Commentary/Analysis
• Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, says he’s impressed with the IDF’s precision:
“I’ve been impressed by the accuracy of the intelligence that supported the operation and the extreme accuracy of Israel’s surgical strikes into Gaza. From Israeli figures, it appears that of the 177 people that they killed in Gaza, around 120 were engaged in terrorism.”
• Melanie Phillips (parts one and two) tees off on the UK press.
• Charles Krauthammer: Why was there war in Gaza?
• Gerald Steinberg: Human rights hypocrisy in Gaza are incompatible with these organizations’ moral foundations.
• Dore Gold: How should war end?
• Eyal Zisser: Hamas “agreed to function as Israel’s police officer to ensure calm along the border.” Hmmmm.
• Jake Wallis Simons, who has a bone to pick with this Owen Jones diatribe on BBC Question Time.
• No kidding: Accurate Death Toll a Casualty in Gaza
• Over at NBC News, I liked Martin Fletcher’s take on what the Gaza crisis taught Israel about a possible war with Iran.
• See also David Horovitz, Natan Sachs, Gershon Baskin, Jonathan Freedland, Cal Thomas, Joel Brinkley, Salman Shaikh, CNN, David Frum, Haroon Siddiqui, Ruth Pollard, Tony Burman, and Lisa Goldman.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• While the world was fixated on Gaza, Iran quietly stepped up executions and punitive amputations. The Times of London (paywall) writes:
At least 81 people have been hanged in the past ten days. . . .
This campaign of intimidation is intended to set the scene ahead of presidential elections to select Mr Ahmadinejad’s successor in June. The regime cannot afford a repeat of events in 2009 and preparations are already under way for a huge security operation around polling day. Corpses hanging in the town square are a potent reminder of state power.
• Henry Kissinger: Iran must be President Obama’s top priority. But Condoleezza Rice says it’s Syria, stupid. Who’s right?
• An influx of Syrian refugees has a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon bursting at the seams. The LA Times (paywall) visits the Shatila camp:
Official numbers are hard to come by, but, according to camp administrators, Shatila’s population has almost doubled to 25,000 since the conflict in Syria ignited 20 months ago. The influx involves Palestinian Syrians and other Syrians, both drawn by the prospect of relatively inexpensive housing (if it is available) along with aid from relief agencies and from Shatila families who have opened their doors to the newcomers, though few here have much to spare.
• Editor revisits the Swedish blood libel against the IDF. Donald Bostrom won our 2009 Dishonest Reporter Award for falsely claiming the IDF killed Palestinians to harvest their organs. The Jewish Chronicle describes the latest:
In a new column, Aftonbladet editor Åsa Linderborg described how she was demonised by the Swedish press. “In Sweden all criticism of Israel’s occupation policy has always been labelled as antisemitism,” she wrote.
Linderborg said she and Boström have been vindicated by revelations in international media about organ theft at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine. However, other Swedish critics have stated that the illegal operations at Abu Kabir were already well-documented and that Israelis as well as Palestinians became victims of organ theft there. Neither Aftonbladet nor Filter have substantiated the claim that the IDF killed Palestinians for their organs.
(Image of Cairo via YouTube/SignsofThyComing)
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