Hamas manufactures a "humanitarian crisis"

After Hamas convinced the world that Israel was creating a "humanitarian crisis" out of the very limited restrictions that Israel placed on industrial diesel fuel and on nonessential goods, Israeli resumed shipments of fuel and supplies to the Gaza Strip. However, the intensive news coverage of the strip's electrical, medical and food situation continues, not all of it balanced, accurate or containing sufficient context. While some media reports now include statements from Israeli
officials maintaining that Hamas manufactured the disputed crisis and accusing
the terrorist group of responsibility for hardships, almost all continue to
ignore similar statements from Arabs themselves. In short, all too many media
outlets continue to mislead.

For instance, the headline of Rory McCarthy’s article in the January 22 edition of the Guardian reads:

"Palestinian crisis: No light, no heat, no bread: stark reality for the powerless
in Gaza: Besieged civilians pay the price for Israel's hardline response to
rocket attacks." McCarthy wrote:

"Large parts of the overcrowded strip had no power, leaving it without lights
and heating, closing bakeries and forcing hospitals to rely on generators and
their own limited fuel reserves."

Underscoring the alleged severity of the crisis, McCarthy writes :
"Osama Nahal, a paediatric doctor in the European hospital's special care baby
unit, looked resigned. 'Politics is politics, but the care of human beings
must be away from politics,' he said. His unit now has 10 newly-born patients,
of whom two are on ventilators.

"The hospital in Khan Yunis, which was built with European and UN funding,
takes most of its electricity from the power plant, so it was largely without
any yesterday. The hospital's own fuel reserve, normally 120,000 litres, are
down to 10,000 litres following Israel's economic boycott of Gaza over the
past two years.

"The UN sent emergency fuel supplies from its depot inside Gaza. It was enough
to power the hospital's smallest generator and to provide electricity for the
intensive care units and emergency operations. But when those last reserves
run dry, the power will stop. 'If new supplies don't come, we'll have to put
the patients on manual ventilations. All of us will have to work at it non-stop,
24-hours a day,' said Nahal.

" 'It's a very serious situation. If it continues, we will stop being able
to give our service,' said Mohammad Abu Shahla, the hospital director. 'Do
you think we have anywhere else to move the patients? There is nowhere.'"

Yet, if the European hospital is low on fuel, that is the fault of Hamas, charged
the Palestinian health ministry last month. The independent Palestinian news
agency Maan reported on Dec. 6, 2007:

"The Palestinian health ministry of the Ramallah-based caretaker government
said on Thursday that 'Hamas militias' have looted the fuel stores destined
for hospital vehicles in the Gaza Strip.A statement released by the health
ministry said that fuel from the European hospital in the Gaza Strip had been
stolen by the director of the hospital drivers to supply the Hamas-affiliated
Executive Force. The statement explained that the fuel reserve had been supplied
by the ministry to enable the hospital to continue working for as long as possible."

Of course, Hamas' theft of fuel meant for the hospital kills two birds with
one stone - practically, it gives the Hamas terrorists the fuel it needs to
continue its attacks against Israel, and strategically, it creates a humanitarian
crisis for which the United Nations, 'human rights' groups, and reporters like
McCarthy are all too willing to blame Israel.

In another example of Hamas' media manipulation of the situation, Oakland Ross
of the Toronto Starreports today (Jan 22): "A Hamas official said yesterday
that five patients died over the weekend in Gaza hospitals because of the latest
fuel embargo."

Likewise, Steve Inskeep reported on NPR's "Morning Edition" yesterday (Jan
21): "Now Hamas officials, who are in charge in Gaza, say at least five hospital
patients have died, but Israeli officials say Hamas is exaggerating this crisis
for political gain."

But it's more than Hamas just "exaggerating this crisis"; Hamas has created
the crisis. And it is not just Israeli officials who dispute Hamas' claims.
As AP's Ibrahim Barzak reported yesterday: "Hamas claimed that five people
had died at hospitals because of the power outage. However, health officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity because they were contradicting the official
line, denied the claim."

Similarly, when it comes to the bakeries shutting down, many journalists blame
the Israeli fuel cuts while ignoring contradictory statements by Palestinians.
For example, Ibrahim Barzak of the Associated Press reported on January 21:

"Gaza bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers said, because
they had neither power nor flour. Residents of the impoverished strip, which
as a population of some 1.5 million, typically rely on fresh pita bread as
a main part of their diet. Waiting in a line at the only open bakery for miles
around, Mohammed Salman said he had spent far more on a taxi getting to the
shop than he would on bread."

Yet, Khaled Abu Toameh, reporting in the Jerusalem Post, quotes a Palestinian
Authority official who insists that the bakeries are sufficiently stocked with
fuel and flour:

"The official also accused Hamas of ordering owners of bakeries to keep their
businesses closed for the second day running to create a humanitarian crisis
in the Gaza Strip. 'Hamas is preventing people from buying bread,' he said.
'They want to deepen the crisis so as to serve their own interests.' The official
said that contrary to Hamas's claims, there is enough fuel and flour to keep
the bakeries in the Gaza Strip operating for another two months. 'Hamas members
have stolen most of the fuel in the Gaza Strip to fill their vehicles,' he
said."

Beyond responsibility for this or that particular aspect of the blockade, some
news articles reported Israel's position that the blockade itself is the product
of Hamas' continued assault against Israel. None of the Western journalists,
however, reported that this Israeli view was shared by a prominent voice in
the Arab world. As Abu Toameh reported on January 21 in the Jerusalem
Post:

"A prominent Arab editor on Monday blamed Hamas for the ongoing crisis in the
Gaza Strip, saying the Islamist movement had acted 'stupidly' by firing rockets
at Israel. . . .Abdel Rahman Rashed, a Saudi national serving as general manager
of the pan-Arab Arabiya news channel, said Hamas was responsible for the suffering
of some 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. 'Hamas committed
a stupid act when it gave the Israelis an excuse to launch attacks in retaliation
for a few antique rockets,' Rashid wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat. 'Prior
to that, Hamas committed a big crime against the Palestinian people by overthrowing
the Palestinian Authority [in the Gaza Strip]. The Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip have suffered a lot because of Hamas's actions. Hamas is bringing Israel
back into the Gaza Strip after it was liberated by the Palestinian groups.'

"Rashed questioned the wisdom of firing rockets and mortars at Israel which,
he said, was only increasing the suffering of the Palestinians, let alone that
they were not causing much harm to Israel. He pointed out that 'only' 10 Israelis
were wounded in the recent attacks as opposed to the 'huge disaster' that has
befallen the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"Rashed is regarded by many Arab journalists as an unofficial spokesman for
the Saudi royal family. He previously served as editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned
Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and his writings regularly reflect the views of the
Saudi establishment."

The readiness of Western journalists to assign blame to Israel for Gaza's hardships
while ignoring information to the contrary - even from Arab sources - is not
a new phenomenon. Last November, for example, the New York Times' Steven Erlanger
blamed Israel for an impending recurrence of the Gaza sewage disaster and ignored
Palestinian evidence which pointed to Palestinian culpability. Whether the
subject be human waste or fresh pita, it's unconscionable that journalists
allow Hamas spin to drown out opposing Arab voices.