OPINION and ANALYSIS
Week ending 29 July 2014
1. Netanyahu comments suggest new attitude to two-state solution
Victoria John, M&G, 28 July 2014
As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises, the position of local Jewish organisations on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been spotlighted.
2. My position on Israel and Gaza
Helen Zille, Politicsweb, 27 July 2014
On the basis of an acceptance by Hamas of Israel’s right to exist, I believe that Israel should end its occupation of all Palestinian territories based on the 1967 borders; that Jerusalem should be a shared capital of both an Israeli and Palestinian state; that Hamas should stop digging tunnels to attack Israel; that Israel should end the siege and blockade of Gaza, withdraw its settlements from the West Bank and recognize the Palestinian unity government.
3. Despite vicious anti-Semitic rhetoric, South African Jews say daily life is not disrupted
Amanda Borschel-Dan, The Times of Israel, 25 July 2014
‘It is our privilege to defend Israel in times like this,’ says community leader in the face of pervasive anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements
4. Philosophers for Hamas
Gabriel Noah Brahm, Fathom Magazine, 24 July 2014
A leading European philosopher has declared for killing ‘Zionists’ and arming Hamas. Gabriel Brahm asks what it all means.
5. Hamas’s economic woes – a sober assessment
Neri Zilber, New Republic, 23 July 2014
Of all the reasons for the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the most important is arguably the most prosaic: money. Before Hamas started firing over a thousand rockets into Israel, before Israel responded with airstrikes (and now, ground forces), and before the brutal kidnappings and murders of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and one Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem, there were the Gazan banks.
6. UN Emergency Debate on Gaza Creates New Goldstone Report, Condemns Israel for “Gross Human Right Violations”
GENEVA, July 23, 2014
The Palestinian ambassador to the UNHRC, together with Iran, Syria, Egypt, Cuba and Venezuela tried but failed to silence UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer during today’s UN Emergency Session on Gaza, as he defended Israel’s right to resist Hamas aggression, and called out the hypocrisy of those who initiated the biased proceeding.
7. Hamas’s struggle has receded as a priority in the new Arab world
Roula Khalaf, Financial Times, 23 July 2014
It is not that the Palestinian cause is no longer an emotive issue for Arabs. But the turmoil spreading across the region has lessened the shock of a soaring Palestinian death toll while stripping Islamist groups, including Hamas – which controls the Gaza Strip – of an automatic claim on public sympathy.
8. Israel can’t be held back by Hamas’s cynicism
Amos N Guiora, New York Times, 22 July 2014
After years of missile attacks, Israel invested in protecting its civilian population. Hamas chose to protect its missiles with its civilian population – (The NY Times is very hostile to Israel – yet still agreed to publish this article last week)
9. ‘Hitler got it right’ goes multiracial
David Saks, ThoughtLeader M&G, 21 July 2014
The latest outbreak of sustained hostilities between Israel and Gaza has resulted in a veritable tidal wave of shrill invective, not just against Israel but against the entire Jewish people. In my 17 years of monitoring anti-Jewish trends at the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, I have never seen anything like it.
10. When killing Jews means ‘restoring dignity’
Evelyn Gordon, National Post, 22 July 2014
As long as Palestinians derive their sense of human dignity from killing Israelis, peace will never be possible.
11. Palestinian suffering used to demonise Israel
Efraim Karsh, Middle East Forum, 21 July 2014
Why do citizens of democratic societies enthusiastically embrace one of the world’s most murderous Islamist terror organizations, overtly committed not only to the destruction of a sovereign democracy but also to the subordination of Western values and ways of life to a worldwide Islamic caliphate (or umma)?
12. I’m done apologizing for Israel
Rabbi Menachem Creditor, Huffington Post, 21 July 2014
We will do what we must to protect our people. We have that right. We are not less deserving of life and quiet than anyone else. No more apologies.
13. Want proportionality? Give Israel 22 countries!
Jack Engelhard, Arutz Sheva, 17 July 2014
Spare us the pieties and righteous indignation of Europe. The final solution turned out to be Israel and they can’t handle it.
