|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-gaza-reconstruction-welcome-to-la-la-land-1.9846168
Gaza Reconstruction? Welcome to La-La Land
(Ha'aretz) David Rosenberg - Calls for beginning reconstruction efforts in Gaza began just hours after Hamas' war with Israel came to an end last week. But if the history after Israel's last big conflict with Hamas in 2014 is any guide, most of the aid pledges being made now will never materialize. Or, it will be misspent. Many of the homes destroyed in the previous war have yet to be rebuilt, although there seemed to be resources to build shopping malls, elaborate mosques and the "metro" network of tunnels. Whatever reconstruction occurs now will probably be turned into rubble again in a few years because Israel and Hamas are locked into a pattern of recurrent wars. Gaza is a bad investment. Moreover, talk of any kind of serious Gaza reconstruction that could form the basis for a functioning economy is a joke. Gaza is far too small to ever function as a stand-alone economy. If it hasn't grown as fat, lazy and self-serving as the Palestinian Authority, Hamas isn't in contention for any good-government awards. Just as importantly, armed struggle is much, much higher up than economic development on its to-do list. The only local industry Hamas has encouraged is rocket-building.