By James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2007.
"Further deadly sewage floods are feared after a wave of stinking waste and
mud from a collapsed septic pool inundated a Gaza village, killing five people,
including two babies," the Associated Press reports.
The collapse has been blamed on residents stealing sand from an embankment.
It highlighted the desperate need to upgrade Gaza's overloaded,
outdated infrastructure -- but aid officials say construction of a modern sewage
treatment plant has been held up by constant Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The report gets a bit more specific as to the meaning of "constant
Israeli-Palestinian fighting".
Umm Naser is about 300 metres [300 million microns] from the border with
Israel, in an area where Palestinians have frequently launched rockets into Israel
and Israeli artillery and aircraft have fired back. The situation worsened after
Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier last June in a cross-border
raid, and Israel responded by invading northern Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month that metal provided by Israel had
been used in the construction of those terrorist rockets. And why was Israel
selling the Palestinians metal? "For the construction of a sewage system in
Gaza."
Palestinian babies drown in sewage because of the bloodlust of Palestinian
grown-ups. What a fetid political culture.
Israeli metal used for Kassam rockets
Jerusalem Post, March 29, 2007.
It took seven years, but the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has finally put a
stop to one of the more ironic aspects on Israel's war on terror: Kassam rockets
made of Israeli metal.
A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who worked as a metal merchant at the Karni
crossing between Israel and the Strip was arrested by the Shin Bet last month
for allegedly selling pipes he bought in Israel to terrorist groups that used them
to manufacture Kassams, it was released for publication on Sunday.
On February 9, the Shin Bet arrested Amar Azk, 37. During his interrogation, he
confessed selling the pipes to Hamas and other terrorist organizations that
manufactured Kassam rockets, fired almost daily at Israel.
The Shin Bet said Azk's activities began with the start of the second
intifada in 2000 and were only brought to a halt by his arrest. The agency could
not say how much metal Azk traded, except that it was "significant."
The pipes that were sold to Zak were intended for the construction of a sewage
system in Gaza.
The Shin Bet has been unable to determine the amount of metal that actually
made its way to the terror organizations, and how much went to the sewage
project.
The Shin Bet arrested Azk after it received numerous reports last year that
hollow pipes made in Israel were being used to manufacture Kassam rockets
and shoulder-launched missiles. The Shin Bet found that most of the raw
materials used to manufacture Kassams came from Israel. The Israeli
companies, the security service said, were used by the terrorist groups without
their knowledge. As such, the Shin Bet refused to divulge the names of the
firms.
In November 2006, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant issued an
order forbidding the sale of hollow pipes of certain sizes to the Gaza Strip. In
2006, 1,700 rockets were fired from Gaza.
