Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

A whopper of a lie by Hamas

Buried in the middle of an AP article about alleged Israeli "war crimes" comes this jawdropper:

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the group's men battled from civilians areas.

Wow. Besides videos and voluminous documentation that Hamas did exactly that, we can add the very anti-Israel PCHR site, which lists exactly where many of the "resistance fighters" were killed:

(Jan 2) At approximately 19:25, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Sami Ibrahim Lubbad, a member of the Palestinian resistance, near Sheikh Zayed housing project in Beit Lahia town. He was instantly killed.

(Jan 6) At approximately 02:40, a group of the Palestinian resistance exchanged fire with an IOF special unit, which was supported by warplanes and gunboats, in the southwest of Deir al-Balah refugee camp.

(Jan. 7) At approximately 23:05, IOF warplanes fired missiles at the street connecting al-Amal neighborhood and Khan Yunis refugee camp, killing two resistance fighters: Salem Ahmed Abu Mousa, 24; and Hassan Rateb Sama'an, 23.

(Jan 8) At approximately 09:40 on Thursday, an IOF aircraft fired a missile at three members of the resistance who were near al-Qassam mosque in Beit Lahia, killing all three.

At approximately 22:30, IOF bombed al-Zaytoun neighborhood, killing two members of the Palestinian resistance.

(Jan 9) At approximately 20:15, IOF warplanes attacked a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance in Street #2 in al-Qarara village, east of Khan Yunis.

(Jan 10) At approximately 23:30, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Rami Mohammed Sa'id Abu al-'Ata, 27, a resistance activist, when he was in al-Shoja'eya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

At approximately 14:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at Hassan Mohammed Harb, 24, a resistance activist, in al-Sikka Street in al-Boreij refugee camp.

(Jan 11) At approximately 02:00, fierce fighting erupted between Palestinian resistance activists and IOF in Sheikh 'Ejlin neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. The fighting continued for a few hours, during which time 11 Palestinians were killed.

At approximately 06:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinian resistance activists in Khuza'a village.

(Jan 12) At approximately 15:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a group of the members of the Palestinian resistance near Sha’aban Mosque at Palestine Square in the center of Gaza City. Three members were killed as a result.

At approximately 17:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at Ussama Abu al-Seifi, 20, a member of the Palestinian resistance, in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at two members of the Palestinian resistance in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

At approximately 18:55, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a group of the Palestinian resistance, whilst in the Abu Bakr al-Seddiq Street near al-‘Awda Square in the center of Rafah.

(Jan 13) At approximately 02:00, IOF moved towards al-Karama area and ‘Aamer housing project in the southwest of Jabalya, under firing, shelling and clashes with members of the Palestinian resistance that continued till 08:00. The clashes resulted in the killing of 13 members of the Palestinian resistance.

At approximately 01:30, violent clashes erupted between members of the Palestinian resistance and IOF troops that moved into al-Dahadih area, between al-Zaytoun and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods. The clashes resulted in the killing of 8 members of the Palestinian resistance.

At approximately 10:00, an OF warplane fired a missile at Mohammed Maher Mohammed Harazallah, 23, a member of the Palestinian resistance, whilst in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood. He was killed.

At approximately 19:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a Palestinian resistance activist in al-Zayotoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, killing him.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a Palestinian resistance activist in al-Sabra neighborhood, killing him.

At approximately 19:00, an IOF drone fired a missile at a number of activists of the Salah al-Din Brigades (the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees) in al-Shouka village, east of Rafah. Two activists were killed.

(Jan 14) At approximately 03:00, an IOF warplane fired a missile at two Palestinian resistance activists in al-Sabra neighborhood, killing them.

At approximately 20:00, an IOF warplane bombed a group of members of the Palestinian resistance in the New Camp, west of al-Nussairat refugee camp.

At approximately 20:30, an IOF warplane fired a missile at a number of resistance activists in Abu Marahil Street in al-Nussairat refugee camp.

(Jan 15) At approximately 22:00, IOF warplanes fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance near al-Karama apartment buildings west of Jabalya. All the members of the targeted group were killed.

(Jan 17) At approximately 05:00, IOF tanks shelled al-Karama apartment buildings, southwest of Jabalya. As a result, 3 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed.

At approximately 23:00, medical crews found the bodies of two resistance activists in 'Aamer housing project in the northern Gaza Strip.

During IOF ground incursion into Tal al-Hawa neighborhood that continued until 07:00 on Friday, 16 January 2009, ten members of the Palestinian resistance were killed.

This is hardly a comprehensive list, but I think it proves the point fairly well.

By the way, the Hamas spokesman followed that lie with another equally transparent one:

He also called Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel towns "a means of self-defense."

"Those are not civilians. They are all soldiers," Barhoum said of the residents of southern Israel. "We are firing at places that bring us the F-16s, the warplanes and the tanks."

Turkish soccer player plants Palestinian flag on field

From Reuters:

A Turkish soccer player planted a Palestinian flag in the middle of the pitch at a match on Tuesday, in an apparent protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza, Turkish broadcasters reported.
Sivasspor midfielder Ibrahim Dagasan placed the flag on the centre spot at a stadium in the central Turkish city of Sivas after his side beat Galatasaray in the quarter final of the Turkey Cup.

After he did so, some spectators chanted: "Damn Israel". Dagasan then raised a finger to his mouth, gesturing for them to be silent. One of Dagasan's team mates is the Israeli forward Pini Balili.

A fan site described the scene like this:

After the match, while his whole team was celebrating and greeting the fans in the stadium with Israeli soccer player Balili holding the Turkish flag, he ran around with Palestinian flag!
This was absurd in soccer stadium! I am against any political stuff in the stadiums. This really damage the Sivasspor image, in my opinion....

While your team mate who is from Israel, runs around with Turkish and Sivasspor flag , Ibrahim Dagasan has no right to do this...

I hope, Turkish Football Federation and Sivasspor fine this absurd soccer player.

I reported on January 17th that there were reports that Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar had escaped Gaza by faking injuries, forging medical papers and taking an ambulance from Gaza to Egypt during one of the three-hour "lulls" during the fighting.

Since then, the Gazans have been wondering where exactly Zahar has disappeared to. Some of the rumors say that he actually was injured. There are reports that he shaved his beard and is staying at his mother's house in Al Arish.

Hamas has denied that he was injured, but cannot seem to produce him. And since perception is everything, Gazans now almost certainly look at him as a coward who ran away from his people.

He was featured prominently, and apparently prophetically, in my PaHamas video.

UNRWA now admits Hamas stole aid (updated)

After weeks of denials, it appears that UNRWA finally admitted that Hamas has stolen aid from UNRWA itself:

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said Wednesday that Hamas had seized hundreds of food parcels and thousands of blankets destined for Gaza civilians in the wake of Israel's war.

"At 1430 on 3 February, over 3,500 blankets and 406 food parcels were confiscated from a distribution store at Beach Camp in Gaza by police personnel," it said in a statement.

"This took place after UNRWA staff had earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs.

"The police subsequently broke into the warehouse and seized the aid by force. The aid was due to be distributed to five hundred families in the area," UNRWA said.

"UNRWA condemns in the strongest terms the confiscation of its aid supplies and has demanded that it is returned immediately."

This is not on the UNRWA site yet.

I am awaiting confirmation or comment from Chris Gunness.

UPDATES: Gunness replied with the official UNRWA press release. Aussie Dave commented that Gunness told Haaretz that this was the first time Hamas ever confiscated UN aid, even though we have seen numerous reports over the past year of exactly that happening.

And now Hamas denies that it did any such thing, according to Ma'an Arabic.

This year's Pallywood? (update 3)

One of the more disturbing alleged stories from Operation Cast Lead concerns the Abed Rabbo family that was supposedly slaughtered in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

There have been at least three accounts of this alleged massacre - the Sydney Morning Herald, the Independent and Time magazine. All of them are nonsensical.

Aussie Dave at Israellycool (4:05 PM update) noticed many inconsistencies between the SMH and Independent versions of the events. Read his entire account. Especially note that Khaled Abed Rabbo claims that the Israeli soldier had sidelocks/"ringlets"/payot, while The Independent notes that the only ultra-Orthodox army unit did not go into combat.

Richard at The Augean Stables takes apart the Time magazine account, showing how easily a reporter can be deceived by "eyewitnesses" based on his exacting research with other faked Palestinian Arab accounts of similar IDF 'crimes" that turned out to be fiction.

Read those two accounts. Also notice that there are inconsistencies between the Time version and the others - for example, in Time the soldier kills the two-year old (who was targeted first in all accounts!) with a single shot, in the SMH with three.

One more interesting part regards the Abed Rabbo family. As Israellycool observed a few days later, a family with the same name, who apparently control a district in Jabalya, accused Hamas of using them as human shields. Could the family have been shot by Hamas?

And, finally, Ruthie of America emailed me with another intriguing mention of Khaled Abed Rabbo:

Hamas Cell Uncovered
Israeli authorities announced on March 5 that they discovered a Hamas cell from Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah. The group, according to the Shabak, is responsible for the deaths of 22 Israelis and the injury of 345. The five-member group was planning to take hostages in an embassy in Israel in exchange for Hamas detainees in Israeli prisons on March 8. The military court in Lod sentenced two of the members, Khaled Abed Rabou and Majdi Bakhirat to 21 and 19 months respectively.

I don't know if it is the same person, but this is what reporters should be investigating, not taking clearly inconsistent "eyewitness" accounts of fake Israeli massacres at face value.

UPDATE: Here is how PCHR described the incident:

At 14:00 on Wednesday, IOF opened fire at houses in 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area, east Jabalia, killing three sisters: Su'ad 'Abed Rabbu, 10; and her sisters Amal, 3; and Samar, 2.

There were many clashes in the 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area according to PCHR, so it seems clear that there were lots of terrorists around.

UPDATE 2: Here are some pictures from the neighborhood.

UPDATE 3: CAMERA finds many more inconsistencies, especially between early accounts (that the sisters were killed by either an airstrike or artillery) and the lurid later accounts of cold-blooded executions of children holding white flags.

It appears that the stories get more embellished in time. Like...lies.

Hamas still rules through fear

It is unfortunate to note that while Israel clearly weakened Hamas, the terrorist organization is still the only game in town. Its campaign of terror against Fatah - killing far more Palestinian Arabs than Israelis during the duration of the war - has kept it in its role as a thugocracy. And as this article shows, the residents of Gaza are back to their old fears:

On street corners, Hamas police are back in uniform, flaunting their AK-47s....

A recent declaration by Hamas’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, that the movement has won a great victory draws mirthless smiles.

But many faithfully stick to the official version. “The resistance did very well,” says Assad al-Hartani, a municipal worker as he shops for cigarettes in the market. “They stopped the invasion. Without them the Israelis would have destroyed all of Gaza.” The fact that Hamas has not been ousted from power is itself considered a fine achievement. “Israel’s war didn’t change anything,” Mr Hartani goes on. People in the crowd around him nod in agreement, albeit aware of two uniformed guards watching and listening.
In the streets you hear only support for Hamas. In more secluded conversations, views are more nuanced, with expressions of anger, fear and exhaustion. “People are furious with Hamas for bringing this on us,” says a taxi driver from Jabaliya, a big refugee camp in the north of the strip, after first making sure that the car windows were closed and no one was eavesdropping. “But they are too afraid to speak out. They know that if they say the truth about this war they may disappear.”

But he also describes how people’s feelings changed as the war went on. At first, some were delighted by the prospect of Hamas’s demise. But after days of bombs, sentiment shifted. “The Israelis made a mistake when they killed so many women and children. Everyone then supported Hamas. The Israelis made a big mistake.” He repeats that last phrase several times.

Vacuums in Arab societies tend to be filled by extremists, and in this case it was refilled by the old dictators.

Natan Sharansky famously said:

Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.

Gaza is going to be a fear society for a long, long time.

(h/t Ruthie of America)

Zionist, infidel Rotary and Lions' Clubs

From AFP:

Indonesian Islamic hardliners have called for a ban on international organisations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports said Monday.
The (FUU) said the clubs were "infidel" fronts for Freemasonry and the world Zionist movement and threatened Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country.
"They gather funds and give them to America and the Israeli Zionists," FUU chairman Atian Ali Mohammad Da'i was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe daily.
"We urge all Muslims to renounce membership in the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. Otherwise they can consider themselves infidels."

And as always when people are accused of being Zionist, they have to defend themselves from the slur:

Leaders of the Lions and Rotary Clubs yesterday shrugged off claims by a hardline Islamic group in Indonesia that they are part of a "Zionist conspiracy".

They dismissed the claims made by the People's Ulema Forum (FUU) in Jakarta that the clubs were "infidel" fronts for freemasonry and the international Zionist movement.

Dr J.P. Kamalanathan, governor of Lions' Club International district 308 B1, which covers Peninsular Malaysia, said the organisation never took any religious, political or nationalistic stand.

He said with some 1.3 million members worldwide, it would be illogical to pin the club's affiliation to any one country or group. "We are not anti-anything," he said yesterday.

Hamas managed to come to the conclusion that Lions and Rotarians are Zionist infidels decades ago. From the Hamas charter:

For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

South Africa minister "apologizes" for anti-semitism

JTA reported last week:

On Jan. 14, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatima Hajaig told a pro-Palestinian rally that Jews controlled America "no matter which government comes into power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush."
"The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money," she said. "If the Jewish money controls their country, then you cannot expect anything else."

A local Muslim television station, Channel Islam International, aired Hajaig's comments as part of its rally coverage.

The rally, held during Israel's three-week operation in Gaza, was organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a partner of the ruling African National Congress party. Other sponors included the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, the South Africa Communist Party -- also an ANC government partner -- and the South Africa Council of Churches.

"We haven't seen such brazen Jew-baiting from a senior government representative in South Africa for at least 50 years," David Saks, the associate director of the South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies, told JTA. "What was especially troubling about it was the raucously enthusiastic response from the large audience."

No kidding. Mail and Guardian blogger David Saks describes the rest of the rally:

In addition to such revolting conspiracy theorising, various other speakers at the Lenasia rally made threatening statements against the local Jewish community.This included calls that anyone with Zionist sympathies be expelled from the country, that “Israeli” businesses be boycotted (a list of Jewish-owned businesses is in fact now doing the rounds within the Muslim community and further afield) and that action be taken against South African Jews who served in the Israeli military.

One presenter said: “The common enemy is making inroads in South Africa … the Zionists in South Africa must be kicked out of the shores of South Africa”. Another speaker praised “our Jewish brothers and sisters” who had come out against the Israel Defence Force, assuring them “there is a place in the world we are building in South Africa for you”. Those who had not done so, he warned, had “better watch out because the winds of change are blowing”.

Regarding local Jews allegedly serving in the IDF, another presenter shouted (again to rapturous and sustained applause): “We are going to become impimpis [informants - EoZ], we are going to become impimpis … the business that we are going to carry out with the Jews, with these Zionist entities. We are going to talk to them, were going to find out if their sons have gone to fight our brothers and sisters in Palestine and then we’ll say to them come and fight us at home”.

Other speakers included ANC Provincial Secretary Nazeem Adams and Eddie Makue, general secretary for South African Council of Churches. Makue denied that the fight against Israel and Zionism was anti-Semitic, saying that he and his fellow activists only wanted to bring their “Jewish brothers and sisters onto the right path”.

“This is a global struggle. We are inviting you to join us in it, otherwise you will be mowed down in the annals of history as people who refuse to support justice and peace” he said, as the crowd bellowed its approval.

All in all, it must have been very much reminiscent of a Nuremburg rally.

So on January 14th, we had a televised rally with explicit anti-semitism, broadcast by a Muslim TV station that didn't condemn it (quite the opposite,) that was exposed in the media since at least January 19th...and now, three weeks later after much criticism, the deputy minister has finally issued a pseudo-apology:

Deputy foreign minister Fatima Hajaig today apologised for any pain caused by alleged anti-Semitic remarks she made at a rally a few weeks ago.

"To the extent that my statement may have caused hurt and pain, I offer an unequivocal apology for the pain it may have caused to the people of our country, and the Jewish community in particular," said Hajaig in a statement.

She said she regretted the "inference" made by some people that she was "anti-Jewish".

"I do not believe that the cause of the Palestinians is served by anti-Jewish racism."

Note that she is not apologizing for the statement - only for the fact that people might be offended. Needless to say, this is not an apology.

She then added:

"I conflated Zionist pressure with Jewish influence."

SA Jewish Board of Deputies national chairman Zev Krengel said today that Hajaig had given only a "veiled apology" in her statement.

"She is still not apologising for what she has said. She is apologising for the hurt."

Krengel said he believed she still needed to apologise for what was actually said and repudiate it.

He said she had used her apology to make another statement towards the Middle East and almost "justify" what she had done.

Since it took the netter part of a month for her to do even this, I think we can be sure that she really isn't too sorry about what she said.

2008, 2009 PalArab self-death updates

My self-death count has had a lot of guesswork since the beginning of Cast Lead, and I based a lot on a Jerusalem Post article that claimed 35 had been killed as of January 4th. Since then there have been a number of attempts to catalogue the dead, and I believe now that the JPost numbers were a bit high. I try to make sure my numbers are accurate. My rule had been, whenever possible, to only count deaths with names attached to them and I had been bothered that the 35 mentioned in the JPost never panned out.

The PCHR just published (in Arabic only so far) the most comprehensive list of those killed in infighting since Cast Lead began. According to its numbers some 16 were killed in 2008 and 16 more in 2009. I adjusted the 2008 numbers accordingly (adding 10) and I included the 16 in the 2009 numbers, plus two more in the West Bank.

As far as I can tell, all the ones I had specified were on the PCHR list, including the former B'Tselem worker; they also included some more recent ones I had missed, including a 7-year old girl killed by "misuse of weapons." And this list includes far more dead than earlier lists published by Fatah and another human rights org in Gaza.

For now, I am treating these numbers as accurate.

Must read - Khaled Abu Toameh

Michael Totten transcribed a long talk by Khaled Abu Toameh that is essential reading if you want to understand the Middle East. A small part:

Now you may ask yourself why Arafat was inciting against his peace partners in Israel, why was he inciting against the Americans and Europeans who were feeding him? It doesn't make sense.

Well, to us it does make sense. This is how our Arab dictators survive. They constantly blame the miseries of our people on the Jews and the West and the Crusaders and the infidels and the Zionist lobby and the imperialists. They use all these slogans. Arab leaders always need to make sure that their people are busy hating somebody else, preferably the Jews and the Americans. Otherwise their people might rebel, and God forbid they might demand reforms and democracy.

This is exactly what Arafat did, but he did it in Arabic. The international community – and even Israelis – did not want to listen to what Arafat was saying in Arabic. They only cared what he said in English. They said that what he said in English was good.

The question we should ask ourselves in the wake of this scenario is whether or not there is really a partner on the Palestinian side for any deal, let alone a peace agreement. Any kind of deal. Is there really a partner on the Palestinian side? And the answer is simple. No.

I don't know how to solve this problem. Talking about a Palestinian state today is a joke. Where would that state be established? Israel controls nearly half of the West Bank. These PLO people can't deliver. If Israel gives up the West Bank, you will have to go to Cairo or Amman to take a flight back to America because snipers will be sitting on the hilltops above Ben-Gurion airport.

If you keep up this policy of supporting one party against the other, Gaza will move to the West Bank and we will end up with more anarchy and lawlessness and God knows what else is going to happen. It's a very unpleasant picture. It's very gloomy, I know.

And while you are at it, also read his article here.

Because the two-state solution and the one-state solution are not going to work for all the above-mentioned reasons, the time has come to consider other options. One idea that has been floating around lately is to involve the Jordanians and the Egyptians in running the affairs of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians and Jordanians are already involved, to a certain degree, in helping the Palestinians in both entities. In recent years, the Egyptians have often found themselves involved in what's happening inside the Gaza Strip. The Jordanians have also lately increased their involvement in the affairs of their former citizens in the West Bank.

What is needed now is to exert pressure on Cairo and Amman to step up their involvement in what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Training Palestinian security forces is not enough. The two Arab countries should be more involved, even if that means deploying their own troops in these areas.

President Hosni Mubarak and King Hussein II do not like the idea. They prefer that the Palestinians remain Israel's problem alone. But the Palestinians really need the help of these two countries. As such, there is nothing wrong with trying a new solution - one that would place the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the jurisdiction of Jordan and Egypt respectively until the Palestinians get their act together and start working toward establishing a good state. It is possible that, with the help of the Jordanians and the Egyptians, the Palestinians might move faster toward achieving their goal.

Today's PalArab media roundup

Egypt decided to close the Rafah crossings on Thursday, only to be opened for emergencies. The UN has yet to issue a statement accusing Egypt of imposing a "siege."

Egypt also blew up some 13 tunnels under Rafah yesterday.

The PRC, which has close ties with Hamas, threatened Israel to fully open the crossings or else the "truce is finished." They helpfully add that they will turn Israeli sites into hell. (These same people took responsibility for over a dozen mortars and rockets yesterday.)

A "Free Gaza" style boat has left Tripoli to go to Gaza via Cyprus.

Our UNRWA friends in the news

UNRWA tried to pull a stunt yesterday, revealing not only its disrespect but also its arrogance. From JPost:

On Monday, the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, including some 50 trucks with supplies provided by UNRWA. The night before, UNRWA had asked the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration to permit the transfer of paper and plastic bags to Gaza, and had been told the request was under consideration.
Despite not having received approval, UNRWA, COGAT officials said, drove several trucks carrying the supplies from Jerusalem to the crossing and coordinated their arrival with several media outlets, which filmed the trucks being turned away.
COGAT Spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner called the incident a "regretful provocation" by the UNRWA spokesman's office and added that while Israel may eventually approve the transfer of office supplies to Gaza, it was currently focusing on humanitarian aid.
"UNRWA receives preferential treatment at the crossings, and today alone 50 of its trucks were allowed in," Lerner said.
"What was done was wrong and not in accordance with the working relationship that Israel has with UNRWA."

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the organization's schools in Gaza, which opened last week, only had 60 percent of the needed textbooks and that the paper was needed to fill the gap.
"We are running schools for 200,000 kids in Gaza and we have said for weeks that we would need to get it in, and it is entirely predictable since our school term starts at a certain time and therefore it is really strange that anybody should be surprised that we raised this issue," Gunness said.

UNRWA is now deciding that it alone decides the priority of goods entering Gaza. Apparently, paper and plastic bags for schools are more important than fuel and food for everyone, which we are hearing is still in short supply.

Instead of an apology for trying to smuggle in goods that have not been approved and staging a media stunt meant to embarrass Israel, our old friend Chris is saying to the Israelis that he really considers them beneath contempt and that he knows best, that Israel's security concerns are meaningless, that the continued rockets into Israel are less important than the sacred UNRWA school year where teachers can pass on their hatred of Israel to the next generation.

UN Humanitarian chief John Holmes, who is not a part of UNRWA, notably does not deny that some aid to Gaza may have been stolen by Hamas as Gunness has:

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said he was unaware of any instances in which international aid had been misappropriated. But he told reporters in Geneva at the launch of the UN's $613 million emergency appeal for the Palestinian territory that there have been stories about aid getting diverted to Hamas.
"There are concerns by Israel in particular about things like construction materials, cement, pipes [and] other kinds of equipment which they believe could be diverted to military uses," Holmes said, mentioning the construction of bunkers or rocket launchers.
Holmes said the improved audits would be part of the UN's effort to convince Israel to fully reopen its crossing points with Gaza, so that humanitarian aid and commercial goods could be brought in, along with cash so salaries could be paid.

Holmes is trying to work with Israel to allay concerns about misallocation of aid. However, UNRWA is telling Israel that it simply never happens, that the huge network of bunkers that Hamas built with cement that Israel had previously allowed in don't exist, that Qassam rockets built with pipes that Israel had previously allowed in don't exist, that the UNRWA is omnipotent and benevolent.

The divergence of rhetoric between UNRWA and John Holmes also indicates that perhaps the UN is not as fully behind UNRWA as one would think.

The all-knowing UNRWA did admit a mistake yesterday:

While correctly reported on 6 January that Israeli shells landed outside an UNRWA school in Jabalia, resulting in an initial estimate of 30 fatalities, the Situation Report of 7 January referred to 'the shelling of the UNRWA school in Jabalia.' The Humanitarian Coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school. According to UNRWA, the number of fatalities is over 40, many of them among the 1,368 people who had taken refuge in the school.