The Thrasybulus Syndrome: Israel’s War on Gaza

 “One must be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this.” Machiavelli

Francesco Guicciardini, the Florentine historian and diplomat, was the contemporary and friend of Niccolò Machiavelli. The latter now enjoys an everlasting fame (or infamy, as you please), having gotten an adjective named after him, but his friend Francesco, now forgotten, often had the better of Niccolò in argument. After Machiavelli’s death, Guicciardini read his Discourses on Livy’s Roman history in manuscript and wrote a lengthy analysis of it. Discussing Machiavelli’s observation that “a new prince in a city or province taken by him, must make everything new,” Guicciardini insisted on the weaknesses invariably incurred by force: “Violent remedies, though they make one safe from one aspect, yet from another . . . involve all kinds of weaknesses. Hence the prince must take courage to use these extraordinary means when necessary, and should yet take care not to miss any chance which offers of establishing his cause with humanity, kindness, and rewards, not taking as an absolute rule what [Machiavelli] says, who was always extremely partial to extraordinary and violent methods.” More

Gaza: Inside Mark Regev's Skull (video)

Gaza’s bomb-hit bakers struggle to feed starving refugees

Under an unbearable sun, with drones and F16s hovering menacingly overhead, young men, women and small boys wait in a seemingly never-ending line at the two Tal Al Hawa Bakeries, in West Gaza City. Some men use pizza cartons to protect their heads from the sun.

“I have been waiting here half a day to get just one sack of bread,” says 26-year-old Mohammed Abu Shammalah.

He doesn’t only have to worry about keeping his 11 siblings alive amid the relentless Israeli air, naval and artillery strikes, but also how to bring home one of the most basic foods for any family - bread.
It's 6:30 PM, but he can’t go home empty-handed. “There is no food to eat at home, nothing” he says. Even vegetables are becoming expensive as farming land has also become inaccessible to farmers due to the constant bombing for more than 3 weeks.

Shammalah says the biggest problem for many is how the bombing of the electricity plant has forced most of Gaza’s bakeries to shut down. No power equals no fresh bread.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs notes in a report published Thursday on food security in Gaza said: “The ongoing reduction of electricity supply will heavily impact the commercial activities, the milling capacity and the bakeries performance.”

The situation in Gaza is one of no supply to meet a huge demand. The owner of the bakery - Mohammed al-Jarwsha- is well aware of this as hundreds of anxious, hungry and hot customers wait outside his shop door.

Shammalah says that his mother might have been able to bake some bread, except that she has no electricity or cooking gas, like so many others in Gaza. Several suppliers of gas cylinders, in Gaza City, are not able to distribute what small supplies they have because of Israel’s present bombing and shelling.

Another factor contributing to the lack of gas is that most distributors are located in parts of eastern Gaza City which are presently inaccessible, following this week’s heavy Israeli bombardment.

Even the dough in his fridge has spoiled as it has no power. There is no doubt in his mind that this is collective punishment.

“This is meant to make us - the people - hate Hamas and turn against it. But the result is the opposite, the people have become closer to Hamas,” he said, as ambulances nearby try to rush through the crowds waiting for bread, shouting at people to let them through. - See more here

N.Finkelstein: Method in Israel's Gaza Madness (video)

Shifa and Beach Camp Attacks, My Evidence - Paul Mason

Before it gets lost in claim and counterclaim I will just write down what I saw of the attacks on the Beach Camp and Shifa Hospital. 28 July 2014

I was on the phone starting at 1651 local looking out of a hotel balcony over the beach. I was facing the sea (west) and I had a phone to my right ear.

During the call I heard a loud boom, coming from the sea just to my left - at maybe 10 oclock, from over the harbor. Then, at a familiar interval consistent with an artillery strike, I heard an impact boom to my right inland - ie behind and to the right. Both the Camp and Shifa are in that direction. My producer said he heard three loud bangs.

I commented on the loudness of the first bang to my editor on the phone, as it seemed closer but consistent with the regular naval gunfire sound. Ie like naval gunfire but louder. Link to more

Shock-and-awe unlikely to work on Hamas, Gazans

The purpose of the “humanitarian cease-fire,” as Saturday’s lull in the fighting was euphemistically called, was to show the inhabitants of Gaza, and especially the Hamas leadership, the scope of the devastation that the Israeli army’s attacks had caused. The assumption was that if the leadership could only see for themselves what had happened in Gaza, it would soften and agree right away to the original Egyptian proposal or a more moderate version that would be drawn up during the diplomatic talks. It is hard to understand exactly what the grounds for that assumption were [...] Link

Gaza: Shuja'iyya before and after

مقارنة بين حي الشجاعية قبل القصف و بعد القصف! لك ان تتخيل كم شهيد وطفل ارتقى هنا فقط ! pic.twitter.com/LLJYjy2ALK

— Ashraf Mansour (@A_Maansour) July 26, 2014

Jon Snow: 'The Children of Gaza' - C4News

Gaza: Beit Hanoun destruction

 

#ICC4Israel trending #1 worldwide

#ICC4Israel has been trending #1 worldwide for an hour and thirty minutes so far. All eyes on the Israeli criminals. pic.twitter.com/Wx5TXrv8wa
— Palestine Campaigns (@PaliCampaigns) July 26, 2014

Israel rejects Gaza ceasefire

Israel's cabinet has unanimously rejected a US-backed proposal for a week-long "humanitarian pause" in the offensive on Gaza after 18 days of fighting that has claimed more than 800 Palestinian lives. Link

West Bank: Israel kills 3 Palestinians, injures dozens

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 24 (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinian protesters and wounded about 100 on Thursday in confrontations with several thousand people demonstrating in the occupied West Bank against a 17-day-old Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military confirmed troops had used "riot dispersal means" against protesters who threw rocks and firebombs at them and blocked a road with burning tyres. The protest erupted after allies of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement marched from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the edges of Jerusalem in protest against Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza where the Palestinian death toll has topped 760. Link

Gaza: Refief workers under fire - video

Gaza: No evidence of 'Human Shields' says Jeremy Bowen

[...] I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel’s accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. I saw men from Hamas on street corners, keeping an eye on what was happening. They were local people and everyone knew them, even the young boys. Raji Sourani, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, told me that Hamas, whatever you think of it, is part of the Palestinian DNA. Link

Live from Gaza - under fire - Jehad Saftawi streaming video

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Cairo regime benefits from Gaza invasion

As Israel's "Operation Protective Edge" nears its second week, with hundreds of lives lost, what are the Egyptians up to? They're doing pretty much what they always do -- looking out for themselves. For all the dramatic changes in Egypt since Hosni Mubarak's fall, the Egyptian military and intelligence services view Gaza in much the same way they have for the better part of the previous decade or more. They want to keep the Palestinians, especially Hamas, in a box, prevent the conflict from destabilizing the Sinai Peninsula, ensure that the Gaza Strip remains principally an Israeli responsibility, and exclude other regional players from a role in Gaza.

Because of the way American policymakers and other observers have come to think about Egypt, they expect that a cease-fire serves these goals. The reality is, however, that it may or may not. Link

Shifa Hospital Gaza: Come fetch your Dead, Now!

Shifa hospital call on families to immediately collect bodies of their families for burial--Not enough space in morgues! #Gaza
— Mohammed Omer  (@Mogaza) July 22, 2014

Gaza: Wounded civilian killed by Israeli sniper - Video

Letter from Gaza by a Norwegian doctor

Dearest friends, The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.

The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS! Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!). - See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/12920-letter-from-gaza-by-a-norwegian-doctor#sthash.pdpEzDIn.HhkKhsay.dpuf

Israel killed his four kids

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/children-die-playing-football-taxi-grandma-israel-bombs-gaza-tenth-day