Juan Cole has a good post today on the effects of the siege on Gaza, particularly on health. He reports that 2/3 of Palestinians in Gaza suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (the same as US soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan); 10% of children in Gaza are stunted; and the blockade of course prevents access to medical materials.
It is those dire conditions that drive some Palestinians to extreme measures, such as radical Islam. Cole writes:
Palestinians are among the most secular people in the Middle East over all, and the vast majority was uninterested in radical Islam until very recently. It is being put in what is essentially a prison camp by the Israelis that is driving some Gazans to extreme ideas and measures.
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