15-Jul-06: About asymmetry

In the midst of all the unprovoked damage, devastation and death happening right across both the northern and southern parts of Israel, we want to take a moment to reflect on an aspect of the role played by the media. (The picture above was taken yesterday in a Nahariya hospital.)

If you are a regular reader of "This Ongoing War" (and if not, please scroll down and into our archives), you will know that the bombardment of southern Israel has been going on with unbearable intensity and vicious recklessness since the middle of last year. We're speaking of hundreds of Qassam rockets, fired off by thugs absurdly calling themselves "resistance fighters".

Last summer, Israel unilaterally uprooted the renewed Jewish communities of Gaza that had brought forty years of world-class agriculture, employment-generating industry and the potential for peaceful proximity-driven co-existence to an area that had been a by-word for hopeless poverty for centuries. That's history; it's done and whether this worked out as the political echelon assured us it would or not, there's no turning the clock back. Gaza is judenrein again.

Whatever pie-in-the-sky declarations were made at the time - and there were many - nothing good has resulted from Israel's departure from the area, at least not to the Gazan Arabs. Their political leadership was and is far too busy investing in armaments and personal aggrandizement - in the finest tradition of Palestinian Arab corruption - to have wasted much effort on the needs of their own people.

So who is worrying about their welfare? Judge for yourself from this press release issued tonight.

Transfer of food and fuel into the Gaza Strip today

Despite ongoing terror attacks from Gaza aimed at the civilian population in Israel, and as part of the IDF's commitment to minimize the damage to the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, the following supplies were transferred today through the Karni and Nahal Oz crossings. Over 30 containers and 140 trucks containing:

- 1,080 tons of various grains

- 800 tons of sugar

- 140 tons of dairy products

- 520 tons of flour

- 420 tons of fruit

- 169 tons of oil

- 120 tons of salt

- 160 tons of rice

- 40 tons of eggs

- 100 tons of meat and fish products

- 7 trucks containing medicines and medical equipment

- several heavy duty generators

- 25,000 liters of chloride

- 350,000 liters of diesel

- 50,000 liters of petrol

- 100 tons of cooking gas

It is important to note that the water and electricity supply from Israel to the Gaza Strip remains uninterrupted.

The last line is a stunner. They're kidnapping our young men, they're bombing our towns and cities (but rarely our military bases) and we're ensuring they have uninterrupted access to "When Harry Met Sally", and providing them with flushing toilets in the ad breaks.

We saw this announcement only because we signed up for the army's press release service (something ridiculously difficult to do, given the potential importance of what the Israeli military has to say) some time ago. What are the chances any of this will appear in your city's newspapers or on TV or radio? (Concrete suggestion: give them a call and point them to this item.)

Does knowing that Israel did this today change people's perspective on the Cycle of Violence? Perhaps it would, but chances are we will never know.