Delivering more food aid to Gazans may seem like a perfectly decent thing to do. Some people in Gaza — mostly children, it appears, are in need of food. We see them, carefully selected for the nightly news by the Palestinian photographers whom all the networks employ in Gaza; some of them, we now know, are members of Hamas. They show a handful of children with their sunken cheeks and hollow eyes. In the background, if you look closely, you will see many other children who look perfectly well-fed. But still, who could object to massively increasing food aid sent to the Strip? Well, you could and I could. By building the floating pier off the Gazan shore, Joe Biden hopes to greatly expand the delivery of food aid. Once the pier is complete, food will be loaded on ships in Cyprus, where Israelis will inspect the cargo for weapons and “dual-use” goods, and then sail across the Mediterranean to that pier, where the food aid will be taken off the ships, loaded onto trucks, and taken to various distribution points throughout Gaza.
But the same problem remains as before. That problem is not one of food. There is actually enough food coming into Gaza each day to feed everyone in the Strip. Right now 150 trucks, each carrying 12,000 kilograms of food, enter Gaza each day. That amounts to 1.72 pounds of food for each man, woman, and child in the Strip. The problem is not lack of food, but theft of food aid by Hamas. The armed operatives of that terror group have managed to hijack much of the food that arrives in the Strip, taking it for its own operatives, their extended families, and clan networks. As long as the aid that goes out on trucks are unprotected from Hamas raids, the problem will continue. The more aid Hamas seizes, the less there is for the ordinary people of Gaza. And that is why, in some places, there is hunger. It’s not a want of food, but an inability to have it fairly distributed, that is the main cause of distress.
There is good reason to believe that if more food enters Gaza, Hamas will be given a new lease on life, just as the IDF was about to deliver a fatal blow in Rafah, and the freedom for the hostages will be still further delayed. More on the consequences of Biden’s planned pier are discussed here: “Because of Biden, the captives’ return is going to take longer,” bIsrael Hayom, March 10, 2024:
Nadav Shragai,The airdropping of aid to Gaza – and soon, also the special pier – solves a problem for President Joe Biden with the progressive wing of his party.
It may even win back some of the Muslim voters who have voted against him or not shown up at the polls during the Democratic primaries. It is quite possible that this aid, which Biden has made into a top priority of his policy towards Gaza, would allow Israel to continue walking the tightrope between low-intensity conflict and an American administration whose embrace of us is gradually becoming a bear hug.
There is one thing, in any case, this increased humanitarian aid will not do: It will not advance the release of the captives. Quite the opposite. It will only harm their cause. The aid to Gaza makes the release of the captives, which Biden promises not to rest [sic] until they return home, that much harder.
Increasing civilian aid to Gaza provides more and more oxygen to Hamas, delays a real uprising of the residents there against the Palestinian organization, and achieves the opposite of what Biden says he desires. Hamas understands humanitarian aid very differently from the way the US understands it. From Hamas’ perspective, it is more and more boxes of legitimacy for the continuation of its existence as the ruling power in the strip and a toughening of its stance on the captives issue….
Now that Biden has made the delivery of humanitarian aid the centerpiece of his Gaza policy, he makes it easier for Hamas to fight. With more aid coming in, Hamas can continue to take the same amount of aid for its operatives, their families, and clans, and have more left over to be distributed to ordinary Gazans. It takes the pressure off Hamas to release the hostages in order to get that increase in food and other humanitarian aid. With more humanitarian aid coming in, Hamas will feel much less of an incentive to release the hostages. And indeed, they have responded to Biden’s announcement about the pier by again repeating their “delusional” demand that the IDF pull out of Gaza altogether.
The Bidenites also want Israel not to attack Hamas in Rafah during the month of Ramadan, as if fighting were not allowed during that “holy month.” To the contrary, Muslims believe that the highest duty for any Muslim — the duty to wage jihad — is best fulfilled, in the view of Allah, during Ramadan. If the IDF were to enter Rafah precisely in this time, and then to finish off the last intact battalions of Hamas that are still in that city, it would be seen as a supreme defeat, even more devastating because it occurred during Ramadan. Hamas would be seen by many in the Muslim world not as evil — it’s fine that they massacre Jews — but as an embarrassment, that by its defeat during Ramadan has “shamed” the entire Arab and Muslim world. That might provide an opening for Arab technocrats, connected neither to Hamas nor to the corrupt Palestinian Authority, to rule in Gaza as it slowly rebuilds, with money that can only come from the rich Arab states of the Gulf.
abu taleb says
I think, it is not only Hamas who is stealing/robbing the aid, but some of non Hamas Gazans are also doing the same. Then they can sell the aid for profit.
If only Hamas were doing it, the Gazan would attack Hamas when Hamas were stealing it. But Hamas are doing successfully, indicating it is not just Hamas.
OLD GUY says
Once again it is vary hard to defeat an enemy when you supply their people and the fighters with supplies
Your aid is only prolonging the fighting.
Dee says
Anyone think about the target being put on the U.S. military a few miles off the Gaza cost? These terrorists have been pummeling our service members for months at bases, with more than 175 service members sustaining injuries and four have been killed. Kinda feels like operation sitting duck, especially when noted in the DOD plan the statement” no combat capability are needed” Hmmmm
James Lincoln says
Excellent point, Dee.
I’ve been worrying about that since it was announced…