commentary from Israel & the West Bank
Posts tagged war
Gaza from the ground
Jul 24th
Antony Loewenstein has succeeded where most independent journalists have failed. He is Gaza. From the emails I have gotten from him, it sounds like a world far away. Despite being busy crisscrossing the Gaza Strip and doing interviews with everyone from tunnel smugglers to senior Hamas political leaders he is uploading photos to his Flickr feed.
Gaza by Antony Loewenstein
Gaza by Antony Loewenstein
coincidence or more
May 29th
Why did Israel conduct a targeted assassination against a Hamas official in the south West Bank yesterday? What is the military intelligence regarding this occurrence? Does this have anything to do with the uptick in discussion about Israeli settlements? The targeted assassinations debate is vibrant and I am not going to enter it right here. Rather I have questions. What would be better for Israeli politicians in this time of heightened exposure on settlement activity than a terror attack? Israel would then be able to take control of the conversation and once again focus on the issue of terror, not settlement expansion. Maybe this is a stretch but there is always something in the timing. These patterns are predictable by now; someone has to stop the cycle.
Updates on the Breaking the Silence Report
Jul 15th
Posted by Joseph Dana in Unarmed Resistance
3 comments
As the United States starts to wake up for the day more news is coming out about the Breaking the Silence Testimony Report from Operation Cast Lead. Mikhael Manekin of Breaking the Silence has a brilliant piece in the Huffington Post about how the testimonies conflict with the official government line of what took place during the war. He writes:
“Most important, the spokesperson claimed that all soldiers received precise rules of engagement when they entered the operation, with an emphasis on avoiding injury to civilians. Many soldiers testified that in their units there was total disregard for civilian safety and a permissiveness they had never encountered in previous operations. “If you are not sure – shoot. If there is doubt then there is no doubt,” one combatant said he was told.”
Jerry Haber at the Magnes Zionist is also covering the story by giving commentary and reprinting full testimonies of soldiers. Please take a look at his site for these important updates.
Lastly, the Israeli government has responded in an upsetting but not surprising way. From the official statement:
“The IDF Spokesperson Unit regrets the fact that yet another human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world a report based on anonymous and general testimonies, without investigating their details or credibility. Furthermore, this organization denied the IDF the minimal decency of presenting the report to the IDF and allowing it to investigate the testimonies prior to the report’s publication. This was done while defaming and slandering the IDF and its commanders.”
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