The Blogs: Do You Want Gazans to Eat or Do You Want to Scream

Back in the days of Covid there was a very strange debate about whether or not Israel was responsible for delivering vaccinations to the Palestinians. Why strange? Because that isn’t the question. The question should have been “What is needed to get vaccinations to the Palestinians. If Israel can/should help, fine.”. The people screaming about Israel being responsible weren’t actually interested in Palestinian health; all they wanted was one more accusation against the Zionist entity.

(From what I recall (this is me relying on memory), it turned out that the actual death rate in the Palestinian areas turned out to be lower than the Israeli death rate, a little factoid which made me wonder what was actually going on with the vaccine. But that is a tangent.)

I have a feeling that the same thing is going on now with Gaza.

A) Is there hunger there? I have no reason to doubt that.

B) Is the the GHF working or is it a failure? From the videos I have been watching no one can claim that it is the roaring success that its proponents claimed it would be.

C) Maybe we are delivering tons of food but that message isn’t getting out. C1) Is Israeli PR a failure? Of course, that goes without saying.

D) Do I have any reason to believe that some senior government officials couldn’t care less about what happens? Yes there are plenty of reasons, but on the other hand I really get the feeling that those people are fairly impotent in terms of deciding actual policy (WADR to what the NYT claims).

Now comes the other, huge, side.

1) Hamas is obviously doing everything thing it can to destroy the food distribution process (and it can do a lot, which calls into question just how effective our war has been in destroying their capability to rule). That is their modus operandi and belief, they said it and acted on the idea of having as many martyrs as possible, time and time again. Anyone who doesn’t accept that is a fool or a collaborator.

2) The UN is working with Hamas, for all effective purposes, by refusing any cooperation with the GHF. The UN staff in Gaza is a Hamas stronghold, we saw it time and time again. Anyone who doesn’t accept that is a fool or a collaborator.

3) I don’t believe for one second the numbers coming out of Gaza. If you do, what can I say. As we say in Hebrew: Ashrei ha’ma’ahmin. Praise be the believer.

4) The people screaming “Genocide” aren’t doing that because there is a genocide because there isn’t (and for the 1,000,000th time – they are silent in the face of other, real genocides so it is impossible to take them seriously).

If the question was “How do we make sure that there’s enough food in Gaza” that question can be answered and solutions found. Increase the number of distribution points, cooperation with ALL agencies (including the GHF), more security, etc. Put massive pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to force to cooperate, I have no problem with that.

But that isn’t what the screamers want. The starving in Gaza are simply tool for them. I am not even getting into “Hamas could end this tragedy in 5 minutes”, that isn’t the point. The point is that people are either playing into Hamas hands or actively cooperating with them. They are telling a narrative while Gazans go hungry. That is the story here.