Israel will not win the media war as long as they keep killing civilians and especially not if they keep killing aid workers.
It has now been two weeks since the Israeli military began its attacks on the Gaza Strip, and one week since they began their ground invasion. In that time, over 800 people have been killed in Gaza, and around 3,300 others have been wounded.
Both the United Nations Security Council’s resolution supporting a ceasefire and an unrelated Egyptian-brokered attempt seem to have stalled at this point, with Israel dismissing the former out of hand and little result from the first two days of talks on the later. Israeli attacks continued to escalate in the strip, and Hamas fired more rockets deep into Israel, with one targeting an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.
The United Nations also announced that they will resume their humanitarian shipments into the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, having suspended them yesterday after the Israeli military inexplicably attacked one of their aid trucks. The UN insists that it has received credible assurances that future aid deliveries will not be attacked.
On the home front:
Responding to last night’s report from The Guardian, Barack Obama’s chief national security spokeswoman Brooke Anderson has denied that the Obama Administration would ever participate in secret low level talks with the Hamas government.
The Guardian article actually cites several sources including Obama appointee Richard Haass, though most of them are left unnamed and described as “sources close to the transition team,” or a “potential contender for a foreign policy role.”
In Israel:
Before the recent days – which saw additional IDF casualties, and many casualties among the Palestinian and UN workers – the operation was supported by a sweeping majority of the Jewish public: 94% of the Jewish public said they support or very much support the operation, 92% said they believe it benefits Israel in terms of security, and a clear but smaller majority believes the operation helps Israel diplomatically as well.
I’m starting to think that these accidental attacks on UN schools and supply trucks are as much an accident as the bombing of the Chinese embassy during Bosnia. I mean really, I can see one… maybe two… but three separate incidents of bombing UN schools and now a aid truck?
Maybe this is a case of troops going rogue and doing their own thing. After all, there is been plenty of friction between Israel and the UN (most members of the UN are willing to call a spade a spade).
Morning Terrant—Good point…something like when the Blackwater dudes went ape shit in Iraq.