With all the disucssion around the Palestinian hospital disaster we’re in danger of losing track of one of worst examples of institutional misbehavior that I have ever seen.

The media were active participants in the Hamas propaganda campaign, because this was such a juicy story they just couldn’t resist.  Nobody in his right mind could have regarded Hamas as a reliable source.  Nonetheless the US news media, including CNN and the NY Times, reported that Israel bombed the hospial, thereby helping create a huge international incident that disrupted—possibly indefintely–many efforts toward peace in the area.  That of course was Hamas’ goal from the beginning. 

At this point the odds are pretty good that the Israeli story is correct.  What that means is that Hamas lied and got away with it because they knew the story first.  That’s all it took to get what they wanted. Hamas and its allies were responsible for the death and destruction as well as the false story that was carried far and wide.  That should be hateful for anyone anywhere is the world including the Arab countries.  The fact that the world is instead in uproar is a consequence the horrendous behavior of the news media.

What happened at the hospital was terrible.  The bald statement in the press that Israel did it–in the absence of any reliable source–was an unforgiveable assault on efforts for peace worldwide. It didn’t have to happen. They just couldn’t bother to think about it.

Here are two examples of important information that our so-called press just can’t manage to talk about:

1. Despite all of the coverage everywhere of the Hamas attacks and Israel’s response, NO ONE is pointing out that George W. Bush is 100% responsible for this situation. He forced the election that put Hamas in power when every other major player said that elections at that chaotic moment were a bad idea. As with the Iraq war, Bush went straight ahead, talking about the miracles of democracy but with no real understanding of what he was doing.
2. There was good article in the Washington Post pointing out the responsibility of the Supreme Court for the Republican chaos that has shut down Congress. It’s true–gerrymandering and removal of limits on campaign contributions have undermined democracy. However they didn’t take the next step and point out who gave us this Court and why. The Koch people and their allies have worked on this for years with their Federalist Society (among many other things). They WANT weak government, so they can run things for their own benefit and no one else’s.

The best article I’ve seen on the Hamas attacks is this one.  As he points out, the main trigger for it was the possibility of a Saudi-Israeli agreement.  Nothing says that such an agreement would be great for the Palestinians, but it would certainly provide them some leverage, and there’s nothing Hamas hates more than peace.  There is no question that the primary victims will be Palestinians.

They are being sacrificed in the hope that an Israeli counterreaction will poison the atmosphere for any such agreement.  The sentiments are even stronger for their allies the Iranians, who will certainly fight any Saudi-Israeli engagement down to the very last Palestinian.

It should also be pointed out that one way or another the surprise of this attack comes down to the chaos created by the current Israeli government.  Their expressed view of the Palestinians is easy to summarize: “Palestinians have lost.  Nobody else cares about them so why should we?”  That arrogance made Israel vulnerable to attack, and a good chunk of the Israeli army was too busy with the consequences of the west bank takeovers to think much about Gaza. 

In their eagerness to destroy democracy they have found out that one of the primary weaknesses of dictatorships is overconfident blindness.