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.

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.