By Lev Tsitrin

For a few days now, the story of Gaza’s starvation fills MSM’s ecosystem. As I opened the New York Times’ site this morning, the first headline to meet the eye was “No Meals, Fainting Nurses, Dwindling Baby Formula: Starvation Haunts Gaza Hospitals.” The one under it read, “Israel Says It Has Paused Some Military Activity in Gaza as Anger Grows Over Hunger.” The opinion section featured a “guest essay” titled “José Andrés: People of Good Conscience Must Stop the Starvation in Gaza” (this guy’s central premise is that Hamas and Israel are equally to blame for the war: “The hunger catastrophe in Gaza is entirely caused by the men of war on both sides of the Erez crossing: the ones who massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ones who have been killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the more than 21 months since.” Once I got to this revolting “revelation,” I knew that reading the rest would be a waste of time. But what else to expect from the dear editor of New York Times’, Opinion section, that purveyor of politically correct drivel?).

Israeli reaction — or rather, surrender (per New York Times, “Israeli forces will pause operations in at least three parts of Gaza from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to allow aid to flow in … They will also designate permanent routes for U.N. convoys to deliver aid”) to those MSM barrages boggles the mind. Not only does Israel take the pressure to release all hostages and lay down its arm off Hamas, but invites demands for further concessions — as evidenced by the very next sentence of the same report, “It was unclear whether the policy change would allow enough aid to reach hungry Gazans. Israel has announced similar tactical pauses in the past with mixed results.” In other words, we want more!

The question is, why should anything at all be sent to Hamas-controlled areas of Gaza? Did the Allies worry about starvation in Nazi-controlled areas of Germany during WW2? Did the Red Army open up corridors in its front line as it encircled Berlin so as to allow in food trucks to allow its civilian population (and SS and Hitlerjugend with it) to eat? What warring country feeds the enemy population before that enemy’s complete defeat rather than after it, when the enemy surrenders, and stops being an enemy?

Israeli counter-claims that there is no starvation in Gaza, and such stories are just Hamas propaganda is a victory for MSM and Hamas — because they mean that Israel adopted their agenda, instead of completely ignoring it. There should be a blockage — like the one at the start of the war that Biden — facing campus protests on the eve of the elections — found undermining his re-election prospects, and forced Israel to abandon it, and feed the Gaza’s Hamasstan. All aid cut off, Gaza should be brought to a point where Hamas releases all hostages and lays down arms in exchange for half a sandwich.

The current situation in Gaza can be reduced to this simple picture: a Hamaser sits with his son on his knee, pointing a gun at his head and saying, “if you Israelis do not send us food and retreat, I will pull the trigger.” Seeing this, why do “people of good conscience” (to use Mr. Andrés term), scream at Israel “I cannot bear the sight; do as Hamas tells you!” — and why does Israel oblige? Instead, it seems to me, all involved — both “people of good conscience” and Israel — should shrug their shoulders and say “why would I care about Palestinians more than Palestinians do? Shoot if you want to — the blame falls on you, Hamas!” Why do we fall for Hamas’ taking Gazans hostage?

But to stop doing that, we first have to stop blaming “both sides” as Mr. Andrés, enabled by the New York Times, dishonestly does — and lay blame where it belongs — on Hamas savages. Apparently, in our day and age this is a tough act for the “people of good conscience” to follow Apparently, to have “good conscience” you have to first close your eyes to facts.

I for one am not sure that “good conscience” is worth the price of willing ignorance. In that, I very much differ from the New York Times and its MSM ilk.