Israel, it seems, has been denying shipments of pasta headed for Gaza. Senator John kerry, who'd been visiting Israel, heard about the idle trucks filled with food aid and asked around. "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid," he was told. "Only rice shipments." A call Kerry made to Ehud Barak quickly got the pasta added to the list of acceptable humanitarian aid. Comments from Representative Brian Baird helped lentils onto the list of officially allowed foods. American politicians do not like seeing starvation used to change electoral outcomes. This blockade, however, has been in place for the better part of two years. Ending it was Hamas's stated reason for the missile attacks on Sderot. Indeed, when Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, a Hamas spokesperson told the International Crisis Group, "we didn’t really have a choice. It was either die slowly because of the blockade or more quickly due to confrontation. Israel was telling us, 'accept the blockade that is killing you'. Despite all the suffering, this aggression put an end to a more painful situation. Now, the whole world is seeing that Palestinians are being killed. Before, people would die and no one would take note." It would seem they were right. Fatah is now marginalized, Hamas enjoys a tremendous lead in polls of the Palestinian people, Gaza is being promised billions in aid, and international attention is beginning to focus on the Israeli blockade. So here's a serious question: Which of Hamas's goals was harmed by their missile attacks?
