Even before Israel’s most recent devastating invasion, the combination of 41 years of Israeli occupation, frequent military incursions and attacks, infighting among Palestinian factions, and a dwindling economy created a difficult, if not impossible, environment to sustain an art scene. Yet, writes The Electronic Intifada contributor Maymanah Farhat, artists in Gaza have continued to create and organize. Read more about Gaza's artists under fire
WASHINGTON (IPS) - The three-week-old war in Gaza — halted Saturday by an Israeli ceasefire — has had a polarizing effect on the United States Jewish community, resulting in a deeper and at times acrimonious split between dovish groups that are skeptical of the Israeli military campaign, and centrist and hawkish groups that have been broadly supportive of it. Read more about US Jewish "peace" lobby isolated on Gaza
How cynical are Israeli politicians that they have chosen to sacrifice the lives of innocent Gazan families to seek political advantage in the elections that will happen on 10 February. Not only has the Israeli regime sent its military machine to commit genocide in Gaza, it has also endangered the lives of its own citizens and soldiers. This, without even once trying to negotiate in good faith with the elected government of the Palestinian people. Smadar Lavie comments for EI. Read more about Sacrificing Gaza to revive Israel's Labor party
I have often written about Jewish trauma and its effects on Israeli outlook on life in general and on the way it treats the Palestinians in particular. I get the impression that people are not so interested in my psychological take on the conflict. The mainstream media seem to prefer purely political or economic analyses, and that’s what I read in most newspapers and see on TV channels like the BBC or the Australian ABC or SBS. But we are not dealing simply with politics here but with psychology and more specifically, the psychology of Jewish trauma. Avigail Abarbanel comments. Read more about Survival instinct or Jewish paranoia?
Given that “unconditional support” for Israel remains the official policy of the ruling coalition government of Social and Christian Democrats, a position that has been given particularly crass utterance on several occasions by Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union), a recent opinion poll suggests that the gulf between government and citizens on this issue is vast and growing. Raymond Deane analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Are Germans getting fed up with Israel?
Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood. Jonathan Cook comments. Read more about The plot against Gaza
The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility. Elna Sondergaard comments for EI. Read more about Time for Israel to be put on trial
This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by? Jonathan Cook comments. Read more about Israeli assault injures 1.5 million Gazans
“The UNRWA headquarters are in the al-Rimal district in the center of Gaza City. The location is well known to the Israeli authorities as is the fact that they enjoy UN immunity. The damage is great. Although we do not know the exact extent yet, we have lost many trucks, cars and food aid supplies.” UNRWA spokesman Sami Mushasha explains the damage to the UN headquarters in Gaza City following an Israeli strike there. Read more about Israel bombs UN agency headquarters in Gaza City
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Senior European Union figures have signaled that they could push ahead with plans to strengthen formal ties with Israel, even though more than 1,000 have now been killed by the bombardment of Gaza. Two conflicting statements about EU-Israeli relations were delivered 14 January, as the number of Palestinians, about one-third of them children, killed in Gaza continued to climb. Read more about Thousand deaths do not put off EU
