20 points fall in US support for Israel caused by economic crisis or Gaza massacre?

[Liberty Star]

Post 9/11 and during Iraq war, there was still reasonably strong backing for Israeli policies in Congress and among many US voters. If this is factual report, there could be far reaching repurcussions for politics in Washington and US foreign spending:

YouTube - Support for Israel 'falls among US voters' - 19 June 09 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uk0A_wjyTE)


What in yoiur view caused this sharp 20 points fall in US voters support for Israel in last 9 months? Economic crisis or recent Gaza massacre?


Or is this result of some critical media coverage relating to Israel like this Times headline and more recent video reports like the recent bombshell "hate in Jerusalem" video below?

Caution: Links may contain graphic language


From The Times
March 17, 2009

Avigdor Lieberman - branded a racist by critics - set to be foreign minister

James Hider in Jerusalem

Israel's next foreign minister looks set to be Avigdor Lieberman, the Soviet immigrant whose controversial policies have been condemned widely by the country's regional neighbours. His critics accuse him of being an Arab-hating racist but he is hailed by supporters as a strongman who will deal harshly with the state's enemies, in particular Iran, which he has threatened to bomb.

Mr Lieberman has threatened to bomb a number of Israel's neighbours, including Egypt, with whom the Jewish state has a peace treaty.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5920555.ece


YouTube - Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address Politics Sex politicians (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-whux4PNo)


I'm all for cutting tax payers donations to mideast countries but is this recent seemingly concerted campaign in parts of media to villify lukewarm apartheid in holy land getting bit out of hand?

[Liberty Star]

This may be just conicidnce but about 9 months ago, US markets started to fall sharply also:


http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/5y/_/_dji


http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EDJI&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

[paulitics]

I take most polls with a grain of salt, but if this is true, it is because of the recent Gaza conflict.

The media was actually split on this conflict, and I wrote a post back on this way back that Israel came out looking bad, and the media did not fully defend her Israel's actions (for once). I believe this has something to do with it.

I'm not sure why the average Joe would connect Israel to the economy, unless the "support" means giving her money.

[Anwar_S]

Israel has killed much more in the past, I don't see how the settlement activity and this past war could cause a change in public opinions. It might just be a statistical error (I really don't trust polls.

[Dojo]

I think when Americans have access to articles like this, support wanes......




MIDEAST: Attack on Water Brings Sanitation Crisis
By Eva Bartlett

A cesspool in Gaza arising from Israeli bombing.

Credit:Emad Badwan

GAZA CITY, Jun 18 (IPS) - 'Biddun mey, fish heyya', they say in Arabic for a universal truth: 'Without water, there is no life'.

While diminishing water resources are a global concern, in Palestine the struggle for water is not against global warming or multinational corporations, but for access to water, and against contamination of what precious resources there are.

Mohamed Ahmed, director of the Water Control Department in the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), says "there continues to be a very rapid depletion and deterioration of ground water."

The main source of water is the coastal aquifer and ground water, which serves Gaza's agriculture, commercial, industrial and public sectors, says Ahmed. But through the three weeks of Israeli attacks on Gaza last December and January, much of the water network infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, rendering already scarce water all the more scarce.

The destruction caused by Israeli shelling, tanks and bulldozers throughout the Strip further damaged Gaza's sanitation network, causing 150,000 cubic metres of untreated and partially treated sewage waste water to flow over agricultural and residential land and into the sea during the attacks. The daily average of wastewater being pumped into the sea is still a staggering 80,000 cubic metres.

The water treatment crisis has been a catastrophe in the making for decades. In 2004, a report on water alternatives published by the Islamic University of Gaza's Department of Environment and Earth Science said groundwater had already "deteriorated to a limit that the municipal tap water became brackish and unsuitable for human consumption" throughout the Strip.

Techniques introduced for improving water quality included desalination and reverse osmosis, importing bottled water, and collecting rain water. But these initiatives have been rendered increasingly futile in the face of years of Israeli assaults on Gaza's infrastructure, combined with its sanctions and siege regime, heightened since June 2007 when Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip.

The siege has meant an increasingly long waiting list of spare parts, pipes, and building materials. This directly affects Gaza's ability to maintain its sanitation and water treatment facilities.

"We've been waiting for three years for these items to enter, along with desalination units," says Ibrahim Alejla, media officer for Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utilities (CMWU).

In its January 2009 Damage Assessment Report, CMWU speaks of 5.97 million dollars damage to Gaza's water and wastewater treatment facilities and infrastructure. Some of the greatest damage was done in northern Gaza, where three new facilities were totally destroyed. Severe damage was caused to the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Plant, as well as to wastewater distribution networks throughout the north.

Government sources say that more than 800 of Gaza's 2,000 water wells were destroyed or rendered not useable from the last Israeli attacks.

Central Gaza also suffered. The Sheikh Rajleen Waste Water Treatment Plant, the largest in the Gaza Strip, was shelled, causing pipelines to rupture and raw sewage to flood more than a square kilometre of agricultural and residential land.

The CMWU says it had provided coordinates for all water and wastewater facilities to Israeli authorities. Yet throughout Gaza sites were hit. Much of the damage was to pipelines, torn up by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Pipes are among the items Israeli authorities bar from entering Gaza.
The PWA's Mohamed Ahmed says the sandy nature of the Sheikh Rajleen region brought wastewater permeation into ground water. "Areas with clay and soil tend to slow the drainage, but in Sheikh Rajleen the sewage water very quickly drained into the ground water."

Ahmed says "we've found the presence of detergents in our monitoring wells, indicating that wastewater and ground water have mixed." Monther Shoblak, CMWU director, said this type of contamination occurred also in Beit Hanoun to the north of Gaza City where facilities were destroyed.

Central Gaza's Wadi Gaza region is one of the most visible and noxious sites of sewage dumping. The black sludge streaming into the sea is seen and smelt by passengers on the ride south from Gaza city.

Ibrahim Alejla of CMWU says the flow of sewage into the sea is not only dangerous, but wasteful. "If the borders were open, and we could get the chemicals and equipment needed to treat the water, it could be re-used in agriculture."

Mohamed Ahmed says nitrate levels have for the past two years been three times the World Health Organisation (WHO) limit. Nitrates are believed to be carcinogenic.

"It is too soon to see all of the negative impacts," says Mohamed Ahmed. And with Gaza's Islamic University chemical laboratories bombed during Israel's attacks, "Gaza has no facilities for testing water for the presence of heavy metals and other contaminants."

Ahmed believes numerous chemical pollutants will be found when the tests are carried out. "The war occurred during winter, during our rainy season. When it rained, the chemicals and pollutants in the air went directly into the ground water."

The CMWU and PWA say that many of the most affected areas have had their water networks repaired. "The municipalities chlorinate water to eliminate contamination," says Ahmed. But difficulties arise when Israeli authorities prevent the entry of chlorine into Gaza. "Then the government issues advisories not to drink the network water."

Ahmed warns of the effect on rural residents from contaminated ground water. "Many people depend on wells for their drinking water," he says.

The water problems extend beyond consumption of tainted water. The Gaza health ministry and WHO have issued swimming advisories, listing seven extremely polluted areas as high-risk for diarrhoeal and skin diseases.

Khaled Al-Habil, a fishermen at Gaza city port, says the waste-polluted sea is destroying marine life.

"If you open the fish up, they are black inside. Not like normal fish. The sewage is destroying the fish. People who swim in the water at the port, their skin becomes irritated, like a rash," Al-Habil said.

"I'm a fishermen, I know fish. But there are others who don't know it's from the port, who buy and eat them," he said.

(END/2009)