Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US Vice President Kamala Harris, July 25, 2024 (Reuters)
When current US Vice President Kamala Harris met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington in July, the meeting did not go well. Trying to rebrand herself as a strident candidate, Harris berated Netanyahu about Israel’s harsh military campaign in Gaza, the high casualty rate, and the widespread hunger. She is wrong on each point, but no matter. Establishing her presidential-campaign image is the point.
ˑ Meanwhile, Israel kills three of the most-senior terrorist leaders with the blood of thousands of Jews (and Arabs) on their hands, yet the news media rebuke Israel for it.
ˑ A multi-front full-scale war against Israel is imminent. Armies are on the highest state of alert. Yet ambassadors urge Israel to conclude a cease-fire with Hamas terrorists.
ˑ Israel allows 85 Gazans to exit for medical treatment abroad, but the news media ignore it. US President Joe Biden gives $1½ billion for Gaza relief (i.e. for Hamas!), and billions to Iran in sanctions relief, and the news media yawn.
Indeed, the public does not know the true events. Truth today, it seems, is what those with power and influence say it is–regardless of the facts. And one such “truth” is that Israel is the proverbial bad boy. Below, we shatter three myths about Israel.
The source of all casualty numbers is Hamas. How accurate can numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, governed by Hamas, be? In April, several reports stated the numbers were statistically impossible.
The totals never distinguish between terrorists and civilians; the terrorists are included. The number of “children” is also suspect, as many of the terrorists are teenagers. Natural deaths and deaths due to illness are also included.
Under enormous pressure, the Health Ministry quietly announced that half of the casualty cases were unconfirmed (viz., they were invented). The news media had simply parroted the numbers, never questioning press releases. That is not journalism.
It took Israel weeks to determine 1,200 people had died in the villages and kibbutzim (farm cooperatives) that were attacked last October 7. It took Israeli scientists months to identify some of the charred bodies. In Gaza, the numbers are updated every few minutes (how?).
To be clear: every death, young or old, man or woman, is a tragedy. For Hamas, every death is a strategy.
Using Hamas’ own totals, along with Israel’s numbers, the ratio of combatant casualties to civilian casualties is approximately 1:1.3, an unheard-of low ratio in urban warfare.
In the nine-month-long US battle in Mosul, Iraq, in 2016-2017, the ratio was about 2.5 civilians killed for every fighter killed. Four thousand ISIS terrorists and 10,000 civilians were killed. Hundreds of thousands died in the Iraq war, but there were no demonstrations. The world was silent.
Much of the discussion about casualties deals with proportionality: If Israel has far fewer casualties than the enemy, then Israel must be in the wrong. By such logic, no more than 1,200 Gaza residents should die in this war. And if there are any hostages, then no more civilians should die than there are hostages. Otherwise, rescuing the hostages should be prohibited.
The absurdity was exposed by the British commentator Douglas Murray, who suggested: “Then Israel would have the right to rape as many Gaza residents as Hamas did in Israel, behead as many children as Hamas did, burn as many civilians alive as Hamas did, and play football with the severed body parts of the victims as Hamas did.”
Among the Palestinian Arabs are innocent, suffering men, women and children. Their true number is unknown. What we do know is that thousands of them followed the terrorists across the border. They kidnapped people, dead or alive, looted and burned down homes, stole cars and electronics, computers, TV’s, refrigerators. Across Gaza, there were jubilant victory rallies.
Some 20,000 Gazan civilians had worked for years in Jewish homes along the border as gardeners, painters, plumbers and cleaners. They were the same ones who drew detailed maps in the evenings, wrote down names of the people they worked for, their schedules, and addresses. (Israel also issued work permits to 150,000 Palestinians from Judea-Samaria, the so-called West Bank, so they could enter Israel daily to work.) Many communities along the border did their best to keep contact with Gaza residents and give them work. When the invasion began, the terrorists knew exactly who was in each home and where everything was.
Soldiers report that in every second house they enter in Gaza, they find weapons or explosives, or a tunnel entrance, always under the bed in the children’s room. In the freezer of one house, Israeli soldiers found the severed head of an Israeli, which the homeowner wanted to sell.
The population elected Hamas, despite its terrorist history, in 2006. Its charter proclaimed intent to destroy Israel, not to build a Palestinian state. They saw what Hamas was doing, participated in tunnel building (the biggest industry in Gaza), walked past schools, mosques, hospitals and homes that were known as Hamas bases and ammunition depots. And rocket launchers were placed throughout residential areas. No one can say, as they did decades ago: “We didn’t know.” They knew.
An end-of-May survey of Palestinian Arabs conducted by the respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research confirmed the results of numerous other surveys:
Two-thirds of respondents believe Hamas’ invasion was the right decision;
Two-thirds are satisfied with the way the war has gone;
Two-thirds believe Hamas will win the war;
71% believe Hamas should rule Gaza after the war.
So, after all the alleged deaths, hunger and suffering, they still want Hamas to be in charge.
Various aid organizations deliver free food, medicine and basic supplies to the border crossings. Outside of Gaza, Israel checks the trucks for illegal arms and releases them. This goes quickly. Israel could handle much more aid.
On the Gaza side, no Israelis are involved. Any aid suspected of coming from Israel is refused by Gaza. The distribution on the Gaza side is done by Hamas. All business in Gaza is run by Hamas and its loyal tribal clans (e.g. the Khalifa clan), while the Hamas leadership hides in tunnels. But Hamas is a terrorist organization and knows nothing about efficient distribution. So, hundreds of truckloads of aid are being unloaded in a huge compound inside the Gaza border, where it waits.
What Hamas does know is how to steal. Up to 70% of all aid disappears in the tunnels. The terrorists are extremely well fed.
The remaining aid from charities and donors worldwide is transported throughout Gaza and sold (yes, sold!) at a 1,000% markup.
But here’s a bigger shock: Today, more trucks carrying humanitarian aid are being brought into Gaza than before October 7, 2023!
How is that possible? The actual number of trucks crossing the border every day is about a hundred. Before 10/7 it was only 65. There are different numbers because people count different things based on false definitions. Critics who talk about the high number of trucks entering Gaza before 10/7 include plumbing and electrical supplies, building materials, furniture and food. That’s wrong.
Israel’s numbers exclude all commercial products and count only emergency food and medical supplies. These are higher today than ever before.
Does all this seem strange? This is the only war I know of where a defending country looks after the welfare of the enemy
Did the Allies care about the welfare of the Germans in WWII? When the Americans fought against ISIS, did they care about providing food and medicine to the Afghans? The Americans even abandoned thousands of their Afghani collaborators to an unspeakable fate when they disappeared from Kabul in August 2021.
But for some unspoken reason, everyone wants Israel to worry about the Gaza population, not Hamas. This smacks of double standards. Revealingly, last October a brave reporter asked a Hamas leader outside Gaza about the needs of Gaza’s civilian population. He replied: “The civilian population is not our responsibility, it is the UN’s responsibility. We take care of our people in the tunnels.”
In April, the internet was full of Arabic videos from Gaza with images of little children in fancy party costumes for the Eid al-Fitr festival celebrating the end of Ramadan. There were videos of busy markets in Gaza with stalls overflowing with fruits and vegetables for the festival. On June 21, images from Deir al Balah showed a market full of meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables, coffee and chocolate.
Where does this abundance come from? Isn’t Gaza on the brink of famine? This raises questions about what is really going on? Would the news media be lying along with Gaza officials?
Well, what about the famine in Gaza? A June report on the UN website was published by FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning Network. Its Famine Review Committee examined all reports of food deliveries to Gaza from March to May and discovered its previous report (March 18) about a “famine” had left out deliveries from private and commercial contractors.
In April they had said Gaza was only receiving 59-63% of its calorie needs. However, based on the Committee’s review of all food sources, it now estimates Gaza would meet between 109-157% of its daily calorie needs if food were distributed properly!
Israel was right: No famine. Even better, they said predictions about deaths from malnutrition or dehydration “are not supported by the available evidence.”
The whole story about the Gaza famine, the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Israeli leaders for famine as a war crime and international pressure on Israel was based on uncertainty and assumptions. Media reports about Gaza famine continue to this day. They blur the truth to fit an agenda against Israel.