The fact that Hamas has been hiding behaind Gaza’s civilians for the past few weeks comes as no surprise.  News articles from the past several years have chronicled these exploitative tactics as they developed and were implemented.

Notable among these articles is one from 2006 by Alan Johnston of the BBC on how children and old men gathered to prevent an Israeli operation.

Also, we bring you below an article from the LA Times, on the same topic. continue reading…

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Consul David Saranga wrote an opinion piece published by the New York Daily News:

Because of the sea of words and wave of articles that continue to flood the media regarding the war in Gaza, I decided to write something that would resonate with readers in a different way. Sometimes numbers speak louder than words.

See here for more.

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We’ve received some questions (in comments and through Twitter) about Israel’s response to Red Cross allegations, which were reported widely yesterday. Below, you can find some responses, given on WorldFocus last night.

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We’ve received a lot of mail recently about arguments of proportionality in warfare. Today we found an interesting piece in The New Republic by Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus at the Insitute for Advanced Study at Princeton University (who’s been doing this type of political philosophy for a while), on this very discussion.  He also notes the questions that should guide our discussion of proportionality, as well as some unintended outcomes of that discussion.
An excerpt:

Let’s talk about proportionality–or, more important, about its negative form. “Disproportionate” is the favorite critical term in current discussions of the morality of war. But most of the people who use it don’t know what it means in international law or in just war theory.

For more, see here.

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The New Republic over the past few days, has published a few thoughtful articles about what the end of Operation “Cast Lead” might mean. For now, we’ll note two pieces for your consideration.

The first article is by Martin Peretz; it’s from two days ago but is still quite relevant to the present circumstances.  In discussing a cessation of fire, he notes, it must be made clear that Hamas will have to stop the rocket fire on Israel, and that assent by the Palestinian Authority to any measure will not necessarily bind Hamas to anything.  An excerpt:

As I write, there is news that a cease fire may (or may not) be dawning over Gaza. Apparently, even if it is, it will be between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas announced that it will not submit to a permanent truce. But if Nicholas Sarkozy, the prime broker in the arrangement, and Hosni Mubarak, who has also played a constructive role (and one very hostile to Hamas) since the fighting began, are to be believed, the terms of the truce assure that the jihadists will be kept from both shelling and rearming. These are Angela Merkel’s terms, as well.

See here for the rest of the article.

In the second, Bernard-Henri Levy argues that the Palestinian people will face a number of serious choices on the “day after.”  They will have to decide whether they want to negotiate with Israel or whether they want to keep on with senseless fighting trying to destroy their neighbors.  An excerpt:

Either Hamas leaders re-establish the truce that they broke, and, while they’re at it, declare null and void a charter founded on the pure rejection of the “Zionist Entity”: In doing so, they will rejoin the vast party for compromise that has not ceased–God be praised–to make progress in the region, and peace will be established. Or they will only, obstinately, consider the suffering of Palestinian civilians in terms of its fueling of their annealed passions, their insane hate, nihilistic, beyond words. And if that is the case, it is not only the Israelis, but the Palestinians, who will need to be liberated from Hamas’ somber shadow.

For more, see here.

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NYC Mayor Bloomberg visited Israel this past Sunday and had this to say to CNN:

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According to Thomas Friedman’s analysis in today’s New York Times, Hamas doesn’t think so–and that’s one of the principle elements in the current conflict.  As it happens, Friedman notes, Gaza is at the center of the three existential questions that plague the region today–only one of which involves Israel.

You’ll just have to read the article for the rest of the questions, though.

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Bibi Netanyahu’s opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) discusses the situation in Gaza and the nature of Israel’s repsonse to Hamas terrorism.

Imagine a siren that gives you 30 seconds to find shelter before a Kassam rocket falls from the sky and explodes, spraying its lethal shrapnel in all directions. Now imagine this happens day after day, month after month, year after year.

For the rest of the article, see the Wall Street Journal.

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Tony Blair, the envoy of the Quartet to the Middle East, talks with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about how to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza.

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Bret Stephens writes in today’s Wall Street Journal on ways that Israel can achieve its military aims without imposing unnecessary hardship on the residents of Gaza.  The goal, he notes, should be to make it as hard as possible for Hamas to continue firing rockets at Israel–and to make them pay when rockets are launched.  In other words, establishing a credible threat of deterrence (diminished in 2006).  Achieving this aim would not require Israel to take over large swaths of Gaza, but it would require an extended policy of smaller-scale counterterrorism operations, along the lines of the successful West Bank operations.  In the long run, it might even make peace feasible in Gaza (and it is becoming easier in the West Bank) and bring some measure of quiet to the region.

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