Playing Hamas’s Game on Aid to Gaza Israel has been set up to take the blame. Biden goes along with it.
After the tragic stampede by a Gaza aid convoy on Thursday, President Biden decided to airdrop some aid to the strip and increase his pressure on Israel. “We’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses,” he said Friday.
The airdrop is unexceptionable but the onus on Israel isn’t. It plays into Hamas’s strategy: Place civilians in maximum danger and trust the international community to set up Israel to take the blame.
In war, civilians flee to safety. Only in Gaza has the world decided that all civilians must stay trapped in the war zone, in danger and harder to reach with aid. After Egypt closed its border in solidarity with the cause of Palestine—never mind the cost to Palestinians—one would expect Cairo to face great pressure to save lives. The opposite occurred.
Rather than demand that Egypt follow its obligation under international law to accept refugees from the fighting next door, the U.S., United Nations and aid organizations took up Egypt’s position and admonished Israel not to “displace” civilians from Gaza. “No forcible displacement” become Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s mantra, when in reality Palestinians aren’t allowed to leave voluntarily. Only when it can damage Israel does it become the liberal position to close the borders and keep refugees penned in a war zone.
The U.S. gives Egypt $1.3 billion in aid a year. Mr. Biden has leverage but chose not to use it. So instead of civilians fleeing the fighting, receiving aid in freer conditions and then returning after the war, they have been kept in Gaza to serve as “Israel’s problem.” Their presence in such large numbers leads to more casualties, desperate conditions, a longer war and tremendous challenges for aid distribution.
All of this is blamed on Israel. Rather than get Gazans to safety, the world’s humanitarian organs at every stage of the war have demanded that Israel cease fire, leaving Hamas in power with hostages in tow. The World Health Organization resisted evacuating hospitals in northern Gaza until the last possible minute, each time urging Israel to leave Hamas its terror bases. This risked lives, but Israel was blamed.
Unrwa, the U.N. refugee agency infiltrated by Hamas, at first refused to evacuate northern Gaza, and then rejected the Al Mawasi safe zone designated by Israel in southwestern Gaza. There wasn’t infrastructure there, Unrwa said, but that was the point—no Hamas, away from the war. Rather than help build the infrastructure, Unrwa stalled and then insisted Gazans be brought to Rafah, another city in harm’s way, where they would be human shields.
Predictably, the U.N. and Red Cross now demand that Israel leave Hamas unchallenged in Rafah because so many civilians are there. Israel has no choice but to advance if it wants to eliminate Hamas, and evacuating civilians will be harder than it had to be.
The delivery of aid by international organizations has lately been inconsistent as convoys are attacked by Hamas, local gangs or throngs of civilians. Drivers have been killed. Mr. Biden has now made clear that he will treat this as Israel’s problem, but it’s worth recalling how his position has shifted.
On Oct. 18, the President said, “Let me be clear: If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people, and it will end. As a practical matter, it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid.”
In short, Hamas would be to blame and the aid would have to stop. Now, fearing his party’s left flank, Mr. Biden blames Israel and says aid must increase, no matter how much Hamas steals. Gazans need aid, and they also need the world to stop playing Hamas’s game.
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