Death and deceit for Gazans

Whatever happens in Gaza, blame Hamas! That was the official line of Israel’s well-oiled PR-machine and it was largely swallowed by most Western politicians and mainstream media. Hamas started it, so the argument goes, and if you hit someone, you may expect to be hit back. Hit Israel and expect to be hit back hard. This is of course a quite simplistic view of things. First of all, Hamas did not start it. As Israeli columnist Uri Averny pointed out, the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel held for months. It was Israel that provoked Hamas by sending an army patrol into Gaza killing three Hamas militants allegedly digging a tunnel. Gaza’s ruling party replied by firing a salvo of Qassam rockets into Israel. Now, one may argue that shooting homemade rockets into Israel is not the most effective way of promoting one’s cause and that it is time to find