Poor memories

Day 14. Two weeks ago, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israeli sovereign territory and murdered 1,400 people, including 40 babies. And they adducted 200 more as hostages, taking them to Gaza where most of currently remain.

The world was justifiably horrified at these war crimes and Israel received many messages of support as well as practical assistance promised from both the American and British Governments.  Within two short weeks Israel are now the bad guys. The massacres of a fortnight ago are now distant memories for many media outlets in the UK, including BBC and ITV.

Suddenly the country which was attacked is now in the wrong.  To justify the switch, words and phrases such as siege, proportionate response and collective punishment are being thrown around with abandon by the media.  The concentration on this is now far greater than on the Israeli victims, including of course those held in Gaza.

Do not forget that Hamas is ISIS (identical in its methods), an Islamist terror group which controls Gaza and is intent on Jihad and the death of Jews.  Their aim, as they have said repeatedly is to kill Jews and destroy the state of Israel.  That remains their aim.  Nothing has changed.  Hamas are still sending rockets over into Israel intent on killing civilians.

Hamas is a ruthless organisation. When it took control of Gaza in 200, dissent was wiped out. Anyone who disagreed with them were thrown off the roofs of buildings. And to celebrate this triumph, they publicised their actions on YouTube.

Everything that comes out of Gaza is controlled by Hamas.  Everything.  The people, the rockets and crucially the propaganda.  The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas.  The media accepts Hamas figures without question yet questions those from Israel. Journalists are only allowed into Gaza if they play the propaganda line.  If they don’t, they are expelled.  This fact is clearly understood by all media outlets yet ignored when it comes to the production of reports from Gaza.

So what has this got to do with humanitarian aid?  Israel is at war with Hamas.  The rockets are still coming over into Israel. Under international law, Israel has no obligation to supply either water or electricity.

Israel is however obliged to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza – provided that they are satisfied that this support will not be diverted. In other words, the aid will not be stolen by Hamas, which is exactly what has happened last week.  Little wonder that Israel hesitates.  In any event there is another country which borders Gaza – Egypt, which is letting humanitarian aid through into Gaza.

The West does not understand that Hamas does not care about civilians.  For Hamas the more civilians killed in Gaza the better, but the West just either cannot see this or refuses to accept it is true.  Hamas routinely steals aid for its fighters.  When pipes were laid for supply of water Hamas dug them up and used them for launching rockets into Israel.  Considerable sums of aid are delivered to Gaza and instead of building better infrastructure millions of dollars are spent on building tunnels from which deadly attacks can be made against Israel.

Hamas behaves just as ISIS does and consequently they will lie and deceive at every opportunity they have.  Reports from Gaza reflect this, particularly with the estimate of casualties.  Hamas makes no distinction between civilians and their fighters.  None at all, so their figures are just another lie intended to deceive the media (with great success) and bring more pressure on Israel.  Sadly, for as long as the media disregards the attacks on Israel and forgives or diminishes Hamas’s lies and atrocities, the BBC, ITV and other broadcasters who fail to recognise the truth will continue to have blood on their hands.