gaza war

Get that tone out of your voice, Aaron! You slyly mock Joe The Plumber’s forthcoming reporting assignment for Pajamas TV in Israel. But a closer look at the ongoing war in Gaza demonstrates why, now more than ever, the region needs Joe The Plumber.
Human rights groups and Palestinian officials are reporting a sewage crisis, with [...]

In the midst of this confused New York Times piece on Israel’s objectives in Gaza — “Mr. Olmert has been far more careful this time to state ambiguous and modest goals for the war,” apparently, even though his defense minister says it’s an “all-out war” to the “bitter end” and from the perspective of a [...]

You didn’t think that the 180-proof neoconservatism would still be on the journalistic shelves this year, but discredited Islamophobic quasi-reporter Steve Emerson submits something truly LOL-worthy. Behold:

Over at our sister site, The Michigan Messenger, Todd Heywood reports that he just conducted a phone interview with Palestinian journalist Sameh Habeeb, who is on the ground in Gaza. Habeeb says an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza is currently underway. Israeli tanks are shelling Gaza.
Habeeb reported Israeli tanks had begun firing into Gaza and [...]

When you go on vacation and an international crisis breaks out, you get hounded by protesters.
From a pool report today:
About a half dozen demonstrators had assembled near the security checkpoint fronting the entrance to the $9 million rental home where [President-elect Barack] Obama and his family are staying.

Ha’aretz correspondents Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff think Israel, despite the apocalyptic rhetoric, is actually prepared to pull back when the Air Force exhausts its bombing targets. (They name Ehud Barak as an advocate of “caution.”) That’s because if Israel doesn’t accept a ceasefire soon, it will have no choice but to invade, which Hamas [...]

So much for the empty-rhetoric option. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, now in its fourth day, has yielded more than 360 casualties — all of them are Hamas, right? In one of the most densely populated regions on the planet? In a war prosecuted from the air? — and apocalyptic rhetoric from Israeli politicians about crushing [...]

There’s no sugarcoating this. Israel is looking like a country that is quickly losing its mind. Consider this statement:
In an interview Tuesday, Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Israel’s main goal is to “destroy completely” what she called a “terrorist gang.”
I truly truly hope this is empty rhetoric. Because the evidence is accumulating that Israel is determined [...]

Over at The Huffington Post, Sam Stein has a piece on something kind-of-but-not-totally-similar to a piece I’m working on: progressive-Jewish reactions to Gaza. Sam’s piece is Obama-focused and mine isn’t. But check this out:
“You talk a progressive game but what do you say when Obama isn’t signaling a direction on the Middle East?” said a [...]

Ezra Klein asks:
Can anyone seriously claim that Israel’s attacks will not amplify Palestinian anger? Will they not be strengthened by pan-Arab, and even international, solidarity?
It’s worth remembering that, as Gershon Shafir writes, Hamas’s 2007 forcible conquest of Gaza isolated it from the Arab world, which prefers to consider the fanatical terrorist group an agent of [...]