OPINION and ANALYSIS

Week ending 5 August 2014

1. The missing pictures of Gaza

Jonathan Tobin, Commentary, 4 August 2014

How is it that we have yet to see a single photo or video of Hamas personnel launching rockets at Israel even though we know that has happened literally thousands of times in the last few weeks?

2. Gaza and Israel: clouds and silver linings?

Daniel Pinhassi and Greg Mills, Daily Maverick, 4 August 2014

Desperate scenes from Gaza seem to contain little hope that peace will ever visit the Middle East. The level of casualties, both military but especially civilian, and the repetitive failure of ceasefire attempts suggest that politics and ideology continue to trump humanitarian needs and common sense. There is hope, however, only if both protagonists want peace more than they want to continue to fight, and only if the international community can use the opportunity to fashion the conditions for dialogue and encourage compromise.

3. Hamas doctrine: Detest Israel

Ken Stein, The Times of Israel, 3 August 2014

Hamas on opposing agreements, negotiations, or recognition of Israel

4. Genocide is NOT permissible

Yusuf Kanli , Daily News (Turkey), 4 August 2014

Dear Jewish friends, if you come across any article by a Turk suggesting “genocide is permissible,” then I will apologize for branding Israeli attacks on Gaza with the pretext of fighting Hamas and saying they were indeed a genocidal program aimed at forcing Palestinians to surrender en masse.

5. Want peace?  Start accepting reality

Karol Markowicz, New York Post, 3 August 2014

There’s never an easy time to be a supporter of Israel, but in the last few weeks it has been harder than ever. But one thing never changes: The other side always comes down to challenging Israel’s right to exist.

6. Gaza’s civilian casualties: The truth is very different

Richard Kemp, Gatestone Institute, 3 August 2014

With few exceptions, reporters, commentators, and analysts unquestioningly accept the casualty statistics given by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled medical authorities, who ascribe all deaths to the IDF. We have never seen so much as a glimpse of killed or wounded fighters.  Analysis of casualty details released by Qatar-based Al Jazeera indicate that so far most of those killed in Gaza have been young men of fighting age, not women, children or old people. All Palestinian civilian casualties in this conflict result ultimately from Gaza terrorists’ aggression against Israel, and Hamas’s use of human shields — the most important plank of Hamas’s war-fighting policy.

7. Why Hamas is still holding out

Mordechai Kedar, Arutz Sheva, 31 July 2014

There are six differences between Israel and Hamas that have a role to play in addition to the bravery and initiative of the IDF.

8. Asymmetries and proportionalities

Laurie Blank, The Hill, 29 July 2014

The principle of proportionality forbids attacks in which the expected civilian casualties from the attack will be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage gained.

9. The man who haunts Israel

Michael Crowley, TIME Magazine, 29 July 2014

Khaled Mashaal was nearly assassinated by Benjamin Netanyahu. Then Israel’s Prime Minister was forced to bring the Hamas leader back to life. Now their deadly history hangs over the conflict that roils the Middle East

10. The need for moral clarity on the Israel Hamas war

Irwin Cotler, Algemeiner, 28 July 2014

If we want to prevent further tragedies, it is important to go beyond the “fog of war” — to go behind the daily headlines that cloud understanding and the clichés (the “cycle of violence”) that corrupt it — and ask some fundamental questions about root causes and the basis for its resolution.