John (11:55)
All right, first up, let's start with what the Left is saying. The left is disturbed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and many call on the United States to facilitate more aid. Others say Israel is misleading the world about the cause of the crisis. In msnbc, Sarah Bashi wrote, israel is starving Gaza and the US Is complicit. The Israeli government denies famine or aid obstruction and blames the United nations and Hamas for any shortages. Israeli officials accuse aid agencies of distributing lies saying restrictions are needed to prevent diversion by Hamas and argue that because tons of UN Aid is still on the Gaza side of crossings waiting to be distributed, there's no need to allow more in. Bashi said official Israeli misinformation is not particularly sophisticated, but it is repetitive, relentless, and reliant on Western dehumanization of Palestinians. Only racism, the belief that some people's lives are worth less than others, and that some people's statements are inherently unreliable can explain American susceptibility to Israel's denial of starvation in Gaza. There are two things the United States government should urgently do to end US Complicity in the mass starvation. First, the US Must tell the Israeli military to open all crossings into Gaza, end on Earth's bureaucratic restrictions, and allow aid groups to flood the strip with food. On average, since March 2, just 28 international aid trucks have entered Gaza daily, compared with 500 total trucks per day before the war, bashi wrote. Second, the US Must end support for dangerous, militarized distribution schemes like the GHF and instruct the Israeli military to resume cooperation with the United nations and other principled, impartial aid groups. In the Guardian, Peter Beaumont argued, Israel is trying to deflect blame for widespread starvation in Gaza. David Mentzer, an Israeli government spokesperson, told Sky News this week there is no famine in Gaza There is a famine of the truth, beaumont said. Israel's attempts to deflect blame, however, are undermined by its single overarching responsibility that as an occupying power in a conflict, it is legally obligated to ensure the provision of means of life for those under occupation. And while Israel has consistently tried to blame Hamas for intercepting food aid, that claim has been undermined BY A leaked U.S. assessment seen by Reuters, which found no evidence of systemic theft by the Palestinian militant group of U S funded humanitarian supplies. Israel has also recently intensified efforts to blame the UN for the problems with aid distribution, citing a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organizations. Israel's claims are contradicted by clear evidence of its efforts to undermine aid distribution, beaumont wrote. Instead, Israel, backed by the US has relied on the private, inexperienced and controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Its sites have been the focus of numerous mass killings of desperate Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Alright, that is it for what the left is saying. Which brings us to what the right is saying. Many on the right refuse that Israel is to blame for the lack of food in Gaza, saying Hamas is responsible. Some argue Israel should do more to facilitate aid distribution or risk its global standing. In Commentary magazine, Seth Mandel wrote about the enablers of Hamas's starvation strategy. For the first time since the war began, there are credible concerns of hunger in Gaza. The main indicator, as expressed by both Gazans and economists, is the price of food in the enclave, a variable that can at least be used to calculate supply and demand and therefore offers a general picture of the overall trend. And that trend suggests that a future hunger crisis might be on the horizon if nothing changes, mandel said. The caveat, and it's a big one, is that there is enough food in Gaza. Hamas is intentionally starving the rest of Gaza. Additionally, nearly a thousand UN aid trucks have passed through the Israeli inspection points and sit in Gaza with their goods undistributed. Trey Yingst, a fairly harsh critic of the Israeli counteroffensive, reports that the IDF offered the UN five different routes to distribute the aid. As of yet, the UN does not appear to have accepted any of the distribution offers, mandel wrote. Hamas will hoard the aid and resell some for astronomical markup. In other words, Hamas strategy is to keep the people of Gaza perpetually close to a hunger crisis because that triggers international pressure on Israel to let Hamas restock its own shelves and refill its own coffers, the Wall Street Journal editorial board said. Gaza's aid crisis helps only Hamas Gazans have suffered for what the US official calls the my way or the highway approach of the traditional aid groups. Israeli military stubbornness has also been to blame, including an unwillingness to divert assets that would help expand aid efforts, the board wrote. It's notable that shutting down the Gaza Humanitarian foundation, the new US and Israel backed aid group, was the number two item on Hamas list of demands in ceasefire negotiations on Thursday. Whatever its flaws, the new aid group usually provides some 2 million meals a day directly to Gazans free of charge. That's a threat to Hamas, which fired a rocket at a GHF site on Thursday. Aid also needs to get to the weak, not only the strong, which is difficult when aid sites are rushed and trucks are looted. Opening an aid site to women only, as the GHF did Thursday, is one promising idea, the board said. Israel is running out of time to ensure more aid gets through to Gazans. Blaming the un, though fair, doesn't suffice. In a good sign on Friday, Israel allowed Arab states to resume aid airdrops. Jerusalem will also have to prove to its allies that the GHF can work and scale up operations or risk losing their support. Alright, that is it for what the left and the right are saying. Which brings us to what writers in the Middle east are saying. Gazan writers report that suffering runs rampant amid ongoing food shortages. Some writers in Israel worry that the government has no strategy to end the war or avert a humanitarian disaster in the Middle east eye, Ahmed Aziz wrote. Starving Palestinian families face the unthinkable Famine in Gaza has become a daily reality. It is no longer merely a sensation of deprivation. It manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly. No one is spared. We have witnessed with our own eyes bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver, Aziz said. The price of a kilogram of flour has surpassed $30, while a kilogram of sugar now costs over $130. Most foods are either entirely unavailable or so scarce as to seem imaginary. The tragedy is not just in the prices, but in the absence of essential goods. People are not simply refusing to buy. There is nothing left to buy. Children now cry out daily, we want bread, we want to eat, but no one feeds them. My young cousins, only five years old, wake up at dawn begging their father to bring them a loaf of bread, but he cannot afford one. A single loaf has become a luxury, aziz wrote. Some fathers have begun to flee their tents, unable to bear the look of disappointment in their children's eyes. I saw a mother praying for her children to die simply because she could no longer feed them. Some mothers sit at the entrances of their tents, tears falling, whispering broken prayers. Oh God, please take them, relieve them of this suffering. In the times of Israel, David Horovitz explored how Israel made itself responsible for Gaza The Israel Defense Forces today says it controls some 75% of the Gaza Strip, meaning that by its own declaration, Israel is responsible for most of Gaza, Horovitz said. Israel has found itself responsible for securing access to GHF sites and for overseeing other aid distribution mechanisms, yet it is not trained or equipped to do so. Israel simply cannot have its soldiers believing themselves in genuine danger and lacking non lethal means of protection, killing numerous Gazan civilians almost daily. It undermines the war effort. It is immoral and indefensible. Yet that is what is continuing to happen. A war that began because of the absolute imperative to destroy Hamas military machine and get back the hostages has metastasized into an Israeli military takeover of most of Gaza, horovitz wrote. The Gaza terror state built by Hamas in its ongoing declared goal of destroying Israel is largely in ruins, largely uninhabitable, and the Gazans that Hamas most deliberately placed in harm's way are indeed suffering terrible harm. But with Israel, not Hamas, now having chosen to make itself responsible, Israel is rapidly alienating most of its closest allies. While internally fragmented, the vast majority of the public is desperate to end the war in exchange for the release of all the hostages. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
