Michael Sfard shows how the IDF has redefined the laws of war, challenging any differentiation between military targets (which are legitimate) and civilian targets (which aren’t) and undermining the principle of proportionality, which forbids attacking even a legitimate target if the anticipated harm to civilians is excessive in comparison to the military benefit from the target’s destruction has gone. The IDF interprets the laws of war in a way that is “shockingly different” from the general consensus worldwide.

Serious proposals from Jimmy Carter, former US President, and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights. As they say, ending this war in Gaza begins with recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor; the international community’s initial goal should be the full restoration of the free movement of people and goods to and from Gaza through Israel, Egypt, and the sea – and more…

Progressive Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and chair of the interfaith and secular-humanist Network of Spiritual Progressives, has championed the cause of Israel all his life.

He now writes: ” My heart is broken as I witness the suffering of the Palestinian people and the seeming indifference of Israelis.”

There has been some hysteria in recent weeks about “a tide of antisemitism” engulfing Europe in the wake of the war on Gaza.
Here Tony Lerman republishes a piece by Stephen Belier which reflects on what is happening: “Let us call these protests ‘anti-Israeli’, ‘anti-Zionist’, or even, at a stretch, ‘anti-Jewish’, but I do not think they have the same causation as historic antisemitism, and it is misleading to continue dragging this term in here.”

A song from the heart for Gaza and for all of us

Some of the bravest voices of dissent in Israel write for +972 magazine.We reprint their newsletter which has just dropped into our inbox.

If you don’t know their website take a look here. Bookmark it. And consider donating to help them continue their magnificent work

Noura Erekat identifies five themes that dominate the Israeli narrative about this vicious war on Gaza. Israel claims that it is merely exercising its right to self-defense; that Gaza is no longer occupied and more…

These arguments are thoroughly debunked here.

This is the second part of a long interview with Rabbi Henry Siegman, former head of the American Jewish Congress. The first part was published on our website as No country and no people would live the way Gazans have been made to live

A short video asking what exactly Israel’s aims are for its intervention in Gaza. Definitely worth watching.

David Shulman of Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish partnership) writes, in the context of Gaza, about the anti-Palestinian riots in Jerusalem and about Israeli soldiers firing on a peaceful march to Qalandia in the West Bank. The West Bank is not far from exploding in rage, frustration, resistance…

Excellent analysis by Mouin Rabban, published a fortnight ago.

“Once again, Israel is ‘mowing the lawn’ with impunity, targeting civilian non-combatants and civilian infrastructure. Given its continual insistence that it uses the most precise weapons available and chooses its targets carefully, it is impossible to conclude that the targeting is not deliberate. ”

Now read on…

Martin Shaw, a renowned expert on war and genocide in the modern era, has written before about the Israel-Palestine conflict, expressing reservations about boycotting Israel. In the light of current developments he reviews his position.

Evidence has surfaced that weapons containing British-made components are being used in the bombardment of Gaza. The government doesn’t seem to know…

Richard Silverstein, author of the Tikun Olam blog, raises the very disturbing question as to whether the IDF deliberately fired to kill, in order that 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin should not be taken prisoner by Hamas. This, he argues, is the logic of the secret 1986 Hannibal directive.

Threats of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) have been the weapon of choice for western governments since their people turned against the use of firepower. Quick to use IHL against, for instance, Syria and Ukraine they are silent about Israel which has the power over life and death of people in Gaza. Last month they plunged the Strip into cold and darkness by preventing fuel imports (Egypt didn’t help). The UN is the only agency to have stepped in to help. The EU and US are silent.

Regular readers of this website do not need to to be told of the deprivations visited on all people in the Gaza Strip by Israel Security – and the Egyptian government. On his first visit, the new head of UNWRA is shocked and says the siege must be ended. 50 UN agencies made the same call 2 years ago. An entire people is locked into an enclave without basic resources. Say ‘security’ and care dies.

Israel has fired into Gaza killing 3 members of Islamic Jihad, in response the IDF says to 30 rockets fired into Israel (no-one killed). Familiar – but alliances of the region are changing, creating a de-facto partnership between Israel and Egypt, the PA coming into the Egypt/Saudi camp and Hamas stuck between Iran and the new power of Qatar. These alliances are fighting for dominance of an area the US has vacated.

As well as its shortages of food and fresh water, Gaza now has no cement. Israel has banned its export to the Strip and the military government of Egypt has closed the tunnels through which building materials were once carried. No cement means nothing can be repaired or built; it means no work for the lorry drivers who transported it. It means unemployment has risen even higher to 45%.

British MPs queued up last Wednesday (Feb. 5th) to deplore the situation in Gaza and ask what was being done, and why it had come about. Who knew? The well-attended debate was in Westminster Hall – where backbenchers, without a party whip, can speak on what they care about. Despite this,and although 30% to 35% of all the correspondence to the Foreign Office is about Israel-Palestine, this debate received no media coverage at all. Conservative Friends of Israel chose to boycott the debate – knowing they could not legitimise Israel’s siege.

For several years Harriet Sherwood has been visiting Gaza as part of her job at the Guardian’s Jerusalem bureau. She has found much to admire in the courage and resourcefulness of the people there but now, as she leaves her post, she wonders how much longer they can go on taking the punishment inflicted on them by Israel – now abetted by Egypt.