Monthly Archives: July 2014
Reminder: Protest of military aid at Lee Fundraiser this Saturday
PETITION: We demand Barbara Lee call for an end to military aid to Israel
Jul 24, 2014 — While more and more are signing on to this petition (about 1,400 and growing!) and calling Barbara Lee’s congressional offices, we are saddened to report that so far there has been no official response from Barbara Lee to account for her “blank check” to Netanyahu for his slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the wanton destruction of medical and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Her statements of concern about “the violence” is not enough.
For those in the Bay Area, we hope you consider joining our protest of military aid at Lee’s fundraiser this Saturday in Alameda.
The details:
Where: Rock Wall Wine Company, 2301 Monarch Street, #300, Alameda, CA (see detailed directions below)
When: 3:30 pm Saturday, July 26th
Why: Barbara Lee still supports “robust military aid to Israel”. A blank check for Israeli aggression.
Be sure to tell all your progressive friends about this petition. We will hold Barbara Lee accountable for her decision to back military aid.
Directions to protest on Saturday, July 26.
Take the Webster Tube from Oakland to Alameda.
Upon exiting Tube make very first RIGHT TURN (2 lanes go right) onto Willie Stargell Avenue. Go STRAIGHT for almost 2 miles. Street will dead end into Monarch Street. Turn LEFT onto Monarch Street. Rock Wall Wine Company will be on your RIGHT 200 yards down the street.
Gaza ceasefire talks uncertain as Palestinian death toll exceeds 784
July 24, 2014, Al Akhbar
Updated at 7:05 pm: Talks to end the 17-day assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip have intensified, though international actors said they weren’t optimistic about the possibility of an imminent ceasefire.
The assault on Gaza has killed at least 784 Palestinians and wounded more than 5050, according to Gaza health ministry sources, as Israeli forces targeted a school where civilians were taking refuge.
An Egyptian official had earlier said he expected a humanitarian truce to go into effect by the weekend, in time for the Eid al-Fitr festivities, Islam’s biggest annual celebration that follows the fasting month of Ramadan.
However, a senior US official played down the Egyptian official’s confidence that there would be a truce during Eid, saying this was a US hope but it was by no means locked in.
“It would not be accurate to say that we expect a ceasefire by the weekend,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are continuing to work on it, but it is not set at this point.”
More than 90 people killed since midnight on Thursday, mostly in the south, hiking the overall Palestinian toll to over 770, with rights groups saying more than 80 percent of them were civilians.
A school operated by the UN’s Palestinian aid agency in Beit Hanoun was bombed on Thursday afternoon, an UNRWA spokesman said. The Gaza health ministry reported that hundreds of wounded and an estimated 15 deceased were arriving in nearby hospitals.
Spokesman Chris Gunness said one of UNRWA’s Gaza schools was hit on Wednesday by Israeli forces, injuring five people.
This was the third Israeli attack against UNRWA schools in four days, according to Gunness
Palestinian officials say at least 475 houses have been destroyed by Israeli fire and 2,644 damaged. Some 46 schools, 56 mosques and seven hospitals have also suffered varying degrees of damage.
Most of the victims were killed in and around Khuzaa, a flashpoint area east of Khan Younis which has been the site of intensive fighting since Tuesday, and in the village of Abassan. Israeli shelling left dead and wounded under rubble, while medical crews could not risk attending.
On Wednesday, the Red Cross managed to evacuate 150 people from the area following negotiations with both sides, and another convoy of 10 ambulances entered the area early on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP.
The Red Cross also negotiated the evacuation on Wednesday of another 70 people from the northern town of Beit Hanoun and a third group from Shujayeh near Gaza City, including an entire family of 11.
Eid truce unlikely, says Israel
An Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday that a truce involving a withdrawal of Israeli ground forces from Gaza would be unlikely before next week.
“I do not see a ceasefire in the coming days where the IDF (Israel Occupation Forces) leave,” Science Minister Yaakov Peri, a former security chief, told the Walla news site, saying Israel wanted more time to complete to destroy cross-border tunnels used by Gaza fighters.
“I can say authoritatively that two or three days will not be enough to finish tackling the tunnels.”
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday there had been progress in negotiations to end the Gaza conflict but that it needed detailed guarantees that Israel would ease its blockade of the enclave.
A Hamas official acknowledged that the movement realized that getting Israel to end the eight-year siege in tandem with a ceasefire was unrealistic.
“There needs to be an agreement on the principles, the schedule (for ending the blockade) and the mechanism,” the official said.
Hamas’s chief Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday again insisted on a ceasefire only after an end to the siege, in force since 2006.
The official, who works closely with Meshaal, said however that they understood that the blockade would be eased only after the ceasefire, but they required a schedule in place first.
The official said he hoped the negotiations would bear fruit “in a few days.”
“The atmosphere in the talks is positive,” he told AFP in a telephone interview.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had also said negotiations were making progress. “But there is still work to be done,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
Kerry spoke Thursday to his counterparts in Qatar and Turkey, which support Hamas, as he pressed for a Gaza ceasefire.
Aides traveling with Kerry voiced hope that the diplomat could find a way for Israel and Hamas to end the violence and then negotiate indirectly.
“There are a number of different ideas out there for how the ceasefire could work – there are a number of different formulas – and we’re open to any of them,” a senior US official said after Kerry met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Hamas official said it required firm guarantees and details before signing off an a truce.
“There should be guarantees by the parties demanding a ceasefire,” he added, referring to the United States but also to Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
The official asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to share details of the negotiations.
As Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon held talks in Jerusalem Wednesday, they said they had pooled their efforts in the hope of boosting the quest for a truce.
“We have in the last 24 hours made some progress in moving toward that goal,” Kerry said as he met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, before heading to Tel Aviv for talks with Netanyahu.
The men met for about two hours but made no statements after their talks. Kerry then left for Cairo and Netanyahu opened a meeting of his security cabinet.
Britain also joined the truce efforts with new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond holding late-night talks with Abbas, saying a ceasefire was not enough.
Ban also brought up the Gaza conflict in a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Jeddah, according to the official SPA news agency.
Overnight, Kerry returned to Cairo where he began his truce mission on Monday, discussing ceasefire proposals with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, that he said provided a “framework” to end the fighting.
An initial Egyptian proposal calling for a halt to hostilities ahead of talks was accepted by Israel early last week but rejected by Hamas, which wants agreement on a comprehensive package before holding its fire.
A senior Hamas official in Cairo told AFP the militants wanted detailed guarantees that Israel would ease its blockade of the enclave, but said he hoped talks would bear fruit “in a few days”.
Egypt brokered a truce in 2012. But Sisi, who overthrew the Islamist President Mohammed Mursi last year, has been hostile to Hamas.
Meshaal, who is based in the Qatari capital Doha, said in a press conference that Washington had offered to “guarantee” such an agreement, but it had a track record of not following through.
Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Kerry’s commitments were vague.
“There are no American guarantees,” he said in an interview with the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera broadcaster.
“There is talk that guarantees will come,” he said, adding that Hamas required clarifications.
Hamas’s position has been bolstered by support from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, an opponent of the Islamists before agreeing a unity deal with them in April.
Abbas’s PLO has said it agreed with Hamas’s demands, which also include freeing Palestinian prisoners. He met Kerry in Ramallah on Wednesday.
Some 34 Israelis — 32 of whom soldiers –and a Thai worker have died since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.
Israeli police said a farm laborer, Narakorn Kittiyongkul, died on Wednesday when a projectile fired from Gaza struck the greenhouse where he was working in the southern part of the country.
The Thai Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Tel Aviv had advised its citizens to stop working in the area near Gaza.
“The Thai Embassy has contacted the Israeli Foreign Ministry and employers to ask them to relocate 4,000 Thai workers in agriculture estates near the Gaza strip immediately and unconditionally to safe areas 10 to 20 kilometers (6-12 miles) away,” ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee told reporters in Bangkok.
Israel says one of its soldiers is missing in Gaza, and the military believes he might be dead. Hamas says it has captured him but has not released a picture of him in their hands.
UN launches human rights investigation
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a probe into the Gaza offensive, backing calls by the Palestinians to hold Israel to account despite fierce opposition from the Zionist state.
The decision came after a marathon seven-hour emergency session of the top UN human rights body, where the Israelis and the Palestinians traded accusations over war crimes.
The 47-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with Arab and fellow Muslim countries joined by China and Russia, plus Latin American and African nations.
The United States was the sole member to vote against. The 17 abstentions were by the council’s European members, plus Japan and South Korea.
The probe team, yet to be appointed, is tasked with reporting back to the council by March.
Meanwhile, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos expressed deep concern Thursday about the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, warning that it was “almost impossible” for Palestinians to shelter from Israeli airstrikes.
“The reality in Gaza is, it doesn’t matter how hard Israel tries to minimize harm, this is an extremely overcrowded stretch of land,” Amos told BBC radio.
“Forty-four percent of that land has been declared a no-go zone by the Israeli army so there aren’t that many places for people to go.”
She described “people crowded into a sliver of land, almost impossible for them to move.”
The United Nations said on Wednesday that three quarters of those killed were civilians and one third of those were children — the equivalent of one child killed each hour over the previous two days.
“The trauma that they are experiencing is terrible, and one child killed every hour in the past two days — each and every one of us should sit up and take notice of this,” said Amos.
The British peer, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, added her call for a ceasefire to end this “devastating situation”.
“No one is denying the right of Israel to defend itself but there are huge concerns about the impact this is having on ordinary people on the ground,” she said.
French President Francois Hollande announced on Thursday an 11-million-euro ($14.8 million) aid package to the Gaza Strip, despite having come out in support of Israel’s right to “self-defense.”
An advisor to Hollande said the humanitarian aid, eight million of which will be given to the Palestinian Authority and the remainder to UN bodies and NGOs working in Gaza, was approved after a meeting with non-governmental organizations working in the strife-torn region.
The NGOs “highlighted the gravity of the situation, the scale of the humanitarian needs of the civilian population and the difficulty of humanitarian workers in getting to the victims,” Hollande’s office said.
Situated on the Mediterranean coast, flanking Israel and Egypt, the Gaza Strip is home to 1.8 million Palestinians who live in an area stretching just 362 square kilometers (140 square miles), making it one of the most densely-populated territories on the planet.
U.S. Senate Sets $225 Million for Israel’s Iron Dome in Emergency Bill
Jul 22, 2014, NY Times
U.S. Senate Democrats included $225 million for Israel’s Iron Dome rocket interception system in an emergency funding bill on Tuesday that also cut $1 billion from President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to deal with thousands of undocumented child immigrants.
“Israel is an essential American ally and needs these assets to defend itself,” said Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement.
More than 600 people – most of them Palestinians – have been killed in the current conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza. On Tuesday, Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip, saying no ceasefire was near.
Israel said the Iron Dome has intercepted about a fifth of more than 2,000 rockets militants have fired at Israel during the current conflict.
U.S. lawmakers tend to be heavily pro-Israel. However, the fate of the $225 million – and other funding in the legislation – is uncertain in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, where there is stiff opposition to an increase in spending tied to the Democratic president’s request.
ADC to Boycott 2014 U.S. Government Iftars
July 14, 2014, www.adc.org
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) will not be attending this year’s government iftars and calls upon members of the Arab and Muslim communities to join us in the boycott, including tonight’s White House Iftar hosted by President Barack Obama, given the government’s condoning of the current slaughter of Palestinians in Palestine and the spying of American Arabs and Muslims domestically.
Israel student union sets up “war room” to sell Gaza massacre on Facebook
Jul 14, 2014, Electronic Intifada
As the death toll from Israel’s savage bombardment of Gaza continues to climb, Israel has once again turned to students to sell the slaughter online.
“Although they haven’t been called up to the army yet, they’ve decided to enlist in a civilian mission that is no less important – Israeli propaganda [hasbara],” Ynet’s Hebrew edition reported about a massive initiative organized by the Israeli student union branch at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC Herzliya), a prestigious private university.
Hasbara war room
“Hasbara,” literally “explaining,” is the term used in Israel for government propaganda aimed at overseas audiences.
“The goal is to deliver a very clear message to people abroad – Israel has the right to defend itself,” Lidor Bar David told Ynet.
At least 168 Palestinians have been killed since Israel massively escalated its attack on Gaza on 7 July. Eighty percent of the fatalities are civilians, according to the United Nations.
Thirty-six Palestinian children have been killed and more than 1,200 people have been injured. Thousands are fleeing homes fearing escalating Israeli attacks which have so far destroyed or severley damaged 940 homes, as well as numerous mosques, schools business and charities.
A video accompanying the Ynet report shows rows of students beavering away at computers in a hall with a sign on its door saying “Advocacy Room” in English. In Hebrew, it says “Hasbara war room.”
CONTINUE READING
‘Protective Edge’ has nothing to do with protection
Jul 12, 2014, Mondoweiss
I just flew overnight from Tel Aviv to New York. As I dozed in my seat, crossing the Atlantic, Israeli forces killed some 30 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the death toll up past 80 on the beginning of third day of Israel’s latest air offensive on the Strip.
Among those killed in the night’s airstrikes was a family of eight in southern Khan Younis, a five-year-old boy in northern Beit Lahiya. Another nine were killed when warplanes targeted a cafe on the beach, where locals were gathered to watch the World Cup semifinal match. By the time you read this piece, the toll will have risen over the 100 mark. The majority of the dead will be civilians. Innocents who want to flee to protect their families will have nowhere to go, and will sit in their homes in the thick summer heat, listening to explosion after explosion, praying for their children’s sake the bombs stay far away.
As the bodies pile higher, the unanswerable question “How could anyone do this?” pounds louder in the ears of the observer. An easier question, perhaps, is “Why is Israel doing this, again, right now?” Through the rising smoke of the airstrikes, the answer becomes clear: To keep Gaza isolated, to keep Hamas radical, and to satisfy the Israeli public.
This, of course, is not the official version of the story. Israeli authorities and its military have an official explanation for why they started the escalation. Weeks before “Operation Protective Edge” began on Tuesday, Israel had been increasingly intent on targeting Hamas. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, members of the Islamist faction were responsible for kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teens — Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah. Israeli forces responded by rounding up and jailing much of Hamas’s remaining leadership in the West Bank. And as tensions soared amid the Israeli army’s military search campaign in Hebron and Nablus, which killed six Palestinians, militant groups in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli communities. Holding Hamas responsible for all rockets launched from the Strip, Israel vowed to strike the faction’s powerhouse hard, destroying its military infrastructure and assassinating its key leaders.
Indeed, in speeches, on social media, and in propaganda campaigns targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli authorities have in the summer months focused their energy on defaming Hamas, as if in preparation for the Gaza air offensive. Cultivating political capital from the teen murders into clout, Israel prepared the international community for the deadly campaign it was about to carry out in Gaza.
“The despicable kidnapping of and murder of the students can not go by in silence, and those responsible in Gaza must pay the price,” Deputy Ministry Tzipi Hotevely said the evening the teens were found dead near Hebron.
“The government of Israel must declare a war to the death on Hamas, which is responsible for the murders, and return to a policy of assassination.”
There’s one problem. Hamas leadership in Gaza almost certainly did not have any involvement whatsoever in the killing of the teenagers. In fact, at the time of the kidnappings, Hamas was moderating itself. In Gaza it had been starved out, blockaded with no support from the international community, not even Egypt, and in June it agreed to let the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza. Implicit in that reconciliation deal was a commitment to nonviolence and recognition of Israel, though Hamas would have to gradually introduce those policies as not to lose popular support on the ground. Things may have finally been improving for Gaza residents, as the international community welcomed the shift in government (much to Israel’s chagrin). Why, at that point, with its head barely above water, would Hamas choose to do something as stupid as commanding an attack that would ruin its last attempt to stay afloat?
As many have noted, one of the two prime suspects in the case is Marwan Qawasmeh, a known member of a radical family clan known to stir up trouble during Hamas-Israel ceasefires. As Shlomi Eldar says in his late June analysis of the kidnapping, the actions of the Qawasmeh family have perhaps resulted in the assassinations of more Hamas leaders than actions of the leadership itself. The family claims Hamas affiliation, but Hamas has repeatedly, if quietly, denounced the clan’s actions. Israel knows this, but is always keen to find opportunities to smack Hamas down. In addition to however many uninvolved Palestinian civilians stand in the way.
And there are several other problems with Israel’s explanation for its latest round of lethal airstrikes on the Strip. First of all, the rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza before Tuesday were not launched by Hamas. Given, for Israel, Hamas — as the authority in the Strip — is responsible for all rocket fire coming from its territory. But as of early June, Hamas is actually not the authority in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is. Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef stressed this point days before Israel launched its operation.
“From a political point of view, (PA Prime Minister) Rami Hamdallah is responsible and he can give orders to security services to intervene” to prevent rocket attacks, Yousef said.
“Hamas is not ruling the Gaza Strip and so it’s not responsible for protecting borders.”
Finally, and perhaps most importantly: militant groups in Gaza are only an extremely minor threat to Israel. Their rockets are usually homemade, inaccurate, and ineffective. Many of them are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system as well. While Hamas’s rockets are slightly more effective than those of Islamic Jihad and other factions, they still rarely do any damage or cause injuries. Since 2001, approximately five Israelis have died from rocket fire each year. Meanwhile, over 80 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in three days. Israel didn’t have to deal with Hamas rockets due to the 2012 ceasefire, but this week, leadership chose to engage in open war with Hamas, a war that would garner public support for Israel nationally and internationally as it pummeled its opponent and Palestinian passersby.
Dissecting Palestinian unity
So if Israel isn’t striking Gaza to protect its citizens or to get direct revenge for the murder of the three teens, then why?
For starters, Israel’s political interests were threatened the moment Hamas signed a reconciliation deal with the PA. Contrary to Israeli leaders’ statements, a moderate Hamas would be far more challenging to Israel than a radical one. The unity government sworn in in early June was an opportunity for Gaza to access the international community. Gaza’s government would be considered legitimate unlike the former Hamas government. The economic blockade that had been in place since the Islamist movement took power would no longer be considered justified, and would be gradually lifted, loosening Israel’s grip on the coastal enclave. With the West Bank and Gaza united under one government, Palestinians would have taken another step toward a two-state solution, earning praise from Washington, Europe, and the like.
But as has been made increasingly obvious, Israel is not interested in a two-state solution, at least not the one the international community envisions. It is interested in confiscating more land and continuing settlement expansion, in gaining control over more natural resources, in pushing Palestinians into Indian reservation-like bubbles of territory, in judaizing East Jerusalem and completing the construction of its illegal separation wall. Meanwhile, it is also interested in continuing to receive three billion dollars yearly by the US.
In order to maintain this status quo largely under the guise of security concerns, Israel needs to be perceived as under constant threat. A militant, isolated Gaza and a radical, violent Hamas are a perfect means for Israel to achieve its goal of perpetuating the post-Oslo reality. The real threat to this Israeli interest was the new Palestinian unity government and the international community’s failure to reject it at Israel’s request. This in addition to a few other embarrassments to Israel’s reputation vis-a-vis the US.
Another important element to remember is that war in Gaza is seen as necessary to Israeli society. The left calmly nodded that force was needed in response to rocket attacks but that the air force should do its best to avoid civilian deaths. The right, meanwhile, had already responded to the deaths of the three students with calls for Palestinian blood (which was spilled, we all remember, a day after the teens’ funerals). Now, as the airstrikes hit Gaza one after the other, Israelis gather on hilltops to watch. Officials serve blood and vengeance up on a platter for Israeli society to consume. And when Israel comes under international scrutiny for killing an excess of civilians, it simply blames Hamas.
One can only conclude that now more than ever, Israel is acting to promote its political agenda at any cost, all with a complete disregard for the humanity of Palestinians. And unfortunately, the international community is much too quick to accept the Israeli narrative than it is to see what is altogether clear from the facts on the ground: Israel is not threatened. The Israel offensive on Gaza has nothing to do with self defense. The offensive isolates Gaza, radicalizes Hamas, and satisfies Israelis, all while garnering international support.
In the few hours it took me to write a first draft of this article, Israeli warplanes killed five more Palestinians. One of them was an eight-year-old boy in Deir al-Balah, who died when an airstrike hit his home. As I send it off to be published, the number has already passed 100. The names of the victims are enumerated in this constantly-updated list.
Netanyahu Rules Out Stopping Gaza Attacks, Vows Escalation: Israel Will Attack Strip With ‘Full Force’
Jul 11, 2014, Antiwar.com
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that calls for a ceasefire will not have any impact on the ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, and that Israel will attack with “increasing intensity” in the days to come.
“No international pressure will prevent us from operating with full force,” Netanyahu insisted, adding that the US and other nations expressed support for the ongoing strikes. CONTINUE READING
Israeli Propaganda and the Politics of Revenge against Gaza
Jul 11, 2014, The Real News Network
ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore. Over 100,000 Gazans who live near the border with Israel were warned to leave their homes as Israeli officials continue to hint towards a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. The news comes as at least 77 Palestinians have been killed since Tuesday, most of them civilians. Joining us now to give their analysis on the situation is Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal. Ali Abunimah is the cofounder and executive director of the Electronic Intifada and the author of the new book The Battle for Justice in Palestine.Max Blumenthal, who’s also joining us, is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. His latest book is Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.Thank you both for joining us.
WORONCZUK: So, Max, let’s start with you. Let’s get your response to recent news that 100,000 Gazans have been warned to leave their homes. Do you think that a ground invasion is imminent?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, the Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip are 80 percent refugees–80 percent of them are descended directly from those who were forced off their land in what is now Israel in 1947 in 1948. And now they’re being told to leave again. And they have nowhere to go. There are no bomb shelters in the Gaza Strip. There is nowhere for these refugees to flee. And the coup–the brutal military dictatorship of Egypt, which has risen to power through a coup, will refuse to let them out through the other side, through the Rafah Crossing. So this is another humanitarian catastrophe which Israel seems to cause every two years or so within the Gaza Strip. I have heard a lot of rumblings about a military invasion, that it would be a limited incursion of 10,000 ground troops or so. The right-wingers in Israel’s governing coalition are pushing Netanyahu for this invasion for the pure purposes of revenge and to satiate the braying masses who represent their constituents, who are taking to Facebook to post calls for the death of Arabs and taking to Twitter to do the same. The military intelligence apparatus is pushing for such an invasion to suppress rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and to assassinate as many high-level leaders of Hamas as possible. So it seems like forces are aligned in support of an invasion, but we’ll have to see how events play out in the coming day or two.
WORONCZUK: Okay. And, Ali, what do you think is the Israeli strategic objective in this offensive against Gaza?
ABUNIMAH: Well, I think Max is right that it’s revenge and it’s largely revenge and an effort to satiate, for political reasons, the bloodlust among the Israeli public, which has reached unbelievable proportions. CONTINUE READING
Israeli bomb hits Gaza center for disabled, as civilian casualties mount
Jul 12, 2014, Al Jazeera
At least twelve people were killed Saturday in airstrikes that hit a rehabilitation center for the disabled in Gaza, a mosque and other targets in the area, according to Palestinian medics. It comes as the death toll from Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian enclave rose to 124.
Three patients and a nurse were killed overnight in the explosion on the rehabilitation center in Jebaliya, as Israel’s campaign entered its fifth day. Video footage of the aftermath of the attack showed victims being taken to hospital for injuries, including severe burns. CONTINUE READING