The bourgeois liberal press, like the New York Times, claims there is a widespread famine in Gaza caused by Israel as part of its “genocide” against the Palestinian people, and that Israel is prolonging the war to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in power.
There is a genocidal force in Gaza that is prolonging the war, causing hunger, and deliberately killing civilians — both Jews and Palestinians. Its name is Hamas, backed by the reactionary regime in Tehran and Jew-hating forces around the world.
After the Israeli government released photos that give the lie to the claims of “famine,” Ahmad Abushawish, a resident of Gaza, admitted in Al Jazeera Sept. 16, “It is true that today you can see markets and shops with full shelves in southern Gaza. You can see crates of cucumbers and tomatoes, sacks of flour, cartons of eggs and bottles of oil. There are even cafes and restaurants serving pizza, drinks and improvised desserts.” He complains that “their prices are astronomical” and that “only a tiny, privileged minority can still sit at a cafe table and sip a coffee for $9.”
But Al Jazeera refuses to explain why. Because Hamas — enabled by U.N. agencies — steals much of the humanitarian aid and sells it to make a profit. It uses food to buy the loyalty of its followers and armed thugs and their families. Hamas deliberately sabotages food distribution it can’t control, like the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centers promoted by Israel to keep Hamas from using food as a weapon to maintain its dictatorial rule. In class-divided, capitalist Gaza, some go hungry, while others eat like kings.
Amid a war started by Hamas for the express purpose of destroying Israel and driving out or killing the Jews, those divisions deepen. Hamas could end the war tomorrow, by releasing all the hostages and disarming.
Instead, it continues to send its thugs to smash the limbs or worse of Gazans who oppose its rules. But the liberal media don’t publish those photos.
Sometimes the Hamas propaganda machine messes up and shows there’s no famine. “Eye on Palestine” posted a video Sept. 11 of a girl in Gaza near a grill full of food she was cooking. She complained that because of Israel’s war, she had to burn paper from her schoolwork to light the grill.