Great Writings on Gaza Culled by Chaverim

Great Writings on Gaza Culled by Chaverim

Dear readers, you have a lot of homework to do, beginning with this excellent piece by William Saletin in Slate, very compatible with our own perspective:

… “The most plausible way to stop this cycle of violence is through internationally supervised demilitarization.” . . .  Including an invitation to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to restore governance and cooperate with Israel on security for both peoples. For example, acknowledging that 

Gazans have no government to protect them . . . Every day, more civilians die in Gaza. Israel, the country that’s killing them, has agreed to cease-fire proposals. But Hamas, which controls Gaza (though many of its political leaders don’t even live there), rejects these proposals and continues to fire rockets into Israel. You can argue that the rockets justify Israel’s attacks or that they serve merely as a pretext. Either way, they get more Gazans killed.

The only way to make sense of Hamas’ behavior is to recognize that its goal is not to stop the killing but to exploit it. That explains why Hamas encouraged Gazans to stand atop targeted buildings and ordered them to stay in areas where Israel had issued pre-invasion evacuation warnings. It also explains why Hamas insists that Israel grant concessions in exchange for a cease-fire. Hamas thinks a cease-fire is a favor to Israel. Given the gross imbalance in casualties, that’s a pretty clear statement that Hamas thinks Gazan deaths should bother Israel more than they bother Hamas.    

This is from Peter Beinart’s Facebook page: 

It disturbs me that some of the commentators on this page think I only criticize Israel and not Hamas. Was thinking of linking to a bunch of columns I’ve written about how much I loathe Hamas, and about why progressives should never shy away from saying that its values are antithetical to ours. But instead, maybe I’ll just say this . . . See More  
Here’s a heartfelt statement from an Israeli who mourns the deaths of children in Gaza, but knows that this is not a one-sided issue:
And this a sad piece from the Israeli-Palestinian writer, on his decision to move his Hebrew-speaking family from West Jerusalem to the United States.  
This is a hard-nosed analysis by Yossi Alpher for Americans for Peace Now:  http://peacenow.org/entry.php?id=7221#.U8-tmNm9LCR
And this is a long, detailed analysis in The New Republic: 
By | 2014-07-23T18:43:00-04:00 July 23rd, 2014|Blog|0 Comments

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