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Blaming the Victim, or Who’s Really in Charge?
Difficulties in getting humanitarian aid into Gaza is Israel’s fault, according to many sources. Israel has been accused of withholding aid, delaying aid delivery, inspecting supplies to be sure there are no weapons included, and demonstrating a lack of compassion for the Palestinian people. And since UNRWA, the agency primarily responsible for delivering aid was called out several weeks ago, the denunciations of Israel have become ever shriller.
photo courtesy of unsplash.com
And there is no easy remedy in sight.
A turning point in events was when Israel accused employees of UNRWA of colluding with Hamas:
In late January, Israel presented an intelligence dossier to the UN and distributed it to UNRWA’s major donor countries, alleging that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza participated in the October attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 Israelis taken captive. Seven of the UNRWA staff actually stormed across the border, the document said. Israel said many more are ‘hardened’ militants.
Surprisingly to some, several countries that funded the agency paused their contributions—14 countries, in fact. Meanwhile, the pressure has been exerted to reinstate funding because UNRWA is low on funds. No other agency appears to be trained or large enough to take over for them.
Meanwhile, it was widely known in Israel that UNRWA schools were used to store weapons (since Israel would be reluctant to attack the schools if there were children present) long before October 7, and although it was clear to the agency that construction was being pursued for months, if not years, beneath their hospitals and homes, no one spoke up; it apparently didn’t occur to anyone to check out this activity. For those who think Gaza has been controlled by Israel, there was nothing Israel could do to stop these activities.
When Israel’s report came out on the UNRWA employees, Secretary of State Blinken described the news as “highly, highly credible.”
But our intelligence agencies took it upon themselves to weigh in on Israel’s report:
In the new report, which was completed last week, the U.S.’s National Intelligence Council, a group of veteran intelligence analysts, said it assessed with ‘low confidence’ that a handful of Unrwa staffers participated in the Oct. 7 attack, those familiar with the findings said.
A low-confidence assessment indicates that the U.S. intelligence community believes the claims are plausible but cannot make a stronger assertion because it doesn’t have its own independent confirmation. The U.S. concluded the claims are ‘credible,’ a U.S. official said.
U.S. officials said that American spy agencies haven’t traditionally focused on gathering intelligence on Gaza, and that Israel hadn’t shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the U.S., limiting their ability to reach clearer conclusions.
So, who asked the spy agencies to get involved? Would you want the U.S. intelligence agencies meddling with your country’s internal data, given their questionable reputation?
In this country, some Democrats are against an indefinite ban on funding, but some Republicans are adamant about withholding the funds:
‘UNRWA is a front, plain and simple,’ Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, said in a statement.
‘It masquerades as a relief organization while building the infrastructure to support Hamas … It is literally funneling American tax dollars to terrorism,’ Mast said.
Recently, even though the report on the UNRWA’s aiding Hamas will be released next month, countries are starting to cave in. Canada, Sweden and the European Union are re-starting their funding:
International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen says Canada is resuming funding to UNRWA because the agency is the ‘backbone’ of the humanitarian response for Palestinian civilians in Gaza — but the agency’s work to address concerns about its practices and credibility is ongoing.
But Australia thinks it already knows the results of the report:
Senator Wong said the government was finalising an updated agreement with UNRWA and would resume $6 million in additional funding that had been suspended.
‘The nature of these allegations warranted an immediate and appropriate response. The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation, and that existing additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding,’ Senator Wong said.
This response from Wong plays “word games.” UNRWA is not formally a terrorist organization, but they have worked in concert with Hamas. I hope no one is taken in by her rhetoric.
Some Australian Jews are very displeased:
In a statement, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the government’s decision was ‘wrong’ and it should find another way to feed people in Gaza.
‘It remains our view that delivering aid through UNRWA poses an insurmountable risk of Australian taxpayers’ money being wasted or, worse still, being used in part to support Hamas’s terrorist activities,’ the group said.
I think this organization speaks for many Jews worldwide.
So what is to be done? First, I think the contributing countries need to wait a few more weeks for the report on UNRWA; meanwhile, they can work to rally other countries to take over the responsibilities. Second, I think the only solution, for all these countries who are concerned with the hungry Palestinians, is to make a serious effort to unite in a coalition to bring together organizations that can deliver food to them. The money they would supply to UNRWA can be sent to these other organizations to facilitate these services. It will be a monumental task, but is the only temporary solution to solving the humanitarian crisis. These organizations may then be developed into a new resource for Gaza, which will not include serving the new generation of Palestinians and potential members of Hamas.
It’s time to stop blaming Israel, making excuses, and finally get the job done.
Published in Foreign Policy
Australia is supporting terrorism, alongside all the other contributors to UNRWA
The world is taking a dark turn (again). Too many Group 13 members.
Sheesh. As if we didn’t have enough problems. It makes me wonder if the dark periods ever went away or just hid out of sight.
And good old Mark Twain.
“Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
Now, now … Senator Wong has it on the authority of lawyers who haven’t read the report either that everything is okie-dokie.
The real problem is that Gazaan Arabs want to murder and rape and degrade the dead bodies of Jews.
All those different political organizations don’t matter too much because the real source of the problem is that Gaazans want to kill Jews.
You’re right, Henry. But it’s not good when others want to help them. And I’m not just referring to Unrwa.
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This precedent may have clarified their thinking.
It’s so unfair: Muslims genocided the Jews fair and square, and now those ungrateful Jews are setting out to end it.
Who needs the UN? Biden is ordering American service men and women to build a pier so sea-borne aid can come into Gaza, avoiding the security Israel imposes on aid shipments.
What ever could possibly go wrong? (insert painful memories of Marines barracks blown up in Lebanon, killing hundreds in 1983).
No doubt the wily Iranians and their proxies will just stand back and let the pier be built, and then kill a few Americans while they terrorize everybody else and steal the aid to sell on the black market.
The Biden policy is so many ways stupid, it is hard to fathom, unless the anti-Semites in the administration are really hoping to provoke the IDF to the point where it takes out the pier, and thus creates an excuse to cut off US aid to Israel. Are they that evil? Yes. Yes, they are.
Great points, Fritz. And there’s still the issue of moving the goods from the port. Little stuff like that…
More a provocation than a precedent at this point. This is international Lawfare in line with the Trump prosecutions.
Thanks for stepping up. I tire of their redundant rhetoric. Sigh.
I take a very different view of this situation.
Israel is deliberately starving the people of Gaza. As I recall, this has been their official policy since the first week after October 7.
Israel is not doing everything it can to get aid to starving people. I think that this is simply a lie promoted by the Israelis and their supporters. As is often the case, that lie is then repeated by people who don’t know that it is false.
I think that Israel, and its supporters, are engaging in a rather vicious propaganda campaign against UNRWA. Due to the timing, I think that the purpose of this is clear. UNRWA is probably the single agency best situated to report on the atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza. Israel released the — likely bogus — claim about UNRWA supposedly supporting the October 7 attack on the very day that the International Court of Justice handed down its ruling finding that South Africa had presented a “plausible” case of genocide, and ordering Israel to change its behavior in various ways, including taking “all measures within its power . . . to prevent . . . the deprivation of: . . . access to adequate food and water.”
Evidence from UNRWA, and a particular quote from its commissioner-general, was prominent in the South African presentation to the ICJ.
It turns out that I agree with the title of this post, but in the opposite direction. The victims are the people of Gaza, and this post — following the lead of Israeli propaganda — is blaming them.
I think that it is difficult for many people to accept these facts. Many people think that the Israel is a good, even unusually good, country. I think that the opposite is true, and that this has never been demonstrated more clearly than in the slaughter and inhumanity that Israel has inflicted on the people of Gaza over the past five months. If one wishes to continue to think well of the state of Israel, I think, then one must ignore the facts and undermine the credibility of those who report those facts.
They aren’t, it isn’t.
Of course they aren’t. Their priority is destroying Hamas.
And consequently the best situated to lie about them.
On this we can agree.
Hamas has done far more harm to their its own people than they could ever hope to do to the Israelis
This is because these facts are not, in fact, facts.
TBA, I think that you’re simply wrong. The facts are clear, if you look.
Here is the statement, yesterday, of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Josep Borrell) and the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management (Janez Lenarcic). Some key quoted:
Here is a short speech by High Commissioner Borrell, also yesterday, less than 2 minutes:
A few quotes from the speech:
Starvation is a byproduct, not a weapon.
Too bad the Israelis are fighting an enemy that dresses like civilians, attacks from among civilians, and uses civilian aid efforts to smuggle weapons.
The Gazans know what happened; Hamas went into Israel and raped, murdered, tortured, and desecrated bodies. They came home and posted it on social media. And the Israelis followed them back in and are trying to root them out. They know very well that what they are suffering was and is caused by their government. They say it to the cameras before someone silences them.
For decades Israel has shown mercy and restraint.
Their reward was the savagery of 10/7.
And still the Israelis are not returning savagery. But they are fresh out of mercy and restraint.
Thanks, TBA. No one wants to blame Hamas for anything.
Sabaton blames Hamas so please take heart in that.
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-and-the-psychology-of-trauma/
Every perpetrator of terrorism sees themself as a victim. Such is the case not only with individual terrorists, who often compete with their enemies over who is more victimized, but also with terrorist groups and nation-states. Terrorism is psychological warfare, and so it requires a psychologically informed response. Those who study trauma know that “hurt people hurt people,” and the adage holds true for terrorists. People who live in a state of existential anxiety are prone to dehumanizing others. Hamas, for instance, calls Israelis “infidels,” while the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has referred to members of Hamas as “human animals,” and both sides have called the other “Nazis.” Such dehumanizing language makes it easier to overcome inhibitions against committing atrocities.
What about the supporters of the terrorists? Do they see the terrorists as victims too?
I’d say that every perpetrator of terrorism sees himself* as a victorious sadist, including those who write in justifying him and who cheer him on.
*Forget about referring to oneself in that crazy plural-singular themself.
And terrorist states. Yes, I think it’s likely.