Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

The distortion and duplicity of the mainstream media are beyond belief in coverage of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Consider these two quotes taken from an important book:

While most of the Middle East is shrouded in self-imposed secrecy, few nations on earth are as open – and as closely scrutinised by outsiders – as Israel. A small army of foreign correspondents resides in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, far more than are stationed in the entire Arab world, and they provide an enormous amount of media coverage on the Jewish state…

One obvious reason is that Israel is an easy country to cover. It is not only an open society, but a contentious one, and foreign correspondence can rely on its own hypercritical press and rough-and-tumble internal political debate to supply both controversy and information.

And again:

There was a time when the question of Middle East press coverage was of no great consequence to the average American. That time has passed. Recent years have shown how deeply the United States is involved in the region, one of the last great arenas of superpower competition. A national debate on the wisdom of American involvement in the parameters of American policy in the Middle East depends upon the flow of reliable, comprehensive, and balanced information from the area. It is the job of the American press to provide that information. If it cannot do this, it must be candid with the public about the reasons why. Anything less will distort America’s view of the regime at a time when clarity is vital for making decisions that will critically affect the future of the Middle East and the United States.

These words come from the opening and closing chapters of the book Double Vision: How America’s Press Distorts Our View of the Middle East by Ze’Ev Chafets. The incredible thing is, these words are 40 years old – the book was published by William Morrow & Co., in 1985!

Complaints about leftist media bias, and how the mainstream media (MSM) have a very real anti-Israel agenda, are not new in other words. Such concerns have long been with us, and rightly so. Relying on the MSM for most important issues today is simply not going to cut it. We need to wade through all the misinformation, fake news, and hardcore bias.

Gaza and Stolen Aid

As a clear case in point, consider media reporting about the situation in Gaza and the delivery of aid and food supplies. If you simply relied on the Israelphobic, antisemitic and far-left mainstream media outlets, you would NOT be getting a fair and accurate picture of what is going on.

Overwhelmingly, the MSM is denying that aid and food are being stolen, whether by Hamas, armed gangs, or with the collusion of the corrupt UN. But this is indeed happening. Since most of the MSM does not want to cover it, it is for the most part up to alternative media outlets to get the word out.

There are plenty of these write-ups from various sources, and plenty of video evidence is available as well. Here are just a few snippets of what can be found online, with a bit of diligent searching:

***

The National Post

Most damningly, according to the UN’s own numbers, a staggering 85 per cent of the aid entering the Gaza Strip by truck since May 19 has been stolen…. According to data on the website of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), 2,013 trucks carrying 27,464.5 tonnes of aid — almost entirely food —  entered Gaza since May 19. Of that number, 1,753 trucks carrying 23,353.3 tonnes of aid never reached their destinations. All 85 per cent of the missing food was designated by the UNOPS as “intercepted” — “either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully armed actors, during transit in Gaza.”

UNOPS is the operational arm of the UN that helps implement humanitarian, development and peace-building projects. A record 90 trucks carrying 1,695 tons of aid were looted on May 31 alone, according to UNOPS. The data showed that 98.6 per cent of the stolen aid was food, with the remainder designated as “solid fuel,” nutrition” and “health.” In addition, 90.3 per cent of the stolen aid belonged to the World Food Program. The remaining aid belonged to World Central Kitchen, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Committee for the Red Cross and International Medical Corps Gaza.

Jewish News Syndicate

“Gangs” affiliated with the Hamas terrorist group have been looting humanitarian aid meant for civilians in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said over the weekend. Abbas condemned the “looting and theft carried out by criminal gangs targeting warehouses and storage facilities of humanitarian aid,” speaking in an official statement published by the P.A.’s Wafa news site on Friday. According to the P.A., which controls most of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria but was violently ousted from Gaza by Hamas in a June 2007 coup, “Hamas-affiliated gangs” have been “primarily responsible” for the theft.

The Times of Israel

Internal Hamas documents show the group has been “systematically exploiting” the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the ongoing war in order to fund its terror activities, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday, citing captured papers.

The military said the group has done so by confiscating the aid itself; then giving some of it to fighters and selling some to civilians at exorbitant prices; by smuggling forbidden products such as cigarettes into the Strip and selling them at great cost; by demanding protection payments from Gazans living in areas under the group’s effective governing control; and through informal banking transfers, in coordination with Hamas representatives in Turkey.

NBC News

Nora Muhanna, another woman displaced from Gaza City, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five hours for a bag of bread for her children. “From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money,” she said. The United Nations said armed men stole food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest single incident of its kind since the start of the war. It did not say who was behind the theft.

Forward

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had a quippy response to a message from actor Michael Caine on X, which read, “Feed the Children of Gaza, no child should be starving.” “I assume this is addressed to Hamas?” Cruz wrote. Cruz is not alone in suggesting, amid increasing reports of the threat of mass starvation in Gaza, that fault lies not with Israel for refusing to let in humanitarian aid, but rather with Hamas. Some insist that Hamas is stealing aid for themselves, and that it is Hamas, not Israel, that is depriving the population. “Israel, since this war began, has supplied over 94,000 truckloads full of food. It’s enough to feed 2 million people for two years. Trying to get that into Gaza. But Hamas has stolen the food,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

The Algemeiner

While Israel continues to let humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, members of the terror organization Hamas continue to steal the aid in order to both resupply for their terror war, and to sell it at exorbitant prices to civilians in need.

Official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV in the Gaza Strip reported that the aid convoys are being “robbed” by “the merchants of war,” who then “sell it in the market at very high prices.”

The New York Post

Hamas terrorists were captured on video taking control of 47 of 100 aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

“It’s no secret that Hamas takes control of humanitarian aid. We’ve already published here tapes of Hamas, in which you hear them say themselves they have no more room in their warehouses,” Channel 12‘s Almog Boker reported on Wednesday evening. “But this evening we also bring special documentation of what it looks like from inside, with cameras that are tracking it in real time,” he said.

The footage shows Hamas first taking over the trucks, including attacking the drivers. Then the trucks are driven through Rafah with armed terrorists riding on them. If any citizen approaches the trucks, they are immediately fired upon, Almog reported. Gunshots can be heard in the background of the footage. Humanitarian aid, meant to prevent starvation among Gazans, has instead become a lifeline for Hamas and its continued control of the Strip.

***

Here is part of an important piece from a few days ago by Arsen Ostrovsky, an Israeli-Australian human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum. He begins this way:

Last week I travelled to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the main humanitarian aid gateway from Israel into Gaza. What I saw was not just shocking. it was deeply infuriating and unforgivable. Hundreds of trucks – at least 600 – packed with flour, bottled water, baby formula, perishables and other food, sat baking in the blistering desert sun. I saw it with my own eyes. Some had been there for over a month. Not because of Israel. But because the United Nations, the very body that constantly blames Israel for supposed “starvation” in Gaza, has refused to collect and distribute the aid. Yes, that’s right. The aid is there. The food is there. It is ready and waiting. But it is the UN, and the so-called “humanitarian” agencies, who have utterly abdicated their duty and allowed it to rot.

The UN has offered a litany of excuses for its inaction, citing a variety of security concerns and logistic challenges. But none of these withstand serious scrutiny. Israel has repeatedly offered co-ordination and cleared the aid. And in dangerous war zones, from Syria to Sudan and elsewhere, the UN has never stopped delivering humanitarian supplies. This is not a question of capacity or safety, but of wilful abandonment and petty politics. Meanwhile. the international community has relentlessly smeared Israel with grotesque and false accusations of “starving” Palestinians. The hypocrisy is absolutely staggering. Israel has done more than any nation would be expected to do – or has done – in providing aid to an enemy entity, while still in the course of war, and with 50 hostages remaining captive.

Almost two million tonnes of aid have entered Gaza since Hamas initiated the October 7 attacks. And yet, the narrative and plethora of accusations against Israel, including in Australia. remains warped beyond recognition. Why? Because acknowledging the truth would mean admitting that it is Hamas that has been systematically stealing the aid, taxing it, and using hunger as a weapon of war against their own people. It would also mean admitting that Israel has done far more to alleviate the Hamas-caused humanitarian suffering in Gaza than the UN. And it would mean confronting their own moral failure.

Videos

Some video clips worth watching include:

• “WATCH: Hamas loots Gaza aid, Israel says”
• “Former Israeli Hostage Accuses Hamas Of Stealing Humanitarian Aid”
• “IDF Ordered To Act In 48 Hours As Hamas Loots Gaza Aid, Civilians Killed”

And see especially this one:

“Today I entered Gaza again to report on the situation of humanitarian aid distribution. What I saw was shocking — hundreds of palettes of perishable aid sitting in the hot sun waiting for the UN to distribute. Since last week, the IDF has attempted to fast track more aid into the Gaza Strip through airdrops, pauses in fighting, humanitarian corridors, and opening additional aid crossings. Over 5,000 trucks have entered Gaza since May 19th, though many of the UN’s trucks have been violently looted by Hamas or other Gaza gangs. The situation is precarious, but with thousands of tons of siding just waiting for delivery, it’s clear that Israel is not the obstacle to getting aid into Gaza.”

The MSM has a lot to answer for. As long as it fails to do its job properly on this and other issues, I and others will run with the alternative media.

___

Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.