Industrious in Gaza

I haven't written much about Israel's invasion of Gaza. It's not that I don't have a lot to say about the situation, but I'm just so weary of it. John Hinderaker makes a point, however, that I feel I have to share. We've heard a lot about how HAMAS uses "human shields" by storing weapons caches in or firing rockets from schools, markets, and hospitals,

but the truth is really worse than that. Hamas doesn't endanger civilians in hopes that it will deter retaliation; it does so in the hope and expectation that civilians will be killed and wounded. This tactic is part of a larger strategy to create tragedy and disaster, which the Palestinians have developed into something akin to an industrial process.

He goes on to comment on the role professional "atrocity" photographers play in encouraging a continuing market for civilian casualties, and the disturbing context of some of these photos, particularly the innumerable photos and videos taken within hospital emergency rooms:

One can only imagine what an American nurse would do to a photographer who tried to pull a stunt like this. Apart from interfering with the treatment itself, photographing injured people in this manner would be viewed as a gross invasion of their privacy. But in Gaza, even the exigencies of medical care yield to the overriding need to serve Gaza's one successful industry: the production of death and disaster, and the reproduction of images of that death and disaster for world-wide consumption.