Israel Matzav

So this is why Gazans are 'starving'

Remember the picture at the top of this post? It was taken in September. It's a picture of Tony Blair's moonbat sister-in-law Lauren Booth shopping in a well-stocked Gaza supermarket. And remember when the border with Rafiah was opened and Gazans were smuggling in all those 'necessities' like motorcycles and television sets?

And yet, the World Bank and other international agencies continue to tell us that Gazans are 'starving.' Last week, it was even reported that Gazans were 'eating grass' and taking painkillers because they had no food to eat. How do you reconcile that with the obviously well-stocked supermarket above?

One way is to just say that the 'Palestinians' are lying. While that's possible, I doubt that they could succeed in holding the world's attention for such a long time if they were lying outright. Moreover, if they were really starving because of Israel's blockade, wouldn't measures like releasing millions of shekels into Gaza - as Israel did last week - at least allow them to buy life's necessities that (as we all know) are being 'smuggled' in through the tunnels from Rafah under the watchful eyes of the Egyptians?

I think I may have figured out the truth, and it may surprise some of you. You see, there are Gazans who are starving. But Israel's not to blame. Their leadership is to blame. And not just because the Hamas leadership supports terror. The Hamas leadership is to blame because of a much more basic human flaw: Greed.

As tit-for-tat attacks across the Gaza border began to intensify following the end of a six-month truce on Friday, the World Bank said that an acute cash shortage in Gaza was playing into Hamas's hands. The militant Islamists, who took control of Gaza in June 2007 following violent street clashes with their more secular rival, Fatah, have large stashes of shekels which they have been selling on the black market at a premium because of the cash shortage.

There is also a worry that Hamas, with its dominant militant and bureaucratic control of Gaza, will begin to replace the shekel with US dollars, which are more easily obtained, to smuggle through the tunnels from Egypt in the south.

You got that? There is money in Gaza. There are goods available for purchase in Gaza. The problem is that the money is all in the hands of the Hamas thugs. The average person has none.

Israel released 100 million shekels ($25.6 million) into Gaza last week. The average citizen got nothing. All the money went to the Hamas 'leadership' to line their own pockets and buy weapons.

Yes, there are Gazans starving. But even opening the borders and allowing all the supplies in the world into Gaza won't feed them so long as they are under the control of Hamas. Of course, they chose Hamas in the elections in 2006. As my mother of blessed memory was wont to say, you make your own bed and then you have to lie in it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:54 PM