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Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by pavlov on Monday December 08, 2014 @03:52AM (#8715550)
Are you sure that the Internet connection to Gaza goes through Israel?

I would have assumed that it's via Egypt instead, as Gaza has a land border there as well.

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by ars on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:51AM (#8715695)
Yes, I'm sure. I would assume the connection is monitored, but it is not censored. (There is censoring done internally though.)

Egypt is not as technological as Israel, plus the border with Gaza is very very far from anything much in Egypt. It would take a lot of effort to bring Internet there.

Israel also provides phone service to Gaza, both via lines to local towers and via towers located in Israel.

People assume Egypt helps Gaza, but even in the Mubarak days they really didn't care about them much at all - just lip service. And certainly not today. They are not much different from the rest of the Arab world in this regard.

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by pavlov on Monday December 08, 2014 @06:30AM (#8715940)
Thanks for the reply, interesting information!
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by hrasyid on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:09AM (#8715587)
Yeah and the Egyptian regime is more interested in providing internet to Gazans than Israel?

Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet? Any source/reference mentioning this?

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by aidos on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:16AM (#8715602)
The wikipedia page [0] claims that there are 4 ISPs providing internet in Gaza.

I believe that in the case of electricity, Israel is obliged to provide power to the region under international law (since they control its borders).

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by smcl on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:49AM (#8715689)
Not to get too political\opinionated but Israel does not have a particularly strong reputation for respecting international laws regarding Palestine (West Bank or Gaza) which makes it even more surprising if they continued to supply power.
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by frozenport on Monday December 08, 2014 @05:04AM (#8715726)
Does this change your opinion?
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by JupiterMoon on Monday December 08, 2014 @12:55PM (#8717853)
Didn't Israel bomb the power station in Gaza?
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by Smokey28 on Monday December 08, 2014 @02:55PM (#8718728)
Which is now up and running a shocking 46 weeks ahead of schedule. Don't believe everything you read.
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by JupiterMoon on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @04:55AM (#8721935)
Not sure I follow you logic here. Because something got repaired then it is OK that it was smashed in the first place? Can you clarify?
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by Smokey28 on Monday December 15, 2014 @03:22PM (#8754195)
Sure thing. Your assumption that "it was smashed in the first place" is based on a news report, my assumption being that you are not a Gaza power station employee. In a case where something was fixed nearly a year ahead of the reported schedule, in one of the slowest moving industrial zones on Earth, which is more likely: A) A miraculous feat of engineering happened or B) The damage was not as widespread or destructive as initially reported, if even present at all.

My "logic" was not a value statement on whether the attack was justified - rather a suggestion that before you go posting certain events as fact, you should realize that not everything published is a definite fact.

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by ars on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:52AM (#8715699)
> Actually, I'm curious, how does Gaza get its internet?

As I said, it's via Israel. Same with phone service and postal mail.

Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by JupiterMoon on Monday December 08, 2014 @12:59PM (#8717880)
Indeed everything enters or leaves via Israel...
Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by waps on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:31AM (#8715644)
All online articles seem to indicate it goes through Israel :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/israel-gaza-interne...

But the problem for the internet in the Gaza strip is not Israel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_the_Gaza_Strip#...

Now please keep in mind that "democratization" won't help. Over half of Gazans want this (and want to kill people who try to fix it - that seems to be what sharia ("the path of islam") demands). Democracy will make it worse.

There seems to be a huge misconception here. On a large scale, and on average (NOT talking about any individuals here, just "average" human behavior), people who have been hurt don't want help. They don't want to help. They want to hurt others in the same way they were hurt. People who were beaten by their parents, on average, beat their children. People who come out of abusive homes in general, are abusive spouses. People who live in violence, become violent.

This makes sense if you consider what algorithm the human mind must be running. One quickly arrives at the conclusion can only be an imitation algorithm (ie. what you do is copied from a past experience of what you saw someone else do), probably coupled with reinforcement learning and generalization mechanisms.

This of course means something really, really bad for places like the Gaza strip. Left to their own devices, they will only sink deeper into their obsession, and become ever more abusive and restrictive until they literally start dying or at least completely stagnate. There is no way out that doesn't involve blowing up their state, and going against the wishes of the large majority of their population. Not, of course, the way Israel is doing that.

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Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by aidos on Monday December 08, 2014 @04:17AM (#8715608)
I'm going to downvote you because my sarcasm meter isn't functioning properly this morning and your comment is going to end up derailing a useful piece on a promising new startup culture in Gaza.
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Re:Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blo... by aidos on Monday December 08, 2014 @05:19AM (#8715772)
Look, I have very strong views on the subject. It's the political area I've delved deepest into in my life. I've read untold articles and numerous books on the subject.

This is not the time or place for raising the political issues. I'm keeping my political opinions out of it on this forum and I wish everyone else would have the good sense do the same.

If there's ever an article about Gaza on the front page of HN it's removed within a couple of hours because people start banging on about politics. I could quite happy argue about it all day long, but not here, and not now.