Analyzing the Israeli-Palestinian relationship can be complicated. But it seems many Western media outlets have adopted a formula to simplify the task: Blame Israel.

When the Palestinian Authority runs out of money and cannot pay its bills, it’s Israel’s fault because it refused to give it money. When peace talks bog down, it’s Israel’s fault because it hasn’t yet evacuated a few dozen unauthorized outposts in the West Bank.

And, most recently, when the lights went out in Gaza, it was Israel’s fault because it cut off the electricity.

The Guardian:

Parts of Gaza were pitched into darkness last night after its only power plant was shut down following a move by Israel to halt fuel shipments ….

The Independent:

Israeli blockade forces Gaza’s only power plant to shut.

The Times:

The lights went out on the Gaza Strip last night when the only electricity plant in the seaside territory closed down after Israel severed fuel supplies.

The New York Times:

Israel’s closing of its border crossings with Gaza remained in effect Sunday, and Gaza’s only electricity plant shut down because of a shortage of imported fuel needed to run it.

The Los Angeles Times:

The Gaza Strip’s only electric power plant shut down Sunday evening after Israel halted the shipment of diesel that fuels it, plunging most of this city into darkness and threatening such vital services as hospitals, bakeries, water supply and sewage.

Reading these stories, you’d be forgiven for thinking thousands of innocent citizens of Gaza are on the verge of freezing to death because of a callous decision by Israel to stop sending electricity into the volatile strip.

This is simply untrue, as the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs felt compelled to explain (emphasis ours throughout):

The supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israeli and Egyptian power grids (124 megawatts and 17 megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza’s electricity needs. …While the fuel supply from Israel into Gaza has indeed been reduced, due to the Hamas rocket attacks, the diversion of this fuel from domestic power generators to other uses is wholly a Hamas decision—apparently taken due to media and propaganda considerations.Noteworthy is the fact that while the Gaza population remains in the dark, the fuel generating power to the Hamas rocket manufacturing industry continues to flow unabated. …The Hamas claim of humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also greatly exaggerated. There is no shortage of basic foodstuffs, and Gaza patients who need treatment in Israeli hospitals continue to travel into Israel for care.

Israel didn’t shut down the power generators in Gaza, Hamas did. Why?

Because it knew its allies in the Western media would rush to its rescue, deluging the newswires with hyped-up, Hamas-concocted stories of the great humanitarian crisis being waged by Israel on Gaza’s innocent citizens. “Hamas promptly plunged Gaza into darkness,” wrote Melanie Phillips in her blog at the Spectator, “knowing that the West would uncritically swallow its claim that Israel was to blame for the distressing accounts that would follow of a humanitarian crisis.”

Phillips concludes:

Far from Israel imposing “collective punishment” or taking “revenge” upon Gaza, as the EU, unwra and the media have claimed, it is almost certainly the only country on the planet which continues to provide fuel and other supplies to people who use them to continue to wage war upon it.But then, people in the West don’t know about those 220 rocket attacks in four days because the Western media simply refuse to report them. Instead they only report Israel’s attempts to defend itself which are thus represented as “revenge,” “punishment” or simple aggression. Vile. As usual.