How very ironic that Egypt would help provide the Homeless with the dignity of temporary shelter while the Republican party routinely throws Veterans out into the streets without a home nor adequate health care.

What does that say about tiny Bush Jr. that ordered the shut-downs of the myriads of shanty towns that sprang up across the nation filled by the recent homeless that recently lost their homes on the last year of tiny Bush Jr's. second term in office.

I realize that many readers and Media Viewers were not born 29 years ago when then President Ronald Regan cut off treatment to thousands of patients held in psychiatric hospitals across America.

Those poor people flooded the streets thru-out many cities across America, and many of them were completely unable to mentally make simple change for their purchases in grocery stores. They would flood the streets at night, moaning, yelling and cursing the darkened homes as they limped by them.

This was Ronald Regan's promise to the Republican Party to cut the guts out of big government, what America didn't realize was he was cutting the heart and soul of humanity out of America and replacing it with the uncaring and callus approaches which mega corporations routinely operate under in today's times.

A. Smith
Oregon

Hamas and their followers should take note-- maybe they could learn a thing or two from their Arab brothers. Learn to make do with what they have instead of whining and complaining about what they don't--or is it that they consider themselves to be better and above this level of society??

Filipe you should direct your comments towards Israel. No matter what the Palestinians build, Israel will bomb and bulldoze. Israel continues to expand into Palestinian territory. Israel will not freeze its settlement activity. (By the way settlements is a nice word used by the US to excuse Israels development of cities in Palestinian territory)

If Israel could be happy with the land it was given in 1948 the Middle East crises would end tomorrow. Israel just needs to withdraw to its internationally recognized boarders and end its military occupation. Instead Israel likes war and its likes receiving American aid (tax dollars) to fuels its expansion. Hence the crises goes on.

It will be interesting to see China's views in the coming years. Perhaps the Chinese should head peace negotiations and not the obviously prejudices American government. An even handed broker is desperately needed, otherwise the brutal Israeli government will be left to run riot and continue expanding until Palestine has been wiped of the face of the earth.

Filipe, As Israel has refused to a settlement freeze and refused to end its military occupation of Palestine (which is now a longer occupation than the USSR in eastern Europe) does Hamas have a legitimate right to fight for freedom? In my opinion if Israel will not end its brutal and needless occupation of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon then Hamas has every right to fight back with any means available. The only terrorist is Israel. Defense is not terrorism! So possibly Israel should stop "whining & complaining" and end its occupation.

This is a very inspirational story,and happening. I'm so proud of mankinds inter-relationship with their less fortunate brothers,and sisters to help shoulder some of the overburdening inequities life has shackled,and bestowed upon them. Both win,..both indulge in the fruits of unity....while the world watches with amazement,...how? Bravo to this humanitarian Egyptian enterprise,...Bravo!

Shame_John_A

You might change your screen name but your rhetoric stays the same !!

If I thought that Israel was the authority in charge of providing housing, governmental services such as education, water and sewage treatment and supply, health care and general welfare services I certainly would direct my comments to Israel!!! But guess what ??? Israel isn't responsible for any of that !!!! The elected government in Gaza is-- Hamas !!!!!

Wow-imagine that !!!!!

Needless to say, I see you're still whining about the poor Palestinians plight with attempting to blame Israel and everyone else for their 62 years of ignorance, denials and repeated refusal to accept a state of their own!!

Why on earth do you think they would find the creation of an Arab state acceptable-62 years ago they rejected the offer from the UN and it's member nations!!! Have they now come to their senses???? The chance for them to have what they were offered 62 years ago is beyond reality in today's political environment.

But that's OK--you can continue blame the ignorance of the Arabs on the Israelis !!!!! Someone certainly needs to be blamed-– the Palestinians will never admit 62 years of self inflicted, pain, poverty self flagellation!!! It must be someone else's fault !!

Darren,

That's right--since the Palestinians can't even seem to agree with themselves who is in charge and who runs their internal affairs and who has the authority to discuss a final status to their problems-– the radical fundamentalist elements of their society should just take charge and plow forward on a path of violence and terror against the general civilian population of Israel-with complete abandonment for any rule of law !!!!!

You're a bright one-I must say!!!

Regardless of how you feel about-- Hamas and the other radical fundamentalist groups supporting terrorist activities will never be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the the civilized world.

The current situation in Palestine was brokered between the Palestinians, the local Arab countries and Israel--The fact that a final status has not yet been achieved in no way legitimizes indiscriminate terror campaigns coming fro the radical fundamentalists!!!

Sorry-but it doesn't and it never will !!!

Why aren't these being used to house the hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans and civilians here in America?

After the Bush jr. administration closed and flattened the homeless shanty towns and community's in the outskirts of many American citys, it seems that Egypt is treating their citizens with greater dignity and respect.

A. Smith
Oregon

Shame and Darren,

There has been no government approval for any new settlements for over 10 years.
Any legal building is within the boundaries of existing settlements which are built on state lands or on land purchased legally from Jewish, Arab or Ottoman land-owners.
Building other than this is illegal under Israeli law.

The settlement freeze that is being suggested wants children to be without schools and kindergartens, families to stop reproducing so that they cannot extend their homes or move, communities to be left without the basic facilities that are universally recognized eg places of worship, shops, playgrounds,emergency services etc.

The settlements were never an issue in negotiations and were to be discussed as part of final border negotiations.
Israel removed all settlements in Gaza which only made the situation there and in Israel worse.

The Jews did accept the land proposed in 1947 (even though it was far from ideal) but it was the Arabs who refused and prefered a war to prevent any Jewish state. Those borders are therefore irrelevent as are the Armistace lines of 1949 since the Arabs didn't want those either.
There are therefore no "internationally recognized" borders, just some cease-fire lines that the majority, politically motivated, Arab and non-alligned states of the UN have decided to base non-binding resolutions on. This is not law and nor is world concensus.

The Israeli " occupation" of the West Bank is longer than the USSR's in Europe precisely because it is NOT an occupation.
There was no recognized prior sovereign state in control in 1967 since Jordan had seized the territory unlawfully in 1948 and Israel captured the land in lawful self-defense in 1967.
There was no forced transfer of Israelis into the territory and there was no displacement of Palestinians.

Miriam to say Israel has not authorised new settlements for 10 years is a simple lie. Ask Barack Obama.

Nevertheless Miriam your answer is sickening for a more simple reason.

People who support Palestine are thinking of the ordinary people who have had their lived devastated by Israeli politics and greed.

In response to the suffering of the ordinary Palestinian people, Zionists like Miriam propose some type of legal argument to justify Israel’s actions.

Such legal arguments are nothing less than powers posturing. Such legal arguments do not relate to the needless suffering caused to the Palestinians.

Today we remember the end of World War I. A day where we remember that political and legal posturing (such as Israeli Miriam) causes countless amount of death and tragedy.

The end of world war one also marks a time that western super powers used their might to divide the middle east and initiate the process to create Israel. The west’s division of the middle east was made in self interest and with no respect to the defenceless civilians who lived in the region i.e. Palestinians. This action alone shows the west learned nothing from the horror of world war one, which helps to explain why world war two followed only twenty years later.

No more blood in the name of the promised land!
No more American tax aid to Israel!

WHY SHOULD WE SUPPORT THE INMATES THROUGH THE U. S. A.
INSTEAD OF SENDING THEM TO WAR. WE SHOULD DRAFT ALL OF THEM AND LET THEM SERVE THERE SENTANCES SERVING THIS COUNTRY, ?

ARABS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PALESTINIAN ARABS SITUATION.
!!!!!!! THE TRUTH IS SAID IN ARABIC LANGUAGE AND NOT WESTERN LANGUAGES
!!!! READ ARAB LEADERS WORDS TO ARABS

Although this story is about Egypt providing to Homeless temporary shelter the comments shifted traditionally to Palestinians and Israel, notifying that Arab anti Israeli propaganda l are getting a large space I have to light the truth

Read the words of Arab leaders in Arabic. ( a few examples)
1: Azm: Syrian prime minister in his memoirs
Arab governments called in 1948 to evacuate Israel.
WE MADE THEM LEAVE.
THEN WE EXPLOIDED THEM IN EXUCUTING CRIMES OF MURDER IN SERVICE OF POLITICAL PURPOSES.
2: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said in Sir An-Nakbah
We will smash Israel.
ARABS SHOULD LEAVE UNTIL END OF FIGHTING
3: The secretary general of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha:
Advice given to the Arabs to : LEAVE AND STAY IN NEIGHBORING STATES.
Later to RETURN AND OBTAIN JWEISH

4: Billons of $ given by the West to rehabilitate their life; More than any person in human history.
It has been used for Terror and hate education
5: Jews cleaned from Arab countries.
Jewish refugees from Arab countries outweigh the losses (in 1948)of Arab refugees.
~1 million Jews lost their homes in Arab counties-
More than the 750000 Arabs, the majority left voluntarily
Owned land lost by Jews in Arab counties=38650sq mls
Stolen money by Arabs worth over $120 billions
Israel land=12750sq mls
ISRAEL ABSORBED THE SEA OF JEWISH REFUGEES FROM ARAB STATES
The international community didn't help the Arab Jewish refugees.

John A,

It appears as thought the entire ME which was partitioned, divided and resulted in sovereign nations for after WWI --Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq–to mention a few-– have never complained about how their status as sovereign states came to pass. The only ones who have whined and cried about it are those who call themselves Palestinians. Any Idea why that is??? Is it simply in their nature to the crying, whining and slobbering peoples of the ME?? Is this why their Arab brothers fail to assist them ?? Is this why the rest of the Arab world keeps them locked up in refugee camps and refuses to allow them to mingle with the local population???

Think about it!!! Think about who mistreats the Palestinians-–it's not limited to Jews or Israelis-- Hmmm !!! Interesting how this occurs!!

If Israel could be happy with the land it was given in 1948 the Middle East crises would end tomorrow. Israel just needs to withdraw to its internationally recognized boarders and end its military occupation. Instead Israel likes war and its likes receiving American aid (tax dollars) to fuels its expansion. Hence the crises goes on.

hahahahahahaha

if the arabs had not rejected a palestinian state in 1948, the middle east crisis would never had happened.

Oops, I forgot, no facts on this blog

iu apologize for stating a fact, shame and Johnny baby

U.Rector, the facts are in 1948 the Palestinians rejected the Jewish "Irgun" terror state. Have you forgot the facts about Israels origins in terror!!

John A,

Exactly -– the Arabs reject and refused to accept Israel as a free and sovereign Jewish State !!! See what happened-Duh!!!!!

The Arabs also rejected their own opportunity to have a free and sovereign Arab state !! See what happened-Duh!!!!!

Imagine that !!!!!

What a bunch of idiots !!!!!

62 years later we have a bunch of friggin' nutcases running around whining, crying and complaining because the Arabs have failed to prove to the rest of the world that they are capable to manage their own affairs, develop a viable economy and form a functioning government!

But all that you and the other whining nutcases can manage to do is blame the sorry state of the Palestinian Territories on Israel and the rest of the world--instead assigning the blame squarely where it belongs-on the Arab world and specifically those who refer to themselves as "Palestinians" !!

It's got to be someone else's fault !!!!!

John A,

Who needs to ask Obama?
He won't know the answer but will have to ask some advisor who also doesn't know etc etc until eventually someone will think of speaking to an Israeli official who will prove that true, there has been no new settlements approved since 1999 ( although there has been discussion recently of approval of an existing community on a former army base in the Jordan Valley) but they will still have to go running off to a PA representative to hear some fabricated, misleading statement about settlement expansion.

After WW1, the west did not learn that terrorism can be used to exact a change in policy.
The original proposed Jewish state was gradually wittled down in size every time Arabs launched an attack on the Jews of the region and further still when the Arabs attacked the British for attempting to keep control. Eventually the Brits were so scared of the Arabs that they joined in with the Arabs attacking the Jews who were forbidden to respond.
Only then was the Irgun formed and fortunately disbanded when the Jews were permitted a real defence force.

Arab terrorism against the native Jews began long before any western division of the region.
Western division was to do with dividing the spoils of the Ottoman defeat when the only people with any nationalistic interests at the time were the Jews.

Just face the facts Miriam. Israel is running out of water and needs to expand illegal settlements along the reservoir routes in Palestine. But in 50 years you will need to launch a larger invasion to satisfy your thirst. In 50 years oil will run out and America wont care about Israel or the Middle East any longer. In 50 years Zionist religious fanatics will still think they are reclaiming the promised land and their arrogance will still be creating conflict. Within 50 years Israel will not coordinate a respectful peace solution with the Middle East. Idiots like Miriam will continue to occupy and provoke Israels neighbors until Israel runs out of support and resources. Then what will happen to radicals like Miriam. They will be crying woe to Israel yet again. What a bunch of morons!

Within 50 years I can see a revolution in Saudi Arabia. The people will be tired of watching western puppet governments sucking up at the expense of ordinary Muslim people. The new revolutionary Saudis will pull their credit out of US banks making the worst economic crash in history and the unified Arabs states will rise in Jihad to sought out the sick Israeli regime once and for all.

Miriam, Is this what you want within the next 50 years? If not, you should drop the lame politics and lies and start negotiating and cooperating while you still can!

Envisioning the future water shortage Israel is working for solutions

1: Israel and Jordan water consumption from the main reservoir the Kineret Lake is 300 million water cub's year.
3 water purifying sites are already working and additional are in construction.
Within the next 3 years the quality of see purified water will be 450 million cub's year.
And additional solutions are considered.

2: Israeli engineers developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops worldwide.

3: The recycling of sewage system is one of the leading worldwide

4: Israel has proposed Syria and Jordan to build an artificial river caring water from Turkey to Syria, Jordan and Israel.
This artificial river could solve almost all the water problems in the 3 countries.
Turkey agreed

However for Syria it is more important to support terrorism and not solve their citizen problems.

General comment;
Apocalyptic prophecy without any knowledge is used by some commenter's.
Pls don’t be mislead by professional anti Israel propaganda.

Should we all now listen to the wise prophecies of John A Nostradamus so that we may become enlightened to the occurrences of the next 50 years.

John A should focus his abilities on a way he can yield his possessions and the property is fat a$$ currently squats on back to the rightful owners - the decimated indigenous population of the North American continent- and give up his pitiful rhetoric about the lives and times of those who live on the opposite side of the planet from his sorry a$$ !!

CNN,

I cannot understand why you censor my response to the above insulting comments which you seem to have no issue with, except for the last two lines that you appear to have deleted but which John A probably hasn't noticed.
He may be a prophet, false or otherwise, but I cannot see what is wrong with a line of hope for peace.

1+1=2, this is basic.
Israel with no meaningful natural resources + no good will to its neighbours = Isolation and long term disaster for Israel.
This is also basic. But somehow Miriam thinks this is prophecy.

Today Palestinians’ which to approach the UN to gain legal recognition as a state, without negotiating with Israel for this basic right. Israel’s response is that any recognition of a Palestinian state without the "Okay" from Israel will result in Israeli retaliation and more bloodshed. Essentially the Israelis make violent threats that a Palestinian state can only be negotiated on Israeli terms. Obviously Israel has no intention of ever recognising Palestinian boarders. If a state of Palestine is formed only two thing can happen to Israel:

1. The natural resources within Israel will quickly be depleted and the country will sink into enormous decline.
2. Israel must invade neighbouring territory to claim more resources.

Currently Israel does not need to invade because it pretends there is no boarder, so there is no legal limit. But when a Palestinian state is formed and an international boarder is recognised, Israel will need to expose itself as the expansionist who seeks to grab more land and resources. Then it will be totally condemned and even the US won’t have the political freedom to support an aggressive Israeli empire. Everyone knows this, so if Israel never offers a meaningful peace solution, it prevents the scenario where Israel needs to decline or invade to survive.

The only long term solution for Israel’s survival is to collaborate with its neighbours and share resources. But after 60 years of Israeli military exploitation of the area, none of the Arab states will be excited to offer much good will.

Ultimately it is in Israel’s long term interests to bend over backwards to create good will in the region. If it does not, this nation of sand, no water or bountiful resources is doomed to social collapse or military conflict.

If any Jew really cares about Israel, it is time that they realise they have no long term future in the middle east by acting as an isolated euro immigrant bubble. In Europe boarder are being abandoned as Europe unifies. In the middle east this will also be the eventual course to share resources and survive. Israel on its own cannot survive and America will not be able to fund, feed and water Israel indefinitely.

Filipe by day and Miriam by night. C'est la vie Filipe, its okay to have a double life. But it’s your double standards that worry me.
No more American Tax aid to Israel and no more blood in the name of the promised land!

John A,

Israel has enough natural human resources to overcome her problem of minimal, natural, mineral resources. Israel is not looking to expand.

The UN has already, more than once, proposed and accepted the creation of a Palestinian state, resolutions that the Arabs themselves have had a problem accepting.

Israel has accepted the creation of a Palestinian state to be negotiated by both sides.
Israel has not threatened bloodshed. That threat has come from the Palestinians in the same way as it did before the second intifada.

Israel already shares her resources, natural and man-made, with whoever is interested in the region. If neighbouring countries prefer to ignore and reject such sharing that is their loss.

Robert.

Sell that bill of goods to your Congress !!!! See if they'll listen to your whining and crying!!!

Good luck with that!

John A,

Yes Israel will never survive with out the vast resources of the Palestinian Territories !!!!

You're kidding, right ???

It's the vast wealth of the Palestinians and their territories that are the reason that Israeli society and industry flourishes !!!!!

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!

And I'm not all sure where the rest you wild a$$ accusations of bloodshed, threats and invasion come from !!!!

CNN I would prefer to view this blog without Filipe's idiotic dribble. Perhaps the moderator should not only moderate against bad language but also against blogs with no content or thought. Free speech does not imply that an insane person with the loudest voice should be given the most space to broadcast their stupidity. I am not the first person to complain about Fillipe's tasteless and meaningless blogs. By all means give him a chance to write, but please do not use every mindless posting that comes into that little mans head. Otherwise this is a good blog and thank you for brining stories and views from the Middle East.