Israeli forces dropped leaflets by drones on the Gaza Strip Thursday, warning residents “not to get close to the border or try to attack Israelis”. The leaflets said, “Residents of the Gaza Strip! Greetings, and may Ramadan bring you blessings,” the leaflets said. “A wise man considers the results of his actions in advance and chooses the action whose benefits outweigh the costs…
Yesterday Israeli snipers killed four more Palestinians protesting on the Gaza border, and shot another 114. In the nine weeks since the beginning of the Great Return March, Israel has killed 127 Palestinians, and injured 14700 others, including women, children, medics and journalists.
Hussein Samih on how repressive regimes attempt to harness the popularity of sports to gain international legitimacy. However, it doesn’t always work: “Governments understand all too well the political power of football; and it seems that this time, Israel has breached a red line that neither its political allies nor their footballers are willing to cross.”
“There is no Judaism without Zionism,” Yossi Klein Halevi states flatly in his new book; and Jewish Voice for Peace and anti-Zionists are not part of the Jewish community. This intolerance has not stopped many liberal Zionists from embracing him, including J Street, Jodi Rudoren, David Gregory and Cokie Roberts.
Both houses of the California state legislature passed resolutions applauding Israeli democracy on its 70th anniversary and overlooking the carnage in Gaza. Despite these victories, pro-Israel forces are facing greater and greater resistance from progressive voices in California politics.
The Israeli Government Press Office is fighting back against “sarcastic” foreign press coverage of “kite terrorism,” incendiary kites sent out from Gaza that have caused hundreds of thousands of damages in Israeli agriculture. It held a tour to raise “global awareness of a new threat.”
The New York Times echoes Israeli propaganda about slain Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar, saying she was “more complex” than the innocent woman described in reports. If Russians issued such a cynical slander of a protester, the Times would be the first to denounce it. But it’s Israel, and the Times collaborates in blaming the victim.
“We are stones standing in front of bullets”. That’s how 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar explained the situation to Mersiha Gadzo and Anas Jnena in April regarding the unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on the ground facing Israeli snipers from across the fence. Al-Najjar also told them that an Israeli soldier had threatened to kill her if she continued aiding protesters. “Soldiers tried to kill me so many times,” Razan explained. “I received some information that I’m targeted by the Israeli army and that I have to stay away from the field because of my activities [tending to the injured] but I ignore all of that.”
The Israeli army once again amazes: Razan al-Najjar the medic who was killed last Friday, was just a cynical “Hamas human shield.” This is a day after the army said it had killed the medic by accident. And it twists al-Najjar’s own words to attempt the pathetic defense.
From Tom Friedman to Bari Weiss to Bret Stephens to Shmuel Rosner, New York Times opinion writers have supported Israel’s massacre at the Gaza border. Only Michelle Goldberg has condemned it outright, while David Brooks and Roger Cohen have equivocated, and blamed Hamas.