Exodus from Gaza

Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights. 

As has often been noted, the Palestinian cause is a lost cause. Hamas has ruled Gaza unimpeded for nearly fifteen years, and, lo and behold, the strip of land has become a hellhole. Hamas cares only for one thing: to destroy the state of Israel. In the process, it wants to kill as many Jews as possible.

One thing it does not care about: having a functioning economy where people can make a living. By continuing the war against Israel, Hamas has cut itself off from trade with other nations. Thus, it is destroying the economy. And producing misery for its inhabitants.

Sensible people know this. Only radical Congresspeople and certifiable imbeciles like Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez do not. They are happy to keep fighting against the Jews. And today’s Democratic Party is happy to embrace them.

Now, come the exodus. Educated Palestinians in Gaza are leaving as fast as they can. The old adage about abandoning a sinking ship seems appropriate.

The Economist has the story (via Maggie’s Farm):

YARUB IKHDEH and his friends had been waiting half their lives to get on a bus. The six young men had never left Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. They grew up in a territory where half the population is jobless and at least 70% rely on aid to survive. “We’re all recent graduates in business and IT,” says Mr Ikhdeh. “And we’re all unemployed.”

Early on a recent morning the friends sat in a sun-baked car park in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Each had crammed his life into a single suitcase. They would soon board a bus for Cairo, then a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). None had a job waiting in the UAE. Their tourist visas would be valid for only a month. But the mere prospect of work was enough to make them leave home.

It all depends on the Egyptian government. Since Hamas is not on good terms with Egypt, Egyptian authorities have had occasion to shut down border crossings. One must note that this has nothing to do with Israel. It’s a function of the terrorism perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. You see, Hamas is a branch of the Brotherhood.

The Economist neglects to explain why relations are poor:

Gazans wanting to leave the territory have two main exits. Only a few may use the crossing at Erez, on the border with Israel. The rest are limited to Rafah. Poor relations between Egypt and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, meant that it was largely sealed for years. Egypt opened the crossing for just 36 days in 2017. But since last spring, when thousands of Gazans started to protest at the border with Israel to demand the removal of the blockade, Egypt has loosened its restrictions. Last year the Rafah crossing was open for 198 days.

For decades now the Palestinian cause has involved trying to punish Israel. Or as The Economist calls it, Palestinians taking back their land. Someone tell the editors and Hamas that it is no longer their land. 

Anyway, life in Gaza is very bad indeed:

Emigration has long carried a stigma among some Palestinians, a people who have fought for generations to stay on their land. Hamas does not release statistics on emigration, lest they highlight how bad life in Gaza has become during its rule. But those leaving seem to be mostly recent university graduates. Youth unemployment is thought to be about 70%. Earlier this year the education ministry advertised 300 new teaching positions. It received 43,000 applications. Those who do find work are often stuck in dead-end jobs. “I’ve been at the same company for eight years and I only earn $250 a month,” says Alaa Abu Aqleh, a business graduate also waiting to board a bus. That is half of what a low-wage job in Ramallah would pay, to say nothing of work in the Gulf.

The same is true of medical professionals. It sounds like Venezuela or other socialist hellholes:

Not surprisingly, doctors in Gaza say dozens of their colleagues have left in recent months. Apart from low pay, medical staff must cope with daily blackouts and routine shortages of everything from baby formula to cancer drugs. Worried about a shortage of doctors, Hamas has stopped issuing them with travel permits. 

Apparently, things are better in the West Bank, where only 22% want to leave. Call it the Palestinian version of good governance:

A poll in December found that 48% of Gaza residents want to emigrate, compared with 22% in the West Bank. “Pessimism is spreading over every corner of this place,” says Sameer Abu Mudallala, an economics professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

Good-bye, right to return. Now all sensible and educated Palestinians want to get out of town, as quickly as they can. The war is over and Palestinians, who had nothing to offer but terrorism, have lost:

“It’s ironic. The main issue, for a long time, was for Palestinians to return home. It was a dream,” says Mr Abu Mudallala. “Now we’re paying money to leave.”