Israel attacks Gaza

The media bias machine has been in full throttle over the last few days following the continued Israeli attacks on Gaza.

If you read/watched nothing but the mainstream media you would be forgiven for thinking that Palestine/Israel had lived in perfect harmony under the ceasefire in the last 6 months until the evil blood thirsty zionists got bored and decided to inflict some seasonal bloodshed. How nice that world of ignorance must be.

The real story of course is the Palestinians, led by their 'democratically elected' representitives Hamas, have continued to fire rockets at Israel throughout the so called ceasefire although you'd be hard pressed to find much coverage on mainsteam media outlets.

Thus the warning from Israel's PM (Ehud Olmert) on 25th December '08 went unheeded and Hamas are now reaping the whirlwind. Where's the problem? It's justice coming home to roost plain and simple.

Innocent people are always caught in the crossfire - just as they are in Israel - this is an unfortunate fact of life. It just so happens that in Israel/Palestine there is a higher risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What is unforgiveable is the media's coverage of the events and true to form they jump on the bandwagon and start to report on the business as usual victims - the Palestinians. What they fail to report on is the devastating accuracy of the Israeli attacks, the fact that only Hamas installations were targeted, the fact that Hamas deliberately locate their installations in civilian areas to reduce the risk of attack and maximise the sympathy vote should an attack happen.

But Israel are starving the Palestinians to death so they feel they have no choice but to retaliate and fire rockets at their Israelli aggressors.

Really? So what were the Israellis upto on 10th December, 2008? I'll tell you. They were delivering 100 million sheckels (around $25.6 million) by armoured cars to Gaza at the bequest of the World Bank in order to honour their agreement under the Oslo accord as Hamas didn't have enough money to cover their payroll.

So how's this for irony. Hamas, whose own charter calls for the destruction of Israel has somehow squandered the international aid it has received from the Paris Pledging Conference (around $7.7 Billion pledged between 2008-10 - source) and in order to cover its payroll gets a bailout from....Israel!

Can you imagine the phone call...

Hamas - "Yes, hello, World Bank? Our people have been raking in quite a lot of overtime lately organising the destruction of Israel and buying in rockets so we're a bit short of cash, can you help?"

World Bank - "Of course we can. Now I know you've not really kept your side of the Oslo accords and have been a bit naughty not taking care of your people in favour of buying weapons but hey, nobody is perfect. How's this for a plan, we get Israel to honour their agreement and give you a quick cash boost of $100 million delivered by armoured car so you can continue your struggle?"

Hamas - "Schweet."

Joking apart, this is quite sad. Why aren't the media hauling Hamas over the coals for not providing for their own people? I mean, according to the BBC, Hamas's primary activity is building schools and hospitals. If this is the case, what have they done with the billions of dollars in international aid received from a panel of donors following the Paris Pledge (11% from the US and Canada, 53% from Europe, and 20% from Arab countries)?

One truth that is blissfully ignored by the media that Palestine is the biggest receiver of International Aid in the whole world. I feel I need to repeat that in order for its magnitude to really take hold...the whole world! But why?

The answer is revealing as it is simple - it is used to keep the peace process going.

Put simply, as long as there is conflict, there is a need for a peace process. Whilst there is an ongoing peace process, Hamas have money coming in.

Peace would bankrupt Hamas - is the picture becoming clearer? If peace was achieved, they would have nobody to blame for their variety of shortcomings as not only a political party but as human beings.