· January, 2009

Stories about Palestine from January, 2009

Palestine: Assessing the Aftermath in Gaza

  19 January 2009

On Sunday evening the Israel Defense Forces began a troop withdrawal from Gaza, following three straight weeks of attacks. Israel's unilateral ceasefire was announced earlier in the day, and met with an offer for a one-week ceasefire from Hamas. Ayesha Saldanha shares blog reactions from Gaza.

Czech Republic: Relations With Israel and the EU

  18 January 2009

The Reference Frame writes about the Czech PM's stance on the situation in the Middle East: “The Czech politicians have clearly come under fire from the self-proclaimed exclusively politically correct European politicians who effectively sleep with the terrorists in Hamas.”

Israel: IDF Operating a Moral War in Gaza?

  18 January 2009

Bloggers have been defending the IDF which has been highly criticized for operating an unjust war in Gaza. Many choose to highlight facts which are not necessarily presented in mainstream news on its fighting techniques - minimizing civilian casualties by using precise missile technology, calling homes and dropping warning leaflets, while focusing on the target: weakening Hamas, destroying their artillery and ability to fire missiles into Israeli territory.

Israel: Unilateral “Ceasefire” Goes Into and Out of Effect

  18 January 2009

Israel declared operation ‘Cast Lead' a success and announced that its security cabinet has voted in favor of a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Although the ceasefire has since been broken, with Hamas sending missiles into Sderot, here are some reflections of Israeli bloggers on developments on the ground.

Russia, Israel: Gaza War Online

  18 January 2009

IZO reports that “a blog in support of the current Israeli military action in Gaza on the super-popular social site odnoklassniki.ru (27 million members) was hacked and destroyed after it entered into polemics with an anti-Israel site on Facebook”; and comments on the controversial post by Anton Nossik/LJ user dolboeb,...

Russia, Israel: “Chechnya and Gaza”

  18 January 2009

A Step At A Time quotes a piece by Ben Cohen, comparing Israel's military actions in Gaza to those employed by Russia in Chechnya: “Oleg goes on to explain in his broken Hebrew that if Russian soldiers were sent into Gaza they would take care of things in three or...

Israeli newspaper Haaretz: Free speech or hypocrisy?

  17 January 2009

Parole de democrate posts a screenshot from the Haaretz website, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, which features an editorial with the headline “The IDF has no mercy for the children of Gaza nursery schools” alongside an IDF advertisement urging readers to “Support the soldiers today”.  Parole thinks, “This attitude casts strong...

Israel: Voices against the violence

  17 January 2009

The Hebrew blogosphere is battling over right and wrong, support vs. opposition and what it means to be patriotic to your own country, while at the same time condemning its actions. In this post, Gilad Lotan translates four different entries which highlight their writers' struggle with the grave outcomes of a war. A war where news is biased; where one side is considerably more powerful than the other; where innocent civilians are used as human shields and where the death toll is steep.

Israel: Loving and Hating Yonit Levi

  16 January 2009

Yonit Levi is the beloved anchorwoman for Israel's Channel 2. Over the past few days, however, she has become a pariah in the blogosphere for her reactions to the current crisis in Gaza, deemed as sympathetic to Palestinians. Jillian York has the story.

Morocco: A Country Divided Over Gaza

  16 January 2009

As a quorum of Arab leaders convene in Doha today, the world is wondering how their meeting might bring about a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. Yesterday, the news broke that King Mohammed VI of Morocco would not be attending the Doha or any other summit. Blogger react to that, and to the division of public opinion within Morocco, in this piece from Jillian York.

Palestine: Israeli Troops Enter Residential Areas of Gaza City

  16 January 2009

Thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing from Gaza City as IDF troops have entered residential areas. A number of the foreign activists in Gaza were helping at Al Quds hospital when it came under attack, and managed to get out reports of what was going on. We hear from them and other bloggers in this roundup of Gaza blogs by Ayesha Saldanha.

Israel/Palestine: Sderot Woman Speaks Out

  16 January 2009

The Villages Group: Cooperation in Israel and Palestine posts an entry called “Sderot War Diary,” in which a Sderot resident calls the conflict “not in my name and not for me you went to war.”

Syria: Gaza Analysis

  15 January 2009

Syrian resident blogger Joshua Landis posts analysis on Palestine's bleak future and Syria's disappointment in Obama on his blog, Syria Comment.