Have a Good NEWS

My visit to Gaza with Save the Children has given me a sense of life beyond the statistics. The international community must do more

Government has to do with statistics. But life is about people, and the disjunction between the two accounts for much of the cynicism and disaffection with politics. This is true for domestic policy, but also in international affairs, increasing confusion and fatigue induced by the distance to the seemingly intractable nature of many problems.

people who suffer are those who most need the attention of the world. This is especially true of the 1.5 million people gathered in the Gaza Strip, sandwiched between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

statistics say that 80% of the population on food aid from the UN. The rate of youth unemployment is 65%. The website of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has an extensive database where you can see how many trucks, which contain different types of supplies, enabled the Israeli authorities.

The situation of people - or rather the struggle for their situation - in the news periodically, most recently, when violence broke the ceasefire, otherwise, reasonably effective in August. But Gaza has become the land that time - and the international community -. Lost

is why I accepted the offer of Save the Children to visit the Gaza Strip. I could not visit all the government for security reasons. Now I wanted to get a feel for life, not statistics. The purpose of the visit was to meet with politicians and policy makers, but for a glimpse, however briefly, of life for the people.

And it's not real life. Children with Western football jerseys - especially Lionel Messi of Barcelona. Restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean. Girls with a white veil, where you look back at school. Hairdressers, clothing stores, fruit stands. And a good amount of traffic - with smuggling through tunnels under the new car route from Philadelphia along the border with Egypt

But that life is real, is traumatic and limited. We saw buildings - not only in the former headquarters of Hamas - further reduced to rubble. There are houses full of bullet holes. The power supply is cut up to eight hours a day. There are no schools or teachers, so there are classes of 50 or 60 and the school day is limited to a few hours to allow two or even three shifts.

The situation in Gaza is the ultimate failure of politics. Almost three years after the war in Gaza, the international community was concerned about the opening of the Gaza Strip. Three years later, there is an impasse - to match the overall stagnation of the broader search for a Palestinian state alongside Israel can not live
The first responsibility is to Israel. The international call for peace in Gaza UN resolution, which copyright Britain, the government of Israel to open supply lines has received attention only in small part. This is why the tunnels to make a big deal - that Hamas and taxes to fund their activities. So it's a real boomerang. Instead, the Israeli government countered that the resolution calls parallel to the flow of weapons into Gaza that left was not delivered. It's true, too.