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  • July 22, 2014

    Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy

    Wall Street Journal

    Let's state the obvious: No one likes to see dead children. Well, that's not completely true: Hamas does. They would prefer those children to be Jewish, but there is greater value to them if they are Palestinian. Outmatched by Israel's military, handicapped by rocket launchers with the steady hands of Barney Fife, Hamas is playing the long game of moral revulsion.

    With this conflict about to enter its third week, winning the PR war is the best Hamas can hope to achieve. Their weapon of choice, however, seems to be the cannon fodder of their own people, performing double duty in also sounding the drumbeat of Israeli condemnation. If you can't beat Iron Dome, then deploy sacrificial children as human shields.

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  • July 18, 2014

    The Palestinian Pass

    Times of Israel

    With Israeli ground troops now in Gaza after Hamas refused to hold its fire during a ceasefire (and failed to agree to an earlier one), and more casualties expected after ten days of alternating rockets and airstrikes that makes the border between Gaza and Israel resemble McEnroe vs. Connors on crack, one question always lingers: Why is Palestinian terrorism, perpetrated by Hamas, largely ignored while the world still fights a war on terror?

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  • July 15, 2014

    Gaza chose terrorism over building a Palestinian paradise

    Haaretz

    At such dismal times when projectiles are whizzing overhead and hearts are palpitating from the siren call of rockets, with Iron Dome batteries lighting up the sky and the hideous sight of dead Palestinian children paraded in front of TV cameras, let's engage in a moment of wishful, magical thinking, the alternative universe of what Gaza might have become after Israel had ended its occupation in 2005.
     
    Let's call it: "It's a Wonderful Life" for Palestinians, a counter-narrative where warfare and bloodshed never happened because the Gazans were too busy preparing for a new nation. Today, instead of missiles raining down from all directions, Gazans might have been eyeing a bid to host the next World Cup.

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  • July 13, 2014

    The Dark Side of Iron Dome

    Times of Israel

    Operation Protective Edge is turning out to be aptly named--but for the wrong reason. It's not the edge of Israel that is being protected; it's the overhead sky. IDF commandos stand ready to be deployed, but for now the weaponry of choice has been almost entirely airborne with rockets launched by Hamas, retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza and Iron Dome interceptor missiles over Israel.

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  • July 10, 2014

    Numbers Don't Tell the Mideast Story

    Daily Beast

    The tit-for-tat dance of irreconcilable animus between Israel and Hamas, the democratically elected terrorist group that controls Gaza, continues with 365 rockets having been launched against the Jewish state and more than 200 airstrikes hitting Gazan targets. Approximately 90 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its counteroffensive--among them were 22 children. More than 500 have been injured. (All figures are accurate as of 7 p.m. EDT Thursday.)

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  • July 6, 2014

    Don Draper's Israel Problem

    The Times of Israel

    Israel is known for many enviable things, but its fine opinion on the world stage is surely not one of them.  Israel's PR has been, for decades now, positively dreadful, a nation perpetually caught in an unflattering light--some of it due to its own making.

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  • July 1, 2014

    There is No Moral Equivalent to the Murder of Three Israeli Teenagers

    Daily Beast

    Here's the good news: Despite the cynical speculation of some, the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers was neither a hoax nor a Mossad plot. Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel were murdered shortly after being abducted and then buried under rocks in an open field. The killers remain at large, but they are not unknown.
     
    The bad news is that if debunking a shameful myth is the very best news to arise out of this barbaric incident, then there really is no good news. It's just the latest reminder of what passes for diplomacy in a region far richer in terrorism than oil, and offers yet further reasons for Israelis to be suspicious of peace. Worse still, it supplies more evidence that a people who throw candy in celebration of kidnapped children have something on their mind other than nation building.

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