July 21, 2014
..."It's a hell of a pinpoint operation. (click here) It's a hell of a pinpoint operation," he said during the call, which was broadcast on Fox News Sunday.
While Washington says Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks launched out of Gaza, American diplomats have called on the Israelis to restrict themselves to a precise operation in the ground campaign launched on Thursday.
On Sunday, more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed as Israel shelled a Gaza neighbourhood and battled militants. Thirteen Israeli soldiers also were killed. Mr Kerry was expected to travel to the Middle East soon to press for a ceasefire.
"We got to get over there," Mr Kerry said in his overheard comments, apparently to an aide. "I think, John, we ought to go tonight. I think it's crazy to be sitting around."...
There was a time when Israel could target militants and kill them once there were known to be hostile to peace policies. I witnessed the exactly measure Israel used without killing innocent people. Today, that technology no longer serves the political narrative in Israel for more Israeli settlements.
July 19, 2014
By Ben Lynfield
The Israeli operation in Gaza (click here) has aroused intense feelings of solidarity among West Bank Palestinians for their Gaza counterparts, fueling anger that could easily be sparked into widespread unrest.
''People can't sit idly and watch their brothers dying in Gaza,'' says Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. ''What happens in the West Bank now will depend on how far the Israeli army will go ahead with reoccupying and dividing Gaza. It's too early to say but there is anger and frustration among the youth.''
Although there have been localized clashes in the West Bank since the brutal murder of an East Jerusalem teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was followed by the launch of Israel's Gaza operation, mass protests have been noticeably absent. Although the anger is there, Palestinian security forces' efforts to contain demonstrations coupled with reticence to see a repeat of the violence and chaos of the second intifada seems to have so far curtailed greater action.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority want to see another front of the war open in the West Bank, which is mostly under Israeli military control but contains self-rule enclaves nominally governed by the Palestinian Authority....
