OPINION and ANALYSIS

Week ending 16 July 2014

Is 13 a lucky or unlucky number? The media is in such a frenzy that, says Bev, “I could probably have had 113! What a battle, to find the ones I thought the most provocative.”

1. Jewish Israelis have no monopoly on pain

Alaa Hamdan, Haaretz, 14 July 2014

We must be as passionate for reconciliation between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens as those within both our societies who seek to widen the divide between us.

2. In Israel and Palestine, history is irrelevant

Simon Allison, Daily Maverick, 14 July 2014

Israel and Palestine are at it again. As if the Middle East didn’t have enough going on already, Israel is now pounding the Gaza Strip with ‘precision strikes’ that are never quite as precise as advertised, if the growing civilian death toll is anything to go by; while Palestinian militant group Hamas is sending waves of home-made rockets in Israel’s direction, ultimately ineffectual but scary nonetheless.

3. Israel and Hamas: there’s no comparison

Michael Coetzee, Politicsweb, 11 July 2014

The terrorist group is completely indifferent to civilian deaths, both on its own and the other side.

4. This renewed violence suggests a bleak future for Israelis and Palestinians

Daniel Levy, The Guardian, 11 July 2014

A toxic cocktail of greater radicalisation, lack of mediators and Binyamin Netanyahu do not bode well for the region

5. Israel stands at the furnace edge

Mike Berger, Politicsweb, 11 July 2014

The media’s reporting on Operative Protective Edge in Gaza has been dangerously uninformed.

6. Getting the law right on the Israel-Hamas conflict          

Laurie Blank, The Hill, 11 July 2014

Hamas and Islamic Jihad fire their rockets with either no regard for the distinction between military and civilian objects or with direct intention to harm civilians and civilian infrastructure. There is no question of taking precautions to protect civilians, whether through warnings or other required measures; rather, every single rocket attack violates the law’s most fundamental obligation to protect civilians. And yet the word “indiscriminate” rarely appears in descriptions of such rocket attacks.

 7. Is Hamas trying to get Gazans killed?

Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg, 11 July 2014

The Israeli military has the operational capability to level the entire Gaza Strip in a day, if it so chooses. It is constrained by international pressure, by its own morality and by the understanding that the deaths of innocent Palestinians are not in its best political interest.

8. Numbers don’t tell the Mideast story

Thane Rosenbaum, The Daily Beast, 10 July 2014

Talk of equivalencies in death tolls or ideas of vengeance are misapplied in the Israel-Hamas fight, where the two sides play by very different rules.

9. Gaza air strikes are a necessary show of force for Israel

Michael Herzog, The Guardian, 10 July 2014

Hamas, bankrupt and friendless, hopes to use violence to win support. Israel cannot do otherwise than act.

10. Why are we fighting with Gaza, again?

David Horovitz, The Times of Israel, 9 July 2014

Because Hamas’s hostility to Israel, as reflected in its relentless rocket manufacture and fire, is its raison d’etre.

11. Iran’s Hand in Gaza

Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 8 July 2014

A little-noticed U.N. report discloses the Tehran regime’s role in fuelling Middle East terror.

12. Where is the outrage over the bombardment of civilians in Israel?

Arsen Ostrovsky, The Telegraph, 8 July 2014

Hundreds of rockets have been fired and a million citizens are forced to run for cover. Imagine if London suffered this bombardment.

13. The tragedy of the Arabs

Editorial, The Economist, 5 July 2014

A civilisation that used to lead the world is in ruins – and only the locals can rebuild it. Why Arab countries have so miserably failed to create democracy, happiness or (aside from the windfall of oil) wealth for their 350m people is one of the great questions of our time.