Hamas rockets have killed Gazans.
3. About 50,000 Gazans have already been in a blackout for a couple of weeks since a Hamas rocket fell near one of the power lines supplying Gaza with electricity from Israel. The Israeli Electric Company will not risk its technicians' lives to repair this line while under enemy fire, thank you very much.
it would be more like New Jersey nuking its jail if the jail were 99% full of innocent people who happened to live on the property before the jail was built
I find it interesting that pretty much all posts in support of the Gazans have been moderated down, yet there seem to be an awful lot of such posts. There's nothing like censorship by the mods to ensure that all viewpoints aren't heard equally. So with the expectation of being moderated down...
Israel likes to claim they're targetting Hamas installations. Yet if that's the case, each of those installations they've targetted has only launched an average of less than two rockets at Israel, when you consider the number of rockets Israel claims have been launched vs. the number of sites they've targetted.
It seems to me rather highly unlikely that Hamas has actually got *that* many rocket launchers, considering they have to be smuggled in.
Another common thread is the "terror tunnels." Don't forget that Gaza is isolated and has to smuggle in supplies. There is no way to tell whether a tunnel was being used for smuggling goods in or attackers out, but given that there have only been *two* reports of Hamas sending attackers through the tunnels, I think it's safe to say that those tunnels were being used primarily to smuggle in goods.
Well over a 1000 Gazans have been killed, the vast majority civilians. In the meantime, only 3 Israeli civilians have been killed. As to the soldiers on both sides, I *expect* them to die -- they're in battle. I've no sympathy for dead soldiers on either side.
I don't see how anyone can take a "moderate" stance on the issue. Israel invaded Palestine. Israel destroys Gazan homes to make room for settlements in violation of the Geneva conventions. Israel targets civilian infrastructure. Israel has tanks, planes, missiles, and gun emplacements; the Gazans have some pretty-much-useless rocket launchers that don't do any damage to Israeli infrastructure.
The Gazans are walled in, have no where to escape to, and are, for the most part, just civilians trying to survive. Bleat as they will about "self defence", I don't buy the Israeli arguments for this violent and genocidal assault on the civilians of Gaza. Not one bit.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Here's a link for you, to Rush Limbaugh's site. Oh wait my bad, I mean a link to the New York Times. That's a notorious right-wing propaganda site, right?
You jest, but the commie pinko hippie liberal rag known as the New York Times just came out in support of legalization of cannabis. After a few states already legalized. After a majority of the country has come out in favor of legalization. Forgive me for considering the NYT to be a right-wing medium.
It all comes back round to Hamas.
Or, conversely, it all comes back round to Israel. It's Israel that's enforcing the blockade. It's Israel that's killing Palestinian civilians. Yes, it sucks to be a Jew in southern Israel, and the rocket attacks make it worse, but the rocket attacks are because of the attacks from Israel. It sucks to have rockets raining down on civilians, but those are because Israel prevents Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated weaponry capable of being targeted.
Sometimes I wonder why Israel doesn't just bomb everything in Gaza flat and kill everyone.
Sometimes I too wonder why Israel doesn't take a page out of the Nazi playbook and just go full-out holocaust on the Palestinians. Then I remember what happened to Hitler.
But let me return to something you said that I found interesting...
That tunnel is there to kidnap Israelis, and the purpose of the kidnapping is terror.
Perhaps. Much like the purpose of the IDF is to kill Palestinians, and the purpose of the killing is terror. Or perhaps we can be reasonable people and acknowledge that these tunnels have been being used to smuggle essential supplies ever since the Israeli-Egyptian blockade was put into place, and that the IDF actions are intended to stop, prevent, or deter Hamas' violent ambitions.
Nah, that wouldn't fit in with your "we're right, they're wrong" mindset. Worse still, such dangerously reasonable lines of thought might lead to a peaceful agreement between the two warring parties. The horror.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
And yet somehow they cannot make the connection that the rockets that Hamas shoots into Israel by the hundreds brings that Israeli destruction to them.
Indeed, this is amusing. As amusing as the fact that Israel cannot make the connection that the destruction Israel brings to Gaza (along with the blockade, along with the refusal to recognize sovereignty, etc) is the reason (are the reasons?) Hamas shoots rockets into Israel.
I find it odd that Anti-Israel propagandists seem to expect that being under constant fire should not bring any reprisal.
I find it odd that Anti-Arab propagandists seem to expect that continued flaunting of international law and marginalization of a powerless people should not bring any reprisal. Face the facts. Israelis are a bloodthirsty lot. Just look at the frequency with which they initiate armed conflict with nearly any neighboring state. I'd compare numbers with your ISIS stats, but I'm afraid that Gaza is a tiny fraction of the size of the territory ISIS is operating in. If we looked at number of dead per day per square mile, you wouldn't be quite so quick to encourage these comparisons.
Also, thank you for appointing me an Anti-Israel propagandist. I hear dismissing people outright is a great way of winning them over in rational debate.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
So it seems that you've linked me to a page of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2014.
If you recall, I asked for you to point out Hamas' aggression. According to the link you provided, July 7 was the first time Hamas fired any rockets at Israel in 2014. According to my calendar, July 7 falls after July 2, which is when Israeli Jews kidnapped and burned alive the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
Your turn.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Hamas is intentionally targeting civilians. It has publicly said so and (more importantly) done so for many decades now. They kidnap and murder Israeli civilians. They call for Israel's destruction without room for negotiation. There are plenty of video evidence proving this and on the other hand proving that Israel has aborted important military targets because of the presence of civilians. Hamas has released numerous videos praising their people for acting as human shields. So don't take our word for it. Take *their* word for it.
Your post simply shows how often international NGOs depend witnesses that later turn out to be Hamas members. NGOs have neither the time, funding or expertise to witness these events first-hand so they rely on Hamas members instead. When a rocket lands on a school and witnesses say it came from Israel, they don't have the necessary expertise to actually reach that conclusion. Hamas' own rockets have landed *inside* Gaza hundreds of times in the past two weeks. Do you honestly think none of these caused Gazan civilian deaths? And yet, the media hasn't reported once of such an event. Funny that, eh?
Every nation has a right to defend itself...unless that nation is Israel. Then, these people expect them to just keep turning the other cheek.
Funny, Obama and the rest of them called Afghanistan a Just War, which we launched in response to 9/11. So American can go to Afghanistan, half way around the world and fuck them up, but Israel needs to just keep absorbing the rockets.
I see.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The storyline put forth goes like so: this all started when Hamas kidnapped three teenagers and then killed them in June. Israel launched a search and rescue mission, and Hamas responded by firing rockets.
But it's all bullshit. The month before the teens were kidnapped, the IDF straight up murdered two Palestinian boys in the street. And the month before that Israel tried to provoke Hamas by murdering one of its members the same night that Hamas and Fatah announced a unity agreement. The day before the kidnapping, Israel murdered a member of Hamas they accused of planning rocket attacks. Despite Israel's repeated violations of it's own cease fire agreement with Hamas, the latter did not respond in kind. Finally, not only had Hamas not fired any rockets since the last time Israel violated a cease fire in 2012, it had helped arrest those who had.
But Bibi found the excuse he needed with the kidnappings of the three teenagers. Despite being pretty damned sure they were all dead - you can hear gunshots over one of the teens cell phones and the car was soon found full of blood and bullet casings - they spent weeks arresting Palestinians and bulldozing homes in Gaza for a kidnapping in the West Bank even after the Palestinian Authority was helping search for the missing teens. And even Israeli outlets admit that rockets were only fired in response to IDF attacks:
At least 16 rockets were fired at Israel Monday morning, most of them hitting open areas in the Eshkol region, the army said. The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more.
Since then, a thousand Palestinians have died, many of them children, for which the population equivalent would be over 200,000 people getting killed in the U.S. If anyone is defending themselves, it's Hamas defending the people of Gaza from racist Israeli provocation and aggression.
You haven't provided any evidence that Hamas launched even a single rocket prior to the immolation of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
Anyway, in case you're having trouble with the timeline and/or the principle of causality:
June 12, three Israeli teenage "settlers" are kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank while hitchhiking, probably by Palestinians.
July 2, a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem is kidnapped and burned alive by Israelis.
July 7, Hamas begins its retaliation, launching dozens (and subsequently hundreds) of rockets per day into Israel.
July 8, large scale IDF assault on Gaza.
The current situation (large scale IDF assault on Gaza) can be said to be the result of one of more of the following:
Hamas' retaliatory rocket attacks.
The abduction and immolation of Mohammed Abu Khdeir in East Jerusalem.
The abduction and murder of three teenage Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Don't pretend that Hamas just woke up grumpy one day and decided to start firing off hundreds of rockets at Israel to pass the time.
Also, regarding the discrepancy between Israel's handling of the crimes committed in Israel versus Fatah's handling of the crimes committed in the West Bank (yes, Fatah, not Hamas, because the settler teens were killed in the West Bank, not Gaza)... Perhaps you're not aware of this, but while the Israeli government actually has sovereignty over Israeli territory, Fatah unfortunately does not have sovereignty over the West Bank. Perhaps if Israel were to allow a real sovereign government to exist in the West Bank, they'd have the right to expect some sort of real governance there. Since that is currently not the case, I personally am not surprised to see that a weak pseudo-government is incapable of quality police work. Are you? Or are you now saying that the moderate Fatah government is intentionally interfering with the investigation? That would be quite the extraordinary claim, one not even made by the Israelis themselves.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
You gotta look at the alternatives. Hamas was the group that appears to be less corrupt than Fatah, Fatah seemed to be cooperating with the enemy that bombs them periodically, Hamas provided some actual services in a region where no services existed. Thus out of the choices it was the best one for many of the voters. From the point of view of Palestineans, they are clearly at war and occupied by a foreign power with no rights granted to them, with homes and farms being taken away with no legal recourse allowed, and no opportunity available for peace to exist except if they become a subservient underclass.
The problem here is that Israel doesn't see this. They seem to take the line that they will continue spanking the child until the child cheers up; the spanking may occasionally die down but will return at intervals just to remind the child who's in charge. There is still a politically powerful section of Israeli politics that believes all of Palestine is theirs, and they sabotage the peace processes just as much as Hamas does. I think many in Israel that spanking the child until it cheers up is a senseless policy but they don't have enough political power to make a change, or they think it's a bad idea but can't think of a better one.
As far as your question, why not blame the Israelis for voting in such a hard line government? A stupid vote that ensures an ongoing conflict for another decade. If you don't see it that way, then that's because you're picking sides. You need to see both sides to be blamed, both sides at fault, both sides committing atrocities, both sides start up the fighting again whenever the peace lasts too long.
Several of the power lines bringing power in from Israel to Gaza were cut by Hamas rockets. Oh the irony!
And Hamas is hundreds of millions of dollars behind in paying their power bill. I get cut off if I'm behind a few months. Hamas gets a better deal from Israel than I get from my power company. Life just ain't fair.
I18N == Intergalacticization