From Inter Press Service:
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that Gaza’s access to safe supply of drinking water could cease at any time. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says outbreaks of disease could be triggered as a consequence.
The warnings follow a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report Monday that "Gaza’s underground water system is in danger of collapse after recent conflict compounded by years of overuse and contamination."
Someone might point out to the Obama administration that the overwhelming death toll among Gazans wasn’t very fair, either.
What are the statistics of proportions of civilian vs combatant deaths in other wars?
That’s relevant to Israel’s deliberate sabotage of Gaza’s critical infrastructure and systematic siege to prevent them from reconstructing and preventing, say, a cholera epidemic that will do the job for them of culling the Palestinian population… how, precisely?
Do the research, so that your assertions that Israel is a particularly unethical army have weight.
I haven’t done the research, so I cannot say that Israel is particularly ethical, or particularly unethical.
Someone will.
Here’s some figures to get a small clue perhaps–I gotta go:
McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988)
▪ United States: 360,000
▪ Confederacy: 260,000
▪ TOTAL: 620,000
▪ Civilians: 50,000
Ireland, Famine (1845-48)
◦ Encyclopedia Americana (2003), “Ireland”: 750,000
Indian Wars, from a 1894 report by US Census, cited by Thornton. Includes men, woman and children killed, 1775-1890:
▪ Individual conflicts:
▪ Whites: 5,000
▪ Indians: 8,500
▪ Wars under the gov’t:
▪ Whites: 14,000
▪ Indians: 30-45,000
▪ TOTAL:
▪ Whites: 19,000
▪ Indians: 38,500 to 53,500
▪ TOTAL: 65,000 ± 7,500
▪
▪ Mexican-American War (1846-48)
▪ Eckhardt: 4,000 civ. + 17,000 military = 21,000
▪ According to Encarta: The American bombardment of Veracruz killed 1000-1500 Mexicans, military and civilian. Civilian deaths outnumbered military 2:1.
Turkey (1895-96)
◦ Massacre of Armenians:
▪ Alan Palmer, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1992): 30,000
USA, 2nd Seminole War (1835-42)
◦ Clodfelter
▪ US Army: 1466 d., incl 328 in combat
▪ US Navy: 69, most by dis.
▪ white non-combatants: 400
▪ Seminloles: 700
USA, Reconstruction (1865-76)
◦ 1998 World Book Encyc.: 5,000 southern blacks murdered by whites
◦ Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown : The Lynching of Black America, cites:
▪ Phil Sheridan: 3,500 whites + blacks k. 1865-75
▪ Ida Wells-Barnett: 10,000 blacks lynched 1865-1890s
▪ Dorothy Sterling: 20,000 k. by KKK 1868-71
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the Twenty-first Century (1993)
◦ “Lives deliberately extinguished by politically motivated carnage”:
▪ 167,000,000 to 175,000,000
▪ Including:
▪ War Dead: 87,500,000
▪ Military war dead:
▪ 33,500,000
▪ Civilian war dead:
▪ 54,000,000
▪ Not-war Dead: 80,000,000
▪ Communist oppression:
▪ 60,000,000
(Matthew White, Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2001):
◦ Deaths by War and Oppression:
▪ Genocide and Tyranny:
▪ 83,000,000
▪ Military Deaths in War:
▪ 42,000,000
▪ Civilian Deaths in War:
▪ 19,000,000
▪ Man-made Famine:
▪ 44,000,000
▪ TOTAL:
▪ 188,000,000
B’Tselem said detailed research with careful cross-checking showed 1,387 Palestinians died, over half of them civilians and 252 of them children.
There’s some dispute by IDF; here’s analysis:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
The collapse of the Gaza water system could have a very profound impact on the demographic problem that the Israeli Jews currently face. If cholera is the result then the death toll could make last winters massacre pale in comparison. In fact it could mean that the Jews would not have to worry about excess numbers of Palestinians for a number of generations.
Witty you will not have to worry about your question What are the statistics of proportions of civilian vs combatant deaths in other wars? — the number of dead Palestinians may very well make your question moot. You can relax. Israel will have achieved its sought after majority. But do keep in mind if the number of dead Palestinians from disease reaches the 10s if not 100s of thousands, then you should expect in response more political support for the BDS movement in Europe if not the US.
Witty that is your paradox. Do nothing and the Palestinians will become a majority in Israel. Allow their extermination, and the rest of the world will be so repelled that they will choke the Jewish state. Right now the collapse of the Gaza water system may very well turn out to be the tool that feeds that paradox.
Of course predicting the spread of any epidemic disease is not possible but it does seem to many rational observers that what Israel is doing today in Gaze may very well result is a major cholera outbreak.
There has been discussion that the prevailing ocean currents sweep the sewage from Gaza towards the Israeli coast. Any epidemic that hits Gaza will find its way to Israel, one way or another. And Egypt, as well.
Gaza’s underground aquifer is the sole water source for its 1.5 million people. Only 5-10 percent of the water now is fit for human consumption.
The average per capita daily consumption of water for personal and domestic use in Gaza is 91 litres. WHO recommends 100-150 litres daily. Israelis consume 280 litres per day.
. . .
Sewage-contaminated seawater and agricultural overflow contaminated with toxins have been flowing into the aquifer’s deficit. The CMWU is only able to partially treat some of the 80 million litres of sewage pumped out to sea on a daily basis due to a shortage of spare parts, fuel, and electricity cuts.
During Israel’s bombardment of Gaza during the December-January war, the strip’s already degraded infrastructure was heavily targeted.
. . .
Over 30 kilometres of water networks were damaged or destroyed by the Israeli military in addition to 11 wells operated by the water authorities in Gaza. More than 6,000 roof tanks and 840 household connections were damaged.
There is an urgent need for cement, pipes, pumps, transformers and electrical spare parts to implement numerous projects in the water and wastewater sector.
Some 1,250 tonnes of cement are currently needed for the repair of water storage tanks alone. But Israel’s blockade prevents cement from being brought into Gaza.
. . .
“The whole system is inter-connected,” Cordoba says. “Water wells use mechanical pumps to supply Gazan homes with water. The shortage of mechanical pumps and other spare parts has reduced the number of wells able to operate.”
Electricity shortages force the wells to rely on back-up generators. Israel’s blockade not only limits electricity supplies but the supply of industrial fuel too.
Move along, folks. There’s nothing unethical to see here. Please move along…