DAILY ALERT

In-Depth Issues:

Gazans Describe Using Schools to Shoot Rockets at Israel, Hamas Taking Control of International Aid - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
    Nuaf Atar said Hamas set up rocket launchers and fired rockets into Israel from within school compounds since they knew Israel would not bomb the schools.
    Zabhi Atar revealed that Hamas used food coupons to entice Palestinians to join its ranks, and Hamad Zalah said Hamas took control of UNRWA food supplies transferred to Gaza and refused to distribute them to people affiliated with Fatah.
    These are examples of testimony from Hamas and Islamic Jihad men who were captured by the IDF during the recent operation in Gaza.

Egypt Labels Hizbullah Leader "An Iranian Agent" (AFP/Daily Star-Lebanon)
    Egypt on Friday accused Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah of being an agent of Iran, after his criticism of Cairo during Israel's military assault in Gaza.
    "Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," a government statement charged.

Spain Promises to Limit Jurisdiction to Prevent Charges Against Israeli Officials - Roni Sofer (Ynet News)
    Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos telephoned Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday, and promised that the Spanish government would work to limit Spanish courts' jurisdiction in order to prevent charges against Israeli security officials.
    On Thursday, a Spanish court granted a petition by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, asking that seven Israeli security officials be charged with alleged "crimes against humanity" for their involvement in the 2002 killing of Hamas suicide bombing mastermind Salah Shehade in Gaza.
    Moratinos also said his government was working to solve the current lawsuit.
    See also Spain Won't Annul Judge's Decision (Jerusalem Post)
    The Spanish government is not intending to work to annul a decision by a Spanish court to prosecute seven Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.
    Contradicting Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega was quoted by Israel Army Radio as saying that "Spain is a country ruled by law and the justice system [here] enjoys absolute independence. This was made clear to Israel."

Freed Lebanese Terrorist Visits Iran, Calls for Destruction of Israel (AFP)
    Convicted murderer Samir Kantar, who was released by Israel in a prisoner swap last year, called for the destruction of Israel during a visit to Tehran on Thursday.
    "We have to resist the Zionist regime and destroy it," Kantar said in a speech before being honored by Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

Observations:

Using the Holocaust to Attack the Jews - Walter Reich (Washington Post)

• The Holocaust is being increasingly used as a weapon against the Jews and the Jewish state. As some people who don't like Jews have found, it's worth acknowledging the Holocaust if you can then turn it into a cudgel against the Jews. According to this crowd, the Jews today have become Nazis. The Jewish state is now supposedly carrying out a Holocaust against the Palestinians.
• People of good will around the world are naturally shocked by the tragic and appalling deaths of Palestinian civilians, including those killed in the recent war in Gaza. But the massive and unceasing eruptions of outrage against the Jewish state - in a world in which other countries and groups have engaged in immensely more destructive and immoral behavior while provoking barely any outrage - can only be explained in a few ways.
• One is that attacking Israel has become a means of attacking Israel's ally, the U.S. Another is that over-the-top attacks on Israel, particularly those invoking Holocaust language, have become a means of once again attacking the Jews.

  The writer, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, is a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• The lessons of the Holocaust risk losing their value if the tragedy of the Holocaust is invoked to fit every case of moral outrage. No recent event makes this more clear than the inflammatory misuse of Holocaust comparisons to describe the conflict in Gaza, in a dual demonizing indictment.
• On the one hand, Jews are blamed for perpetrating a Holocaust on the Palestinians, as in the appalling statement of Norwegian diplomat Trine Lilleng that "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany;" and on the other hand, crowds are incited to another Holocaust against the Jews, as in the chants of protesters who scream "Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!"
• Consider the simultaneous humanitarian crises in the world that were largely ignored during the war in Gaza. Darfur continued to be beset by genocide. Mass rape was being used as a weapon of war in the Congo. In Zimbabwe, a disastrous cholera epidemic was afflicting tens of thousands. Anarchy reigned in Somalia; systemic repression endured in North Korea, and political prisoners were being executed in Iran.
• Meanwhile, Israel unilaterally halted its fighting in the middle of the day to allow humanitarian supplies to flow to Palestinians, and it warned civilians - by dropping leaflets and by phone - when attacks in their vicinity were coming.
• The comparison between Israel's action against Hamas - a terrorist group sworn to destroy Israel - and the Nazi Holocaust is as false as it is obscene. I say this not as a proponent of Israel, but as a voice for Holocaust remembrance.

  The writer is a member of the Canadian Parliament and a former justice minister.