Did Israel start a war against Gaza?
Yes, I know Israel declared war on Gaza. But did Gaza do anything of a warlike nature that caused it?
You, I would hope, know the answer.
You, I would hope, are aware that on October 7th of last year Gaza invaded Israel, killed somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 people (the number varies depending on which account you read), almost all of them innocent civilians, and took 250 or so others hostage.
Israel formally declared war on Gaza the next day. Not because Israel aggressed against Gaza but as a reaction to Gaza’s murderous act of war against Israel.
With the above in mind, I thought you might like to see the beginning of today’s article from that wonderful, neutral news source, al jazeera, about what is happening there now:
Representatives from Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah, are expected to meet in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government amid Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people.
Yep, Israel sure made war on Gaza, didn’t it?
And a nice touch, using the estimate of 30,000 deaths, from the same Gazan source that told us Israel bombed and destroyed a hospital killing 500 people – a hospital that is still standing and which was actually “bombed” (the parking lot, not the hospital) by a misfired rocket from Gaza.
And in case you have any doubt about al-jazeera’s commitment to journalistic neutrality, the web page with this article has links to seven other attack-articles on Israel.
Now: why do I put this up? If you have any knowledge at all of al-jazeera, the fact that it is unconditionally anti-Israel is no surprise to you.
The reason is so you can compare this, and other, al-jazeera articles to what you see and read at all too many of our supposedly mainstream domestic media venues as well.
The sad reality is that much of what you read at al-jazeera parallels what you would be seeing/reading elsewhere.
With “pro-Palestine” marches all over the country – especially on college campuses (what the hell do they learn there???) and Israel supporters, especially Jewish supporters, under siege, rationalizing hamas’ actions and opposition to Israel’s response is the easy way out. Kiss up to the anti-Israel forces and you won’t have aggressive – often physically aggressive – protesters causing you any trouble.
As for hamas? It seems evident that hamas is playing a waiting game. The longer this goes on/the longer Israel is seen as the “winner” (therefore the oppressor of Gazan people), the more sympathetic these media venues will be/the greater the pressure will be on Israel to make concessions – like allowing hamas to continue in power, among others.
I wish I could say this was a poor strategy on their part. But it isn’t.
Since hamas does not give a damn about whether Gazan civilians have places to live, food and water to survive on or whether they just die (great propaganda value when they die, you see), this is just great for them.
So, unless Israel really can take out enough of the hamas leadership to cause a change in governance (not that I have any expectation the new leadership would be any better), this is how it is going to be…
…and al-jazeera’s version of events is, more and more, how it is going to be reported.
