August 14, 2014
Gaza and the Green Party of Canada
In July 2014 Paul Estrin (then president of the Green Party of Canada) published a post, with comments favourable to Israel, on the party's website. The post was taken down, and he was promptly forced to resign. His article, "Why Gaza makes me sad" is here.
August 13, 2014
Understanding conflict
Reservists in the Israel Defense Forces spoke to journalist Yuval Avivi about war, politics and their personal response to being called up for the recent conflict with Hamas. Their point of view is not the same as the younger, regular soldiers in the IDF.
“You see the soldiers in the regular army and they look like kids to you,” says one, only 29 years old himself. “They are not really adults who can cope with the emotional state brought on by the war. Most if not all of them don’t understand anything about the trauma and emotional fallout that this causes them.”
Another speaks in more personal terms, “Today, I live for three people; I have a family. I’m not a young soldier who only worries about himself and is only responsible for himself. I have to be an adult, responsible for myself and my environs. You have to take care of yourself also for the sake of your family.”
Another says this: "In the reserves, you hear a lot more people saying that the conflict won’t be resolved without a diplomatic process. In other words, I waged the war that the state sent me to wage, now it’s the turn of the politicians to fight for a diplomatic process.”
Read more.
“You see the soldiers in the regular army and they look like kids to you,” says one, only 29 years old himself. “They are not really adults who can cope with the emotional state brought on by the war. Most if not all of them don’t understand anything about the trauma and emotional fallout that this causes them.”
Another speaks in more personal terms, “Today, I live for three people; I have a family. I’m not a young soldier who only worries about himself and is only responsible for himself. I have to be an adult, responsible for myself and my environs. You have to take care of yourself also for the sake of your family.”
Another says this: "In the reserves, you hear a lot more people saying that the conflict won’t be resolved without a diplomatic process. In other words, I waged the war that the state sent me to wage, now it’s the turn of the politicians to fight for a diplomatic process.”
Read more.
August 12, 2014
Gaza's Egyptian heritage
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is a called a traitor in Gaza. Why "traitor" which implies he is a countryman, rather than "enemy"? Because many Gazans see themselves as Egyptian. Lawrence Solomon explains.
First reflections on the war in Gaza -- three views
Victor Davis Hansen argues that Israel won the war. He defines victory as 4-5 years of peace from Hamas, and, he says, Europe’s anti-Israel position is looking even more indefensible.
Uriel Heilman says Israel dealt a strong military blow to Hamas, but will find it difficult to separate its image from the scenes of destruction in Gaza.
Despite the damage done to Hamas, their leadership and a large rocket supply remain intact in underground bunkers, writes David Horovitz.
Uriel Heilman says Israel dealt a strong military blow to Hamas, but will find it difficult to separate its image from the scenes of destruction in Gaza.
Despite the damage done to Hamas, their leadership and a large rocket supply remain intact in underground bunkers, writes David Horovitz.
Is demilitarization of Gaza possible?
Israel should offer reconstruction in return for demilitarization, says Zvi Hauser in an op-ed in ynetnews.com.
Terrorist do not disarm, says analyst Herb Kenon in the Jerusalem Post.
"Anyone who believes that Hamas’ current fundamental beliefs are flexible enough to recognize Israel or that the organization will ultimately give up arms as a long-term political concession is simply naïve," writes blogger Ken Stein.
Terrorist do not disarm, says analyst Herb Kenon in the Jerusalem Post.
"Anyone who believes that Hamas’ current fundamental beliefs are flexible enough to recognize Israel or that the organization will ultimately give up arms as a long-term political concession is simply naïve," writes blogger Ken Stein.
Grim statistics
Has Israel made efforts to target combatants in Gaza and avoid civilians?
A New York Times analysis of 1,431 deaths finds "that the population most likely to be militants, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the death toll: They are 9 percent of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, but 34 percent of those killed whose ages were provided. At the same time, women and children under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71 percent of the population and 33 percent of the known-age casualties."
A BBC analysis is here.
A New York Times analysis of 1,431 deaths finds "that the population most likely to be militants, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the death toll: They are 9 percent of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, but 34 percent of those killed whose ages were provided. At the same time, women and children under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71 percent of the population and 33 percent of the known-age casualties."
A BBC analysis is here.
August 11, 2014
Arab leaders stay silent
No voices are heard from Israel's Arab neighbours to end the fighting in Gaza. Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel against Hamas. The Egyptian fight against the forces of political Islam and the Israeli struggle against Palestinian militants are nearly identical.“Whose proxy war is it?” asks Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser to Palestinian negotiators.
August 6, 2014
How Hamas assembles and fires rockets
A reporter from NDTV India captures the process on camera, just meters away from his hotel "bang in the middle of what is a residential area".
Update: NDTV reporter Sreenivasan Jain, after departing from Gaza to Israel, produced this follow up report.
Update: NDTV reporter Sreenivasan Jain, after departing from Gaza to Israel, produced this follow up report.
July 31, 2014
War between a democracy and a terrorist organization is not symmetrical
Shajaiya neighbourhood encapsulates the challenge Israel faces in the Gaza conflict: It is crisscrossed with an elaborate network of underground bunkers and tunnels containing equipment for the manufacture of rockets, storage facilities for rockets and other weapons, and launching sites from which the rockets were fired at Israeli towns. It was a civilian area where Hamas embedded its most important military capabilities, precisely to encourage condemnation of Israel should the IDF be forced to fight there. How can Israel defend itself without being accused of violating the principle of proportionality?
Hamas' deadly capabilities
An estimated 15,000 active fighters, Russian shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons, homes and installations booby-trapped with deadly IED's (including one with signage indicating it was a UNRWA clinic), suicide bombers and bomb-laden donkeys, specialists trained in Malaysia, Syria and Iran -- tunnels too, mostly dug 18-25 meters (60-82 feet) underground, but one at a depth of 35 meters (115 feet) "like a 10-story building underground” -- these are some of the military capabilities of Hamas. More.
July 25, 2014
Hamas tunnels into Israel
A New York Times video report on Hamas tunnels into Israel. Read the article here.
July 24, 2014
Relaunching our blog
Renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas have prompted us to resume posting to this blog. Please follow us for links to insightful journalism about Israel and its neighbours.
December 31, 2011
Israel and its critics
In a four part series in the Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics. Part 1, 2, 3, 4.
November 6, 2011
Israel and Sudan
Simon Deng escaped slavery in North Sudan and became a leading human rights activist. He has been to Israel five times visiting Sudanese refugees. At the Durban Watch Conference in New York he gave this speech.
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