NGO'S BAGGED

Marty Peretz at The New Republic minces no words about the exaggeration by the media and NGO's of the extent of the devastation in Gaza and their complicity in bolstering the Hamas cause - The Red Cross Retracts Its Outlandish Accusations Against Israel.

Predictably, the press has been exaggerating Gaza death and damage...sometimes as an expression of its own inventiveness, sometimes as a result of historically unreliable informants, including those NGOs that have become, for all intents and purposes, accessories to the crimes of the terrorist gangs and their suicidal intifadas.

Among these is the International Red Cross. Maybe it is compensating for ignoring almost totally the Jewish catastrophe during the Hitler era. In any event, even the I.C.R.C., having made outlandish accusations against Israel, has now, as reported by Ethan Bronner in today's Times, reneged on some of its charges.

For example, Jakob Kellenberger has cleared up the fact that, while the civilian situation is still "dire," "the principal hospital was making do with supplies, and that doctors, working around the clock, were mostly coping with the flow of the wounded." Or "In general, they did not complain about the lack of equipment or material." This is actually scarce consolation. But it is Hamas that has systematically put the Gaza populace in harm's way by installing all of its weapons in the midst of human habitation. This is patented behavior of terrorist groups.

With Durban II coming up in the near future I suspect there will be more lies from NGO's about the Jewish State and more retractions (but only once the damage is done and the retractions will only appear in the blank pages).