Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times columnist who makes regular visits to Gaza to chronicle its miserable conditions.  His latest report is replete with vignettes about homeless children playing in the rubble from last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas, and businessmen unable to ship their wares outside Gaza.  So bad are things now, Kristof writes, that another Gaza war could be in the offing (“Winds of War in Gaza” March 8, Sunday Review).

Kristof’s main purpose, however, is to blame Israel as the principal cause of Gaza’s misery.  To be sure, he also points in passing a finger at Hamas and Egypt.  But Israel is his main target.

“The suffering here has multiple causes,” Kristof writes.  But he  immediately singles out Israel as culprit No. 1: “Israel sustains a siege that amounts to economic warfare on an entire population.”

Hardly any mention that Gaza’s misery is the direct result of Hamas and other terror groups that use Gaza as their launching pad for firing thousands of rockets against towns in southern Israel.  Hardly any mention, in fact, that Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel, rules Gaza and thus bears full responsibility for its attacks against Israel.

Kristof’s main focus is not Hamas, but Israel, which he holds responsible for Gaza as an “open-air prison.”

While Kristof turns his entire column into a jeremiad for Gaza, he completely overlooks the plight of Israeli civilians who have only a few seconds to dart into safe rooms as sirens sound the alert for incoming Gaza rockets.

In his periodic pilgrimages to Gaza, Kristof shows no interest in making any slight detours to nearby Israeli towns to document the perils faced by their populations.  Palestinian blood evidently counts for more than Israeli blood at the New York Times.

Kristof’s mindset is clear: “True, Hamas is central to the problem but we don’t have influence over Hamas; we do have influence over Israel,” Kristof concludes.  “The U.S. and other global powers should call more forcefully on both Israel and ‘Egypt to ease the siege of Gaza.” 

Never mind that Hamas is the direct bearer of all that misery Kristof chronicles in Gaza.  Since Hamas won’t mend its terrorist ways, leave Hamas alone, and pin the blame on someone else – principally Israel.

Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers.