Hamas wins in Gaza

TEL AVIV – As the madness in the Gaza Strip continues, one thing is clear – Hamas has won against Israel, Egypt and the United States on all fronts.

The crisis began last week when Palestinian terrorists fired over 200 rockets from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish communities. Rockets have been regularly flying from the territory since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but last week's increased bombardment marked an escalation that prompted widespread calls here for the Israeli government to carry out a large-scale anti-rocket operation and ground assault in Gaza.

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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, in no shape to withstand a difficult military operation, decided instead to get creative and cut back fuel supplies and shipment trucks entering Gaza from the Israeli border in an effort to pressure Gaza's Hamas leadership. But Israeli officials say they continue to transfer sufficient aid and materials to the Palestinians to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and allow Gaza's power plants to run.

Still, on Sunday, Hamas unilaterally decided to shut down Gaza's only electrical plant, which supplies power to about 20 percent of Gaza, including over 400,000 people in Gaza City. Hamas claimed it did not have enough fuel to run the plant due to Israeli cutbacks, a contention strongly contested by Israel.

The Hamas power shutdown resulted in a flurry of human-interest media reports regarding the poor Palestinians trapped in the dark.

And then yesterday Hamas went for the kill. Masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the Egypt-Gaza border, destroying nearly two-thirds of the structure separating the frontier. Hundreds of thousands of "starving" Palestinians reportedly poured out of Gaza and into Egypt.

Hamas leaders claimed Palestinians blasted the Egypt-Gaza border spontaneously so the masses can escape the "Israeli prison" created in Gaza, but reports abound that Hamas planned the border break for at least the past few months. According to Hamas-allied sources quoted by Israel's Haaretz daily and Britain's Daily Telegraph, Hamas operatives had been sawing away at the foundations of the wall for a few months to make it easier to blow it up.

But those reports don't much matter. Hamas already won the public relations war. From the New York Times through China's Xinhau news agency, thousands of articles and television reports around the world tell of the "starving" Palestinians besieged by Israel.

A good deal of the media coverage is false and nearly openly sides with Hamas. The Israeli blockade has been allowing enough food and supplies – including fuel – into Gaza to avert a humanitarian crisis. In fact, the Palestinians receive more international aid per capita than any other civilization on earth. With all the supplies that flowed into Gaza the past two years, there shouldn't be much of a shortage.

But slanted media reports abound and have been reaching new levels of ridiculousness.

One BBC report, for example, claimed due to the Israeli blockage the Palestinians ran out of burial shrouds and have resorted to draping their dead in old flags. But neither Israel nor any humanitarian agency, including the United Nations, has ever shipped burial shrouds to Gaza, meaning the Israeli blockage could not have created any shortage.

Compounding the reports, the U.N.'s farcical Human Rights Council yesterday passed a one-sided resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza, calling for international action to protect the Palestinians and for Israel to lift its blockade of the territory.

Lost in all the media coverage and the international diplomatic response is what prompted the Israeli "blockade" of the Gaza Strip in the first place. Israeli ministers didn't wake up one morning and decide to place a siege on Gaza residents. The blockade is in response to rampant rocket attacks devastating Jewish population centers.

In spite of the blockade, Israel continues to supply the Gaza Strip directly with nearly two-thirds of its power. The power stations that supply most of Gaza's juice are located in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, into which Palestinian terrorists have been launching rockets at a furious rate the past few days!

Meanwhile and for the first time ever, Hamas now openly controls the Egypt-Gaza border in a direct threat to Egypt.

When the border wall was breached yesterday, Egyptian forces, some of whom were likely paid off by Hamas using Iranian money, stood down as Hamas policemen directed throngs of Palestinians, including well-known terrorists, into the Egyptian Sinai desert. Some of those Palestinians likely wont be returning to the Gaza Strip.

"Egyptian security men at the border were very passive – they wanted this to happen; they didn't prevent anything from coming in or going out," said one Palestinian gunman, speaking to me yesterday from the Gaza side of the border.

In an effort to save face, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced yesterday he "allowed" the Palestinians into Egypt to "come and eat."

Mubarak didn't allow anything. Hamas broke down and stormed his border while useless Egyptian security forces did nothing. Nearly three years after Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip and Hamas not only threatens the Jewish state but also U.S.-ally Egypt.

According to Hamas sources, the terror group, in a position of power, will next attempt to broker a deal whereby it will jointly control the Egypt-Gaza border along with Egyptian forces. Until now, in line with a deal brokered by the U.S., the border has been controlled by Egyptian and Palestinian forces with the help of European monitors. Nevertheless, Hamas has been able to smuggle in weapons and militants, but the new deal would allow them to bring into Gaza whatever they want by the truckload.

In the face of all this, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trapped. His blockade backfired. He's nearly out of options to counter the rocket attacks, as demanded by the Israeli populace.

Olmert can't launch a major ground assault – the only thing that would actually limit rocket onslaughts – for two primary reasons:

First, Olmert is negotiating with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to create a Palestinian state, as mediated by the Bush administration starting at this past November's Annapolis summit. Any ground assault would cause peace negotiations to falter.

Second, the Israeli leader faces major domestic troubles due to a report coming out next week probing his handling of the 2006 war in Lebanon. He is already being blamed for "needless" deaths of Israeli soldiers, with some ministers, army officers and a sizable segment of the Israeli public demanding his resignation. Olmert can't afford more troops killed during a major ground assault.

And so Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip this past June, once again sits a victor atop its Gaza throne, this time with its tentacles in the Egyptian Sinai plotting its next advance on the volatile chess board that is the Middle East

To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861.

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"Schmoozing with Terrorists"

Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, is known for his regular interviews with Mideast terror leaders and his popular segments on America's top radio programs. His newly released book is "Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!"