Twenty days have passed since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza. At the same time, for ten days now, the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)" has been successfully distributing generous amounts of food to residents of the Strip.
In other words, ostensibly, the international pressure on Israel should have eased. After all, there is no longer hunger in Gaza, and Israel and the US are also weakening the population's dependency on the Hamas terrorist organization. Yet, during these very weeks, attacks by Western leaders on Israel have intensified significantly.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that "Israel's recent actions in Gaza are horrifying and intolerable." He has also endorsed unilateral sanctions on Israeli civilians. France is promoting severe international measures against Israel, issuing repeated threats and occasionally hinting at an arms embargo. Germany, too, threatened a drastic measure until Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar flew to Berlin and managed to talk the new government down.
Canada, Australia, and of course Spain, Ireland, and other habitual critics of Israel, continue to attack Jerusalem. Even the European Union, which in recent years has tried to foster a more positive atmosphere with Israel, is now issuing the most severe warnings about a potential "reassessment of relations."
So what is going on? Why, despite a clear improvement in Gaza's humanitarian situation, assuming one ever truly existed, are Western nations escalating their criticism? Is it all just antisemitism? Fear of Muslim public opinion? Ignorance fueled by biased media? All of these explanations are valid. And Israel's dysfunctional public diplomacy apparatus, which falls under the direct responsibility of the prime minister, certainly makes it easier for Israel's enemies to spread lies.
But beyond all that lies a major force that Israel tends to dismiss: the United Nations. The UN, led by its hostile secretary-general, its many arms, agencies, affiliated NGOs, and the data it disseminates, is terrified of losing its "humanitarian" grip on Gaza.
This is not conjecture but confirmed information. A senior minister from one of the Western countries currently criticizing Israel made this very clear to an Israeli ambassador in a private meeting. The minister explained that the UN is exerting heavy pressure on his government to publicly decry the so-called "famine in Gaza," regardless of the facts on the ground. This didn't start yesterday. Since the war began, the UN has systematically worked to thwart every alternative to Hamas that Israel has tried to promote. It refuses to cooperate with the GHF and has officially stated as much.
Why? First and foremost, it's about money and control. UNRWA, the UN's food agency, and countless NGOs have created a multi-billion-dollar aid industry in Gaza that employs tens of thousands. This industry was born in 1949 and has grown ever since. Its leaders understand full well that if the GHF takes over and proves that Gazans can be fed without serving a daily dose of anti-Israel incitement alongside the meal, they will become obsolete.
Why, for example, would the US continue pouring billions into the UN - including its Gaza operations - when it could do so directly, bypassing the UN's propaganda and profiteering? That's exactly what António Guterres and his staff fear.
Which brings us to the second reason for the UN's rear-guard action: politics. The UN plays a crucial role in perpetuating and inflaming the "Palestinian struggle" against Israel. UNRWA, OCHA, and various other obscure UN bodies are responsible for maintaining the Palestinians' "refugee status," funding the camps where they live, spreading distorted information about Israel, and, of course, working hand-in-glove with Hamas for years, albeit discreetly. It is simply inconceivable that Hamas's main server farm was housed beneath UNRWA's headquarters without the agency's leadership knowing. Of course they knew, and said nothing.
This entire death industry, in which the UN has at the very least been complicit through willful blindness, is on the verge of collapse, if and when the GHF expands its operations throughout the Strip. This is also the reason for Greta Thunberg's absurd "flotilla" aboard the Madleen. What's the point of sending "100 kilos of flour I'm willing to die for to get to Gaza," as she dramatically put it, when the GHF has already delivered 9 million meals? The flotilla, too, is part of the global fake-news farewell tour, led by the UN, targeting Israel.
Anyone truly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn't need to send a clownish yacht. They need only donate to the American-Israeli foundation that is already feeding Gazans, without also nourishing decades-old global hatred. Severing this toxic supply line is the only way to transform Gaza from a terrorist labyrinth into a place that might one day be humane and livable.
