Few things have shocked me more than the open acquiescence—or even outright support—of the international "humanitarian" community for Egypt's decision to seal, and even reinforce, its heavily fortified border with Gaza throughout the war. Early on, Israel tried to negotiate with Egypt to allow Gazan civilians out of harm's way so it could target Hamas more effectively. The international "humanitarian" community reacted with outrage to the very suggestion. Meanwhile, Egypt threatened to tear up its peace treaty with Israel and declared that it was "ready to sacrifice millions of lives so that nobody would approach a grain of sand [in Sinai]."
You expect that kind of cynicism toward "fellow Arabs" from a corrupt and authoritarian regime. But from self-proclaimed Western "humanitarians"? Apparently, they'd rather keep Gazan civilians trapped in an active war zone, where Hamas could exploit them as human shields, because evacuation would supposedly amount to "ethnic cleansing." And all this while they were hurling the obscene "genocide" libel at Israel. Because that's obviously how you would behave if you sincerely believed a genocide was taking place, right? Prevent people from escaping? It's either callousness, mendacity, or both.
By way of analogy, imagine that Poland had sealed its border with Ukraine after Russia's invasion in 2022, telling the world: "Why should we let in Ukrainian civilians? We don't want a bunch of Nazis in our country." Bad enough. Now imagine the "humanitarian" community supporting that stance—insisting that Poland bore no responsibility for Russia's aggression, and that admitting Ukrainians would amount to "ethnic cleansing" because Moscow might never allow them to return.
In this brilliant article, my good friend Shany Mor uses a series of clever thought experiments to expose the revealed preferences of the "humanitarians" in the Gaza war. The conclusions are deeply disturbing. They reveal an astonishing level of indifference—whether intentional or not—to the very people these organizations claim to care about. If they have to chose between helping Palestinians and demonizing Israel, they always choose the latter.
I will never, ever, ever donate to any of these organizations again—even though I supported many of them regularly in the past.