Vulgar Palestinian Propaganda Succeeds with International Media - Again!
Last week we asked: "Would Palestinian Officials Intentionally Starve Palestinian Civilians Just So They Could Demonize Israel?". Israel closed one of three gates to the Gaza Strip because of a highly specific security alert indicating that a terrorist was to cross through that crossing. In response, the Palestinians threw up their hands and declared that Israel had closed off the entire Gaza Strip in an effort to starve Palestinian civilians. Given that two out of the three crossings between Israel and Gaza were still open (because only the crossing that the terrorists were going to slip through had been closed), this statement was very close to being the opposite of true... but still true enough for Reuters to believe:
Egypt sent food shipments to Gaza on Wednesday to help alleviate a shortage of flour and other basic goods suffered by Palestinians due to Israel's frequent closure of the main commercial crossing into the strip... "It is a generous help from brotherly Egypt but it will not be enough to make up for the severe shortage caused by Israel's long closure of Karni (crossing)," said Salim Abu Safiyah, Palestinian head of security at all crossings with Israel... Israeli defence officials said the closures were in response to security threats, but many Palestinians called them punishment for electing the Islamic militant group Hamas in January's parliamentary poll.
"But", of course, is a great weasel world - you get to state something reasonable, then state something totally fantastic and call it "balance" ("sure, killing people over cartoons is bad, but...", "sure, Israel says that it's taking measures because of Palestinian suicide bombers, but...") In a sane world, this article by one of the biggest media organizations on the planet would point out either that (a) there were two crossings within a few kilometers that the Palestinians were more than welcome to use for bringing in supplies or that (b) the Karni crossing was being closed in the same way before the Palestinians elected a terrorist government so it's probably not punishment for that election.
Of course, in a sane world Israel wouldn't be criticized for punishing the Palestinians "for electing the Islamic militant group Hamas in January's parliamentary poll." In that world, no one would expect a state to make life easier on a people who had just - through popular election - declared a desire to destroy it. Then again, that world kind of is this world - just not for Israel.
Egypt sent food shipments to Gaza on Wednesday to help alleviate a shortage of flour and other basic goods suffered by Palestinians due to Israel's frequent closure of the main commercial crossing into the strip... "It is a generous help from brotherly Egypt but it will not be enough to make up for the severe shortage caused by Israel's long closure of Karni (crossing)," said Salim Abu Safiyah, Palestinian head of security at all crossings with Israel... Israeli defence officials said the closures were in response to security threats, but many Palestinians called them punishment for electing the Islamic militant group Hamas in January's parliamentary poll.
"But", of course, is a great weasel world - you get to state something reasonable, then state something totally fantastic and call it "balance" ("sure, killing people over cartoons is bad, but...", "sure, Israel says that it's taking measures because of Palestinian suicide bombers, but...") In a sane world, this article by one of the biggest media organizations on the planet would point out either that (a) there were two crossings within a few kilometers that the Palestinians were more than welcome to use for bringing in supplies or that (b) the Karni crossing was being closed in the same way before the Palestinians elected a terrorist government so it's probably not punishment for that election.
Of course, in a sane world Israel wouldn't be criticized for punishing the Palestinians "for electing the Islamic militant group Hamas in January's parliamentary poll." In that world, no one would expect a state to make life easier on a people who had just - through popular election - declared a desire to destroy it. Then again, that world kind of is this world - just not for Israel.
