I wrote here previously about the fact that Hamas was busy closing Gaza’s border with Israel, which has been ignored by all those who scream that Gaza is a ‘prison’ and Israel the jailer. Since then, this dislocation of reality has got even worse. In the New York Times, Steven Erlanger gives us the line:

Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless its main commercial crossing with Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nations officials warned on Wednesday. The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Palestinians who operated it were affiliated with Fatah and fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life. Karen AbuZayd, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview, ‘Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.’

But now look at this in Ha’aretz ( whose heart is never slow to bleed for the Palestinians)

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday his movement opposes opening the Israel-Gaza border crossing of Kerem Shalom. ‘This is a conspiracy against our people by Israel and the pro-American leadership in Ramallah,’ Barhoum said in a reference to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Fayyad’s government. Also Saturday, about 1,500 Hamas supporters, most of them flag-waving school children, marched in Gaza City to protest the continued closure of the Rafah Egypt-Gaza border crossing.

Meanwhile, a UN report released Thursday said Israel is working with the PA and the United Nations to increase the capacity of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which is meant to allow goods from Egypt to enter the Gaza Strip. The activity includes opening two conveyor belts and increasing the area for truck-transfer operations, which could increase the terminal’s capacity to a potential 150 trucks a day, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its situation report. The Kerem Shalom crossing was scheduled to reopen Wednesday to thousands of Palestinians seeking to return home to the Gaza Strip, but technical problems on the Egyptian side of the border means it will remain closed.

And also this:

A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said Thursday Hamas has made a significant leap in the past two years in the level of sophistication of the arms it is smuggling into Gaza, which he said has reached ‘import’ dimensions. The officer said Hamas has been able to smuggle in a large quantity of weapons primarily because the border with Egypt has been completely porous following the militant group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip. ‘Hamas has jumped ‘light years in its capabilities since Israel withdrew from Gaza two years ago,’ the official said. ‘Now that Hamas controls Gaza, it is even easier for the group to smuggle weapons across the Egyptian border,’ he continued… According to the IDF officer commenting on Hamas’ evolving capabilities, the militant group recently smuggled 20 tons of explosives into the Gaza Strip in the span of one month. The IDF believes Hamas now possesses a small quantity of anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank rockets, which are most likely Sagger guided missiles.

So while Gazans are reportedly starving in a humanitarian crisis (caused by the fact that they themselves are preventing the arrival of food and essential supplies) they are nevertheless managing to supply themselves at the same time with ‘import’ dimensions of weapons with which to murder Israelis (and each other). And how are they managing to do this, since the crossing point from Israel is shut? Why, across the other border with Egypt (despite the fact that that crossing point is also officially shut). So if they can import the means to kill people from Egypt, why can’t they import the means to feed them by the same route? Why aren’t Mr Erlanger, the York Times, the UN and all the rest of them demanding that Egypt ensure that essential supplies go through? Why isn’t Egypt being accused of turning Gaza into a ‘prison’?

I think we know the answer.

But to the warped western mind, Hamas are the civic-minded people who have restored order to Gaza. Well, this is the ‘law and order’ that Hamas is imposing upon the Arabs who live there:

The body of a Palestinian man was delivered to a hospital Monday, a week after he was abducted by Hamas militants in what appeared to be a new case of vigilante justice by the Islamic group following its takeover of the Gaza Strip. Mahir Abu Dhalfa , 45, was nabbed last week by Hamas’ Executive Force in Gaza City. Early Monday, his body was brought to Shifa Hospital with signs of suffocation, Palestinian medical officials said… Abu Dhalfa is the second man to die in Hamas’ custody under suspicious circumstances. Last Tuesday, a 31-year-old man suspected of collaborating with Israel died in Gaza’s central prison, operated by Hamas. The prison said the man died of heart failure, but a hospital report said he was strangled. Earlier this month, The Associated Press documented the ill-treatment of four men who were taken into Hamas custody. One man was tortured, with nails banged into his legs; another two were blindfolded and beaten, to pressure them to provide information on Fatah loyalists; and another two were beaten in a police detention center following a family fight with a rival clan.

Maybe it’s no surprise therefore that despite the adulation of the west for Hamas, the Arabs of Gaza themselves seem to be rather less impressed:

The poll of Gaza residents shows a backlash. Hamas got only 23 percent support, down from 29 percent in the previous survey last month, while Fatah climbed from 31 percent to 43 percent. The poll, the first major survey since the Hamas takeover, also showed that 66 percent of Hamas supporters said they would vote Fatah if it undertook reforms. The poll, released by Near East Consulting, interviewed 450 residents of the Gaza Strip. It quoted a margin of error of 3.05 percentage points. ‘I was surprised,’ said Jamil Rabah, head of Near East Consulting.
Rabah said price hikes and food shortages along with a perception that Hamas was becoming increasingly authoritarian, contributed to its fall in support. Trust in the Gaza-based deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas stood at 37 percent, compared to 63 percent for Abbas. Prime Minister Sallam Fayad got higher trust marks than Haniyeh, 62-38 percent. ‘A lot of people answering this question said we like Haniyeh more, but we want people who can really deliver,’ Rabah said. ‘People are becoming more realistic.’

Would that were so here.