13-Sep-12: What seven years have wrought

Lost: Pre-2005 greenhouses in the Morag community anchored a thriving
and productive Gush Katif economy [Image Source]

Seven years ago, on September 12, 2005, the government of Israel withdrew its defense forces from each of the 23 hitherto-vibrant Israeli communities in the cluster known as Gush Katif. All public buildings including schools, libraries, community centres, office buildings, industrial buildings, factories and greenhouses which could not be taken apart were left intact [source]. 

The hyper-productive Israeli agricultural and horticultural greenhouses that had generated sales, profits and jobs are gone - promptly destroyed by the new masters of Gush Katif and of Gaza. Terrorist training facilities have sprouted on the ruins of the abandoned Israeli towns. The vision of a self-sustaining, forward-looking, peace-seeking Gaza has vanished. Some ten thousand Israelis left Gush Katif to make their homes elsewhere. 

During these past seven years, we have been witness to the conversion of Gush Katif into an armed camp, an arsenal from which some 9,400 rockets and missiles [source] have been fired at the Israeli civilians and communities on the other side of the fence.

The IDF Spokesperson's Facebook page today says: "Seven years ago today we disengaged from the Gaza Strip”. A photo of two Gaza terrorists preparing a missile to fire at Israel's appears below it [see at right], along with a message suggesting the photo be shared in order to "show the world Israel's true neighbors. Share this, because mainstream media won't.”

The mainstream media generally avoid showing scenes like those below, as well. They are September 2012 images from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas overlords use Soviet-style wall posters to hammer home the message that the men firing the rockets and carrying the sub-machine guns are the people's heroes.