Gaza Crisis: The Day After
• Gazans face harsh reality after op. After celebrating a so-called victory, it’s time to rebuild.
• Egypt seized 108 Grad rocket warheads along with 9,646 rounds of ammo. The Jerusalem Post says the arms were most likely en route to Gaza or Sinai jihadis.
• Reuters on Iron Dome’s cost:
Israel’s Iron Dome interceptions of Palestinian rockets during eight days of Gaza fighting cost $25 million to $30 million, the government said on Thursday, arguing the U.S.-backed system was well worth the money. . .
If more Hamas rockets had got through, especially the handful fired at the commercial hub Tel Aviv, and caused mass casualties, devastating Israeli retaliation perhaps including a full-scale ground assault would have been nearly certain.
A senior official estimated that such escalation could cost Israel as much as $380 million a day.
On a related note, Ambassador Michael Oren elaborates on the Iron Dome as a manifestation of US-Israel relations.
• The Media Line looks at the view from the West Bank.
• Does he still qualify for the 72 virgins?
Man killed by celebratory gunfire in Gaza
• Lebanese rocket fail of the day: Two rockets fired at Israel instead landed in the Lebanese village of Sahl al-Khiam. The army found and defused a third rocket set and aimed at Israel. More at the Daily Star.
• Here’s a Christian Science Monitor headline I never imagined to see anywhere:
The Monitor cites four reasons:
- Diplomatic emphasis that Israelis can’t be expected to live under rocket fire.
- Sympathy for Israel after the Tel Aviv bus bombing.
- Fewer Palestinian casualties.
- Lessons learned from Cast Lead.
Post-Crisis Commentary/Analysis
• Israel Kasnett of the Jerusalem Post assesses the successes of citizen journalists and media watchdogs (including HonestReporting) during the crisis.
• A NY Times staff-ed recaps what’s known without taking a stand except to go out on a limb with this line:
. . . this moment of calm will not create real stability if it is not followed by a serious new peace effort aimed at a two-state solution.
• Ben Wedeman, Fareed Zakaria and Anne-Marie Slaughter discuss the military status of Hamas and Israel after the crisis in a CNN video.
• Silly staff-ed in The Guardian. Memo to the north London newsroom: Hamas established itself a player by throwing Fatah members off Gaza rooftops. They’re not going to treat Israel any better.
• Over at the LA Times, Uri Resnick the deputy consul general of Israel in the City of Angels, got a right of reply to fisk Daoud Kuttab. (The LAT rolled out a paywall.)
• The Daily Telegraph points out that a lot of reporters covering the Gaza crisis were women. Phoebe Greenwood counter-intuitively says that women reporters covering conflicts in Islamic areas actually have an advantage over their male counterparts:
“We sort of become a third gender and in some ways are safer because we are women,” Greenwood discloses. “The Muslim men treat with us a kind of deference and actually talk to us about the war, their strategy and their weapons – which they wouldn’t do with the women of their country. At the same time they would very rarely harm a female journalist as most Islamic militants don’t want to behead a woman or kidnap them.”
Moreover, in war-torn Muslim countries, the majority of the women and children only feel comfortable opening up to women reporters as they are not allowed to be seen talking to men outside of their families. Greenwood says this means female journalists can often get better access to the whole story.
• For commentary and analysis, see Khaled Abu Toameh, Fareed Zakaria, Jennifer Rubin, Jeff Jacoby, Max Fisher, Steve Bell (yuck), Dan Ephron, Haroon Siddiqui, a New Statesman staff-ed, Bloomberg News, Mort Zuckerman, and former US envoy Richard Haass (Financial Times via Google News).
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Syrian airstrike on Aleppo hospital while world watched Gaza. No Palestinians among the 40 killed, which is why you probably haven’t heard about it.
• Did the Gaza crisis bring Hamas and Iran together? Judging from the NY Times, the boost to Tehran will be temporary.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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