Photos: Meet the Real Gaza

Warning: some readers may find these photos shocking. They were all taken between 2008 and 2010 in Gaza. Most likely, you have never seen them before, because the international press doesn't want you to get the wrong idea about the Palestinians' plight.

Outraged by these photos, many anti-Israeli and pro-Islamic activists have pursued efforts to get aid into the country in defiance of the Israeli blockade. Here we see the lack of food currently available for Palestinians to purchase in Gazan markets.

From the Washington Post's Middle East Correspondent: “If you walk down Gaza City’s main thoroughfare – Salah al-Din Street – grocery stores are stocked wall-to-wall with everything from fresh Israeli yogurts and hummus to Cocoa Puffs. Pharmacies look as well-supplied as a typical Rite Aid in the United States.”

Hamas has made claims that not only are their people forced into starvation by the Zionists, but they have no equipment or supplies to build housing for the Palestinian people and water supplies are threatened. Just don't ask them to explain why they are bulldozing private residences or building Olympic size swimming pools like this one, which opened earlier this year.

The people of Gaza receive hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the U.N., the United States, and Israel, yet many activists on the Left have described the conditions of Gaza as "an open-air concentration camp."

Here are some "concentration camp victims" taking in the beach, surfing, and flying kites. These are comparisons any Holocaust survivor would find insulting. The international media has unfortunately failed to report the truth about Gaza. They have become pawns in Hamas' PR game. They advance the agenda that Hamas wants them to advance, publishing only the pictures from Gaza's poorest regions and refugee camps. But where isn't there poverty? In the same fashion, I could make Houston or any city look like a third world country if I really set my mind to it.

You remember the flotilla with all that humanitarian aid that activists desperately wanted to get to the Palestinian people? After being inspected, the majority of it, including medicine and wheelchairs, was brought by Israel to the Gaza border. Hamas rejected it.

Now that's a picture worth a thousand words. Hamas never wanted the aid, they just wanted to use the interception of the flotilla as propaganda to stir up hate against Israel. And of course, they would love the blockade terminated so they can smuggle weapons in by sea. The bad news, with the help of a complicit media, is the campaign is working.

Hamas wishes the destruction of Israel. Hamas has a long history of launching rockets and sending suicide bombers into Israeli civilian neighborhoods. Hamas has dug tunnels to smuggle in weapons used to attack Israel. Hamas has used schools and mosques to stockpile weapons, putting innocent Palestinians at risk, knowing full well that an Israeli raid on a school or mosque makes great propaganda. There is no room in my heart for these type of monsters.

Hat tip: Tom Gross Media - you will want to bookmark his detailed, informative blog on the Middle East. 

UPDATE: Palestinian president opposes lifting blockade, questions any action that would bolster Hamas.

America's Choice: Stand with Israel or Allow Anarchy, War, and Genocide

Let's suppose you and your neighbor both own dogs. Your dog is well-mannered, obedient, and greets people with a wagging tail. You regularly take walks in the neighborhood without a leash and there's never been an incident. The neighbor's dog, on the other hand, has a history of aggressive behavior. Their dog has been trained to kill and on several occasions has had to be restrained from attacking.

One day you arrive home to find your backyard gate mysteriously open. Upon exploring, you find both your dog and your neighbor's dog lying next to each other badly wounded. The neighbor immediately claims that your dog attacked his dog and demands you put your dog to sleep. He tells all the neighbors this story before you have a chance to respond. What are the chances he is telling the truth? Will you put your dog to sleep to appease your neighbor? Will that solve the problem or make it worse if you get another dog? What if the rest of the neighborhood isolates and puts pressure on you?

For Israel, these questions are a reality as it tries to deal with its Muslim neighbors and their trained attack dogs - Hamas and Hezbollah. These terrorist organizations seek the destruction of Israel. They have launched over 7000 rockets across the border and sent suicide bombers to target Israeli civilians. They celebrate death and martyrdom and are funded by a Muslim authoritarian state in Iran whose leader has expressed his desire to annihilate the Jews. And what exactly is Israel's crime? Trying to protect their citizens from this violent madness.

The Muslim world would have us believe that the family pug is a vicious killer and their pit bulls are harmless rescue dogs. So when Israeli troops armed with paintball guns are forced to board ships in a flotilla whose sole purpose is to break a naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip - a group Israel is at war with despite repeatedly offering them land in hopes of peace - we are supposed to believe the ridiculous narrative that Israel is the attack dog.

In one corner we have a democracy where freedom flourishes. In the other, a fanatical group with terrorist ties who wishes for freedom to be diminished. So who do you suppose the U.N. will condemn? Israel of course. What else would you expect from a governing body that appointed Libya to its Human Rights Commission and Iran to the Commission on Women's Rights? Meanwhile, it took weeks to come out with a lackluster statement against North Korea for the unprovoked sinking of a South Korean vessel in what was arguably an act of war. 

Welcome to the Left's version of the new world order where up becomes down, law becomes anarchy, and the U.N. is a completely worthless body that actually legitimizes illegitimate behavior and incentivizes the act of provoking freedom-loving democracies. The word "humanitarian" has never been so defamed.

Call me old-fashioned and oh, what's the word... ethical, but I'm going to side with the people who have a long tradition of respecting the dignity of human life and go out of their way to avoid unnecessary casualties. That happens to be Israel. Should one choose to side with the Muslim "humanitarians", who sang songs about martyrdom on the boat hours before the raid and have a history of attacking civilians and arming Hamas, can there be any hope for humanity?

If we are to listen to the useful idiots in Europe who have already sabotaged their own culture with moral relativism to a lesser degree, the answer is no. Continents of cowards will be cowards. And so once again it's up to the United States to cast light on the truth and stand up for Israel's sovereignty. If they fall, we fall and if we fail, evil prevails. It's as simple as that.

It would be wise to remember that groups who resort to using human shields have no interest in protecting human rights. What happened over the weekend was one more attempt by radical Islamists to use innocent civilians as a front for the cause of isolating and overthrowing the Jewish state of Israel. Don't be fooled by the attempts of the Arab street, the Left, and the media to spin this any other way.