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Some Israel-Gaza Notes

(Washington Post) David Bernstein - Secretary of State Kerry recently presented a cease-fire proposal. The Israeli cabinet rejected it unanimously. The cabinet includes individuals from several parties ranging from left to right who rarely agree on anything. How can a diplomat publicly offer a cease-fire proposal to a friendly country when you have no support whatsoever for it. Israel currently prefers Egyptian mediation to American mediation. The media has engaged in journalistic malpractice by reporting casualty figures for civilians coming from Gaza as gospel. The figures come from the Gazan Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas. The ministry counts everyone not in uniform as a civilian. Most Hamas fighters don't wear uniforms. Al-Jazeera published names and ages of the early casualties, and about 3/4 were men of fighting age. The Israeli media reports that, based on interrogations of captured Hamas fighters, Hamas was planning a major massacre for the Jewish New Year in September, with dozens of fighters simultaneously attacking border towns via Hamas' tunnels. Most support for an early cease-fire dried up after this report, as Israeli opinion turned from "we need a period of quiet from the missiles" to "we need to get rid of Hamas' offensive military capacity." The writer is a professor at the George Mason University School of Law.
2014-07-28 00:00:00
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