by Lawrence Doctors

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: January 21, 2009

Interesting how news articles can be revealing and obfuscating at the same time. Take, for example The Gaza Boomerang by Nicholas Kristof.

The initial revelation, if one can call it that, is that Israel helped nurture Hamas- somewhat like the US managed to pull of with their support of the Mujahiddeen in Aghanistan at the end of the seventies, when it wanted to pull the Soviets into their own Vietnam. Israel did so to frustrate Arafat's Fatah movement, which was heading in a direction that the Israeli's considered dangerous: Fatah were ready to accept the existence of the state of Israel and to abide by the UN resolutions calling for a return to the 1967 borders.

At the time, Hamas was adamantly against such a position, which suited the Israelis well, intent as they were on grabbing every single piece of land remaining under Palestinian control. Hamas' position has changed by now, which is highly inconvenient for the Israelis as they can no longer claim to be fighting for their survival.

Kristof's article, revealing so far in its acknowledgment of the origins of Hamas, then suddenly makes a U-turn by completely omitting the origins of the current massacre being imposed by the Israelis on the Palestinians. Kristof claims Israel was profoundly provoked into its current killing spree by Hamas' rocket shelling. It is worth looking at the actual timeline to assess Kristof's depiction of the turn of events:

* 2008 Jun: With Egyptian mediation, Hamas and Israel agree to a six- month ceasefire in Gaza with militants saying they will stop firing rockets while Israel says it will stop offensive operations.

* 2008 Nov: Israel breaks ceasefire by sending ground troops into Gaza. Rocket fire resumes sparking exchanges.

* 2008 Dec 19: Attempts to renew ceasefire fail amid mutual recriminations.

* 2008 Dec 27: Israel launches operation Cast Lead attacking buildings and facilities connected to Hamas.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Centre, Isreal, published the following statistics:

May: 149 rockets

June: 84 rockets before ceasefire, 3 after (not by Hamas, according to Israel)

July: 8 (not by Hamas, according to Israel)

August: 3 (not by Hamas, according to Israel)

September: 3 (not by Hamas, according to Israel)

October: 1 (not by Hamas, according to Israel)

On November 4, Israel launches an attack in Gaza against Hamas, killing six, breaking the ceasefire.

November: 68 rockets

December: 52 rockets (before the Isreali pounding of Gaza)

Kristof, in other words, fails to mention both Hamas' strict abidance to the June ceasefire during the months of July, August, September and October, as well as the Israeli failure to keep to that same ceasefire on 4 November. Absent that context, the 120 rockets fired by Hamas in November and December are indeed a profound provocation. Given the events, it was Israel that provoked Hamas into resuming its rocket fire.

As always, it is the civilian population that suffers the most. Hamas benefits from all the casualties that the Israelis are causing amongst Palestinian civilians (see Petiskas' post earlier). This radicalisation of the Palestinian people translates into even more violence by Hamas and Israel.

Just so you know that we are talking about defenseless people dying, this is a list compiled by AlJazeera of the names two-hundred and ten children out of more than three-hundred that were killed by Israeli soldiers.

Sanity is elsewhere.

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