If you look at the land denoted as being Jewish in the partition plan, a major part of it was the Negev desert - an arid region that had never supported life. Both sides got some shore lines and decent farming land. The Jews would have said yes, the Arab Palestinians said no. There was no Palestinian country there before and the land 'stolen' from Palestinian farmers was, to a great degree, actually bought from absentee Arab landowners who saw a chance to make some shekels, dispossess their tenants and not take crap for it.
When some number of US citizens are killed in an air crash even in foreign territory, the US State Dept sometimes offers the use of the FBI fingerprint team and also the Armed Forces Medical Examiners disaster team. They have more experience than the rest of the world combined in body recovery and examination. I wonder if they'll be going to this one - in separatist territory.
That's it just skip away from the facts that the world trusts the Israelis not to do crazy things with nuclear weapons and we don't trust Iran, etc in the same way. Just skip into backbiting.
"So this is why the Arabs sided with the British."
You can have your own opinions but not your own facts. If the Arabs were on any side, they allied with the Nazis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
"Its not a fundamental hatred between neighboring Jews and Arabs."
That's also interesting opinion considering the constant reiteration by Palestinian leaders, that is also stated in the Hamas charter, that the entire land of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea will be free of Jews. And the constant drumbeat of anti-Jewish propaganda from the Palestinians and the Arabs. And that 90% of the Arab world has no Jews in it because they were evicted without property.
If you look back at the published figures for population in that late 1800s you can see how little of the land was 1) actually occupied and 2) owned by the farmers. 'Losing land to settlers' - that's called immigration and buying land to live on. That land was part of the Ottoman Empire, who are not Arabs, and the land was bought from absentee owners. The vast proportion of people, all people, in that little plot of land immigrated during the early 1900s to work on newly acquired land.
From the same source you quoted: " The immigrants that were part of the First Aliyah, however, came more out of a connection to the land of their ancestors. Most of these immigrants worked as artisans or in small trade, but many also worked in agriculture. Only some of them came in an organized fashion, with the help of Hovevei Zion, but most of them were unorganized, in their 30s, and had families."
They were forced to leave where they had lived and used this opportunity to return to the 'land of their ancestors' and build a society out of a part of the Ottoman Empire. This is what is called cultural change. That resistance to change got warped into antisemitism.
You're changing the issue. I just said that the Palestinian Israeli situation is too complex for a one slogan answer and you want to expand that into something else. If you actually knew the history of that part of the world, you'd know that the original Zionists wanted to be part of a pan-Arabist complex and the leaders of the other countries thought it was a good idea for Jews to have a country. It wasn't until 1929 that there was much of a conflict between Arabs and Jews and that was stirred up by one prominent Arab, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who hated the Jews. The first massacre of Jews in that area was in 1929. the Hebron Massacre, and nothing got better afterwards. Shortly after, with the leadership of Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Arab nationalists joined with the Germans and remained their allies until the end of WWII. So, tbh, you don't know shit, and making up broad statements doesn't hide your shallow knowledge of that problem. I suggest you shut up and do some reading - or just shut up.
"More like Israelis are still being murdered for taking Palestinian land."
It is stupid to try and synopsize a very complex situation into a slogan like this. About the time that 800,000 Palestinians were ejected/fled from Israel, (actually from land that had been bought from absentee Arab and Turkish landlords), about 15,000,000 Germans were ejected from then Poland and other nations (http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP7.HTM) where they had been landowners and farmers for multiple generations. Within a few years 800,000 Jews, without belongings, were ejected from the Arab countries, many of them into Israel. You can't see the refugee camps holding any of these German or Jewish people because they were resettled, recognizing that the world - and countries - change. The Arab countries, that managed the camps for 20 years, kept the Palestinians there as handy tools. Palestinians who suffer today can blame much of their current situation on their own leaders who have never missed a chance to miss a chance.
Interesting way to couch the Germans behavior as somehow justified.
What is 'undue economic power'? And if they did wield this power, how did they end up being killed? German Jews were the most assimilated in the German society society of any non-Christian group which is why it was such a psychological shock that they be singled out. It wasn't Jewish hate that was widespread and common, it was hate against the Jews, conveniently pursued by those who had much to gain by it.
"Among other things, Snowden signed an oath, as a condition of his employment as an NSA contractor, not to disclose classified information, and knew the penalties for violating the oath."
No, actually, he signed an oath promising to uphold the consitution and to defend it against enemies domestic and foreign.... which is exactly what he is doing. Snowdon didn't violate anything..
Do you actually know this or is this a convenient hand-waving device.
My experience with NSA is that contractors sign a multi-page document that clearly describes what they should and should not do with information in their possession.
|Slaves being considered 3/5ths of a man was not against the law|
This is a red herring and if you don't know why, you should. The South, wanting all the representation it could wanted slaves to count as a full voting person in the apportionment of representation in Congress although they couldn't vote. The North didn't want the slaves to count to count at all for that purpose. The 3/5 was the hard won compromise to count the slaves as less than full person - and this was won by the North.
Not such a great idea. DC Police have great experience in dealing with protests and demonstrations of all sizes. If you had ever seen how demonstrations are managed by the police, you'd know not only are they remarkably well organized, they have enormous resources to draw on so expecting that there will be too many to arrest is probably wishful thinking. Instead of being 'in jail' those detained will be confined temporarily en masse in somewhere like the DC Armory and then given dealt with as convenient. It's not as much fun to make a point when it results in being held until they get around to dealing with you.
Re:It would be safer if cyclists followed traffic
on
How Safe Is Cycling?
·
· Score: 1
Last weekend I was going to an art show and ended up taking the bus. This entailed waiting for about 30 minutes at a suburban intersection heavily traveled by both cars and cyclists(Reservoir Road and Foxhall Road in Washington, DC). Bikes in groups coasted up to the light (not the stop sign), slowed to look for cross-traffic and then, even if red, pedaled on through.
My guess is that, if your suggested survey was done at that corner with me drinking when a car shot the red light and you drinking when a bike rider did, you'd be long dead of acute alcohol intoxication before I was high.
Dismissing that bike riders' habits are a part of this issue by blaming it all on bad drivers is wrong.
My son-in-law is a cat 1 rider and logs upwards of 15 k a year in training and even he gets irritated by some of the behavior of bike riders.
"And Israel spies on the US more than anybody else."
And you know this how? And so Israel doesn't spy on any of its neighbors - who are committed to its destruction - nearly as much? And you know this how?
This strikes me as an irrelevant blurt from someone with a great deal of free-floating anger that erupts in an almost on-topic comment whenever any possible occasion arises, no matter how far removed.
The huge surge in very intelligent digital cameras that produce color images has lowered the technical barriers that used to separate professional photographers from amateurs - the guy-with-a-camera. With film, amateurs were mainly limited to B&W shooting and processing because the development of color film is relatively difficult. Now, with digital cameras, anyone with a few hundred dollars and a functional shutter finger can produce technically fine images that rival film professionals' efforts. So there are thousands of times more people producing good-to-great images and selling them for peanuts, utterly destroying the business model for low and middle rank photographers. Many pros have turned to teaching workshops and make much more money from that than actually selling pictures.
I remember my small company being called and I was the only person around to grab the phone. The HR person on the other end asked me to verify dates of employment; I replied with 'he started on {date} and happily he left on {date}.' There was a very long pause, I assume as the caller parsed the possible meanings, and then the caller asked if would I hire this person again.
I don't think that all 'volunteer' firefighter companies are the norm in the US except outside of large communities. Typically a volunteer firefighting unit is maintained in areas where there is low population density, the fire incidence low and the distances between the population centers so far that a professional company would have difficulty reaching a fire before it had done significant damage. In Maryland, for example, there are many companies that began as volunteer but as the towns got larger, more professional firefighters were hired to man the firehouses routinely and the volunteers report when the needs for a larger contingent occur. These companies, while staffed usually with professionals, often retain 'Volunteer' in their name.
I can tell the difference between a "beginner" and a "professional" irregardless of what they are using. A professional with a camera phone, will tend to record the moment better than an amateur clicking away with a fancy DSLR on automatic mode that he or she bought at Best Buy to show off!
In fact most pros have a bit of a dont care attitude about their tools, because ultimately its whats in their head, and their skills that make the photo.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter what tool, or the skill of the photographer, if the photo is a recording of a once in a lifetime event.......
several points:
good to great photos depend on opportunity and ability. Yes, even a klutz can possibly record an unexpected event - and there are klutzes everywhere
but a good photographer with better equipment will virtually always make a better photo no matter the situation. So when the editor wants photos, he/she shouldn't have only a klutz to depend on.
(I worked in this exact area for a good many years.)
People have a concern about the privacy of their medical data that is not associated with payment. They just want to know that their data is only 'public' as much as needed to give them the care they need and fulfill the administrative requirements for payment. This is a moving target depending on the kind of data that is collected and just how sick they are. I used to call this 'the arrow in the butt' syndrome.
If you have an arrow in your butt, you'll gladly submit to surgery in a department store window to relieve the pain; thoughts about shame and publicity fall way. If, however, you have a painful rash on your genitals and the dermatologist takes a picture to document treatment success, most people would rather that the image or the textual details not be public.
Many people, particularly here on this site, seem to think that medical data is rather sterile recitation of lab values along with casual admin note. Health data can be that, but in many cases, it is infinitely more revealing - and potentially embarrassing - that a full body screen at tsa and certainly more capable of being dispersed. So there is not easy way to draw a line that satisfies everyones' concerns and Page's opinion is silly and short-sighted.
Most of the land was already given to the Palestinians in the form of Jordan. And a large part what was left that was ceded to the Jews was the Negev desert.
And..... If the Palestinians wish to preserve lives, they would not purposefully put their rocket emplacements and stores in the midst of civilian dwellings and close to hospitals and mosques.
Let's not sneak in hyperbole to make a point. That is childish and intellectually dishonest.
Palestinians send rockets with the intent of killing people (3000 rocket attacks/attempts in the year before the Gaza 'war.'. Their rockets are packed with explosives and, if they do kill someone, there is lots of celebrating.
What is the appropriate response to Palestinian attempts to kill people in large bunches?
If Israelis are 'bombing them back to the stone age' why is it that the West Bank economy is flourishing and there are four times as many Palestinians now as there were in 1948.
Crap, do you actually know nothing about this situation and yet you still have an opinion? Do some reading about the issues and then try to figure out these answers:
If Gaza needs goods desperately, why does the Gazan Government spend effort to import all the rockets and arms? In the face of these problems, why does Hamas still pledge to eliminate the Zionist State? Why is there a embargo? - and a wall separating Israel from the West Bank? Why does Hamas still support the rocketing of Israel - and brag about it? Why doesn't Hamas just recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State?........ just as there are many Muslim countries? How many Palestinians live in Israel? How many Palestinians are in college in Israel? How many Palestinians are in the Knesset? Why were all of the Jews kicked out of the Arab countries? Can't those governments distinguish between Jews and the Zionist government? How many opposition newspapers, parties and organizations are there in Israel? How many opposition newspapers, parties and organizations are there in Gaza or the West Bank? Why does Hamas and the Palestinian Authority state that Jews can never live in a Palestinian State? Why is the West Bank flourishing and Gaza struggling?
"A significant number of residents of the Palestinian territories seek medical treatment in Israel, often for sophisticated tests or treatments not available at Palestinian hospitals. Their treatment is paid for under a financial arrangement with the Palestinian Authority, or in some cases, at their own expense. Medical treatment for Gaza Strip residents is paid for by the Palestinian Authority or organizations such as the Peres Center for Peace.[14] Palestinians who apply for medical treatment in Israel must obtain a humanitarian entry permit from Israel, of which thousands are issued annually. In January 2009, following the Gaza War, the Palestinian Authority canceled financial coverage for all medical care for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, including coverage for the chronically ill and those in need of complex care not available in the Palestinian territories.[15][16] In 2012, The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health reported spending approximately $42 million in 2011 to finance medical coverage of Palestinians in Israeli hospitals and the Arab World. [17] Arab citizens of Israel belong to the same health care system as that of all other citizens of the country."
Note that the Palestinian Authority cancelled the healthcare, even while Israeli hospitals were willing to treat Palestinians, nominally their enemy.
"A report was released in March by Israel’s Civil Administration announcing that 115,000 Palestinians were treated in Israel in 2011, a rise from the previous year by 13 percent according to The Jewish Press news website. Over 100 Palestinian doctors were trained at Israeli hospitals and five organ transplants took place in Israel to save the lives of Palestinian patients."
The difference is that the Palestinians, by their own statement and actions, are both trying to kill Israelis and their children and are purposefully putting their own children in harms way by putting rocket emplacements in the midst of civilian establishments while the Israelis are trying to avoid harming that same population.
If the embargo has had such an impact on day to day life, how do all the rockets and explosives get in? Why not substitute the other items you seem to think are missing for some of those rockets?
You might also spell out the proper 'balanced response' there is to a neighbor that, at every opportunity, sends rockets and actually attempts to kill you?
If Hamas wanted all this to stop, perhaps they could change their charter where it calls for a Palestine that extends to the sea and stop their speeches about the eradication of Israel and publicly proclaim that they accept that Israel is a Jewish State and they recognize its existence and declare peace.
Perhaps your 'balanced response' should also take Hamas to task for perpetuating the conflict and shedding the blood of their own children.
Slashdot Mirror
If you look at the land denoted as being Jewish in the partition plan, a major part of it was the Negev desert - an arid region that had never supported life.
Both sides got some shore lines and decent farming land.
The Jews would have said yes, the Arab Palestinians said no.
There was no Palestinian country there before and the land 'stolen' from Palestinian farmers was, to a great degree, actually bought from absentee Arab landowners who saw a chance to make some shekels, dispossess their tenants and not take crap for it.
When some number of US citizens are killed in an air crash even in foreign territory, the US State Dept sometimes offers the use of the FBI fingerprint team and also the Armed Forces Medical Examiners disaster team. They have more experience than the rest of the world combined in body recovery and examination.
I wonder if they'll be going to this one - in separatist territory.
You may 'believe' that, but some people believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster with just as much proof.
That's it just skip away from the facts that the world trusts the Israelis not to do crazy things with nuclear weapons and we don't trust Iran, etc in the same way.
Just skip into backbiting.
"So this is why the Arabs sided with the British."
You can have your own opinions but not your own facts. If the Arabs were on any side, they allied with the Nazis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
"Its not a fundamental hatred between neighboring Jews and Arabs."
That's also interesting opinion considering the constant reiteration by Palestinian leaders, that is also stated in the Hamas charter, that the entire land of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea will be free of Jews. And the constant drumbeat of anti-Jewish propaganda from the Palestinians and the Arabs. And that 90% of the Arab world has no Jews in it because they were evicted without property.
If you look back at the published figures for population in that late 1800s you can see how little of the land was 1) actually occupied and 2) owned by the farmers. 'Losing land to settlers' - that's called immigration and buying land to live on. That land was part of the Ottoman Empire, who are not Arabs, and the land was bought from absentee owners. The vast proportion of people, all people, in that little plot of land immigrated during the early 1900s to work on newly acquired land.
From the same source you quoted:
" The immigrants that were part of the First Aliyah, however, came more out of a connection to the land of their ancestors. Most of these immigrants worked as artisans or in small trade, but many also worked in agriculture. Only some of them came in an organized fashion, with the help of Hovevei Zion, but most of them were unorganized, in their 30s, and had families."
They were forced to leave where they had lived and used this opportunity to return to the 'land of their ancestors' and build a society out of a part of the Ottoman Empire. This is what is called cultural change. That resistance to change got warped into antisemitism.
You're changing the issue.
I just said that the Palestinian Israeli situation is too complex for a one slogan answer and you want to expand that into something else.
If you actually knew the history of that part of the world, you'd know that the original Zionists wanted to be part of a pan-Arabist complex and the leaders of the other countries thought it was a good idea for Jews to have a country. It wasn't until 1929 that there was much of a conflict between Arabs and Jews and that was stirred up by one prominent Arab, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who hated the Jews.
The first massacre of Jews in that area was in 1929. the Hebron Massacre, and nothing got better afterwards. Shortly after, with the leadership of Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Arab nationalists joined with the Germans and remained their allies until the end of WWII.
So, tbh, you don't know shit, and making up broad statements doesn't hide your shallow knowledge of that problem.
I suggest you shut up and do some reading - or just shut up.
"More like Israelis are still being murdered for taking Palestinian land."
It is stupid to try and synopsize a very complex situation into a slogan like this.
About the time that 800,000 Palestinians were ejected/fled from Israel, (actually from land that had been bought from absentee Arab and Turkish landlords), about 15,000,000 Germans were ejected from then Poland and other nations (http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP7.HTM) where they had been landowners and farmers for multiple generations.
Within a few years 800,000 Jews, without belongings, were ejected from the Arab countries, many of them into Israel.
You can't see the refugee camps holding any of these German or Jewish people because they were resettled, recognizing that the world - and countries - change.
The Arab countries, that managed the camps for 20 years, kept the Palestinians there as handy tools. Palestinians who suffer today can blame much of their current situation on their own leaders who have never missed a chance to miss a chance.
Interesting way to couch the Germans behavior as somehow justified.
What is 'undue economic power'? And if they did wield this power, how did they end up being killed?
German Jews were the most assimilated in the German society society of any non-Christian group which is why it was such a psychological shock that they be singled out.
It wasn't Jewish hate that was widespread and common, it was hate against the Jews, conveniently pursued by those who had much to gain by it.
From the Kaplan article:
"Among other things, Snowden signed an oath, as a condition of his employment as an NSA contractor, not to disclose classified information, and knew the penalties for violating the oath."
No, actually, he signed an oath promising to uphold the consitution and to defend it against enemies domestic and foreign.... which is exactly what he is doing. Snowdon didn't violate anything..
Do you actually know this or is this a convenient hand-waving device.
My experience with NSA is that contractors sign a multi-page document that clearly describes what they should and should not do with information in their possession.
|Slaves being considered 3/5ths of a man was not against the law|
This is a red herring and if you don't know why, you should.
The South, wanting all the representation it could wanted slaves to count as a full voting person in the apportionment of representation in Congress although they couldn't vote.
The North didn't want the slaves to count to count at all for that purpose.
The 3/5 was the hard won compromise to count the slaves as less than full person - and this was won by the North.
Slashdot comment of the year.
Not until he sticks a roofing nail through his hand, then I'll listen.
Not such a great idea.
DC Police have great experience in dealing with protests and demonstrations of all sizes.
If you had ever seen how demonstrations are managed by the police, you'd know not only are they remarkably well organized, they have enormous resources to draw on so expecting that there will be too many to arrest is probably wishful thinking.
Instead of being 'in jail' those detained will be confined temporarily en masse in somewhere like the DC Armory and then given dealt with as convenient.
It's not as much fun to make a point when it results in being held until they get around to dealing with you.
Last weekend I was going to an art show and ended up taking the bus. This entailed waiting for about 30 minutes at a suburban intersection heavily traveled by both cars and cyclists(Reservoir Road and Foxhall Road in Washington, DC). Bikes in groups coasted up to the light (not the stop sign), slowed to look for cross-traffic and then, even if red, pedaled on through.
My guess is that, if your suggested survey was done at that corner with me drinking when a car shot the red light and you drinking when a bike rider did, you'd be long dead of acute alcohol intoxication before I was high.
Dismissing that bike riders' habits are a part of this issue by blaming it all on bad drivers is wrong.
My son-in-law is a cat 1 rider and logs upwards of 15 k a year in training and even he gets irritated by some of the behavior of bike riders.
"And Israel spies on the US more than anybody else."
And you know this how?
And so Israel doesn't spy on any of its neighbors - who are committed to its destruction - nearly as much?
And you know this how?
This strikes me as an irrelevant blurt from someone with a great deal of free-floating anger that erupts in an almost on-topic comment whenever any possible occasion arises, no matter how far removed.
The huge surge in very intelligent digital cameras that produce color images has lowered the technical barriers that used to separate professional photographers from amateurs - the guy-with-a-camera.
With film, amateurs were mainly limited to B&W shooting and processing because the development of color film is relatively difficult. Now, with digital cameras, anyone with a few hundred dollars and a functional shutter finger can produce technically fine images that rival film professionals' efforts.
So there are thousands of times more people producing good-to-great images and selling them for peanuts, utterly destroying the business model for low and middle rank photographers.
Many pros have turned to teaching workshops and make much more money from that than actually selling pictures.
I remember my small company being called and I was the only person around to grab the phone.
The HR person on the other end asked me to verify dates of employment; I replied with 'he started on {date} and happily he left on {date}.'
There was a very long pause, I assume as the caller parsed the possible meanings, and then the caller asked if would I hire this person again.
I don't think that all 'volunteer' firefighter companies are the norm in the US except outside of large communities.
Typically a volunteer firefighting unit is maintained in areas where there is low population density, the fire incidence low and the distances between the population centers so far that a professional company would have difficulty reaching a fire before it had done significant damage.
In Maryland, for example, there are many companies that began as volunteer but as the towns got larger, more professional firefighters were hired to man the firehouses routinely and the volunteers report when the needs for a larger contingent occur. These companies, while staffed usually with professionals, often retain 'Volunteer' in their name.
I can tell the difference between a "beginner" and a "professional" irregardless of what they are using. A professional with a camera phone, will tend to record the moment better than an amateur clicking away with a fancy DSLR on automatic mode that he or she bought at Best Buy to show off!
In fact most pros have a bit of a dont care attitude about their tools, because ultimately its whats in their head, and their skills that make the photo.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter what tool, or the skill of the photographer, if the photo is a recording of a once in a lifetime event.......
several points:
good to great photos depend on opportunity and ability. Yes, even a klutz can possibly record an unexpected event - and there are klutzes everywhere
but a good photographer with better equipment will virtually always make a better photo no matter the situation. So when the editor wants photos, he/she shouldn't have only a klutz to depend on.
AND:
'irregardless' isn't a word. Try 'regardless.'
(I worked in this exact area for a good many years.)
People have a concern about the privacy of their medical data that is not associated with payment. They just want to know that their data is only 'public' as much as needed to give them the care they need and fulfill the administrative requirements for payment. This is a moving target depending on the kind of data that is collected and just how sick they are. I used to call this 'the arrow in the butt' syndrome.
If you have an arrow in your butt, you'll gladly submit to surgery in a department store window to relieve the pain; thoughts about shame and publicity fall way. If, however, you have a painful rash on your genitals and the dermatologist takes a picture to document treatment success, most people would rather that the image or the textual details not be public.
Many people, particularly here on this site, seem to think that medical data is rather sterile recitation of lab values along with casual admin note. Health data can be that, but in many cases, it is infinitely more revealing - and potentially embarrassing - that a full body screen at tsa and certainly more capable of being dispersed.
So there is not easy way to draw a line that satisfies everyones' concerns and Page's opinion is silly and short-sighted.
Most of the land was already given to the Palestinians in the form of Jordan.
And a large part what was left that was ceded to the Jews was the Negev desert.
And.....
If the Palestinians wish to preserve lives, they would not purposefully put their rocket emplacements and stores in the midst of civilian dwellings and close to hospitals and mosques.
Let's not sneak in hyperbole to make a point. That is childish and intellectually dishonest.
Palestinians send rockets with the intent of killing people (3000 rocket attacks/attempts in the year before the Gaza 'war.'. Their rockets are packed with explosives and, if they do kill someone, there is lots of celebrating.
What is the appropriate response to Palestinian attempts to kill people in large bunches?
If Israelis are 'bombing them back to the stone age' why is it that the West Bank economy is flourishing and there are four times as many Palestinians now as there were in 1948.
Crap, do you actually know nothing about this situation and yet you still have an opinion?
Do some reading about the issues and then try to figure out these answers:
If Gaza needs goods desperately, why does the Gazan Government spend effort to import all the rockets and arms? ........ just as there are many Muslim countries?
In the face of these problems, why does Hamas still pledge to eliminate the Zionist State?
Why is there a embargo? - and a wall separating Israel from the West Bank?
Why does Hamas still support the rocketing of Israel - and brag about it?
Why doesn't Hamas just recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State?
How many Palestinians live in Israel?
How many Palestinians are in college in Israel?
How many Palestinians are in the Knesset?
Why were all of the Jews kicked out of the Arab countries? Can't those governments distinguish between Jews and the Zionist government?
How many opposition newspapers, parties and organizations are there in Israel?
How many opposition newspapers, parties and organizations are there in Gaza or the West Bank?
Why does Hamas and the Palestinian Authority state that Jews can never live in a Palestinian State?
Why is the West Bank flourishing and Gaza struggling?
Here is some reading for you.
From Wikipedia (with many refs) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
"A significant number of residents of the Palestinian territories seek medical treatment in Israel, often for sophisticated tests or treatments not available at Palestinian hospitals. Their treatment is paid for under a financial arrangement with the Palestinian Authority, or in some cases, at their own expense. Medical treatment for Gaza Strip residents is paid for by the Palestinian Authority or organizations such as the Peres Center for Peace.[14]
Palestinians who apply for medical treatment in Israel must obtain a humanitarian entry permit from Israel, of which thousands are issued annually. In January 2009, following the Gaza War, the Palestinian Authority canceled financial coverage for all medical care for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, including coverage for the chronically ill and those in need of complex care not available in the Palestinian territories.[15][16] In 2012, The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health reported spending approximately $42 million in 2011 to finance medical coverage of Palestinians in Israeli hospitals and the Arab World. [17] Arab citizens of Israel belong to the same health care system as that of all other citizens of the country."
Note that the Palestinian Authority cancelled the healthcare, even while Israeli hospitals were willing to treat Palestinians, nominally their enemy.
From Al Arabiya http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/08/231069.html
"A report was released in March by Israel’s Civil Administration announcing that 115,000 Palestinians were treated in Israel in 2011, a rise from the previous year by 13 percent according to The Jewish Press news website. Over 100 Palestinian doctors were trained at Israeli hospitals and five organ transplants took place in Israel to save the lives of Palestinian patients."
Come back with facts.
The difference is that the Palestinians, by their own statement and actions, are both trying to kill Israelis and their children and are purposefully putting their own children in harms way by putting rocket emplacements in the midst of civilian establishments while the Israelis are trying to avoid harming that same population. If the embargo has had such an impact on day to day life, how do all the rockets and explosives get in? Why not substitute the other items you seem to think are missing for some of those rockets? You might also spell out the proper 'balanced response' there is to a neighbor that, at every opportunity, sends rockets and actually attempts to kill you? If Hamas wanted all this to stop, perhaps they could change their charter where it calls for a Palestine that extends to the sea and stop their speeches about the eradication of Israel and publicly proclaim that they accept that Israel is a Jewish State and they recognize its existence and declare peace. Perhaps your 'balanced response' should also take Hamas to task for perpetuating the conflict and shedding the blood of their own children.