Severely Battered Hamas

"Rebuilding Begins Upon a Wobbly Truce"
A11, Monday 1/19/09
By Isabel Kershner

"European and Arab leaders met in Egypt, where they pledged support for rebuilding Gaza, and called for an end to arms-smuggling, as Israel has demanded, and the opening of Gaza’s borders, as demanded by Hamas."

Israel isn’t simply demanding an end to arms-smuggling, but an end to attacks. Meanwhile, if Hamas’ main demand is that Gaza’s borders are open, why was it shooting at the border crossings after Israel opened them months ago, as part of the past cease-fire?

As Kershner pointed out in an article January 16, the Health Ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas. Here, she writes without pause of “Gaza health officials” giving a new death toll that includes 104 women and 410 children. Better informed readers may understand the dubious label of “child” when it comes to this war. Is a 16 or 17 year old gunner considered a child?

Kershner again recaps the big Hamas requirement. “Hamas demands the opening of the Gaza border crossings as a condition for a lasting truce.” How lasting? It's relative with Hamas, which has already indicated that it's willing to agree to a one-year cease-fire. In the minds of readers, a “lasting” truce may be longer.

A glimpse of reality is offered towards the end when Kershner writes that Hamas “has been severely battered by the Israeli military operation.” This is news to Times readers, who in the same edition were told by a Gazan that “nothing” happened to Hamas, without a note of correction from Taghreed el-Khodary; and were offered a rhetorical question from Ethan Bronner on the front page, two paragraphs in: “have three weeks of overpowering war by Israel weakened Hamas as Israel had hoped, or simply caused acute human suffering?”

That Hamas is “severely battered” warrants its own headline, not a lone passing reference. Yet stressing this fact would affirm some utility to Israel’s operation, a concept the Times is reluctant to advance.