Gaza invasion: today’s press coverage

by Newswire
5:29 am - December 30th 2008

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The Guardian
Gaza and long-term goals divide Israeli analysts
Islamists urge pro-western regimes to act

Independent
Five sisters killed while they slept
Sami Abdel-Shafi: Israel puts security before peace
Mary Dejevsky: Don’t overlook Israel’s vulnerability

BBC News
Israel pounds Gaza for fourth day
US tacitly backs Israeli action
Rockets plague Israeli towns

Reuters
UN head chides world leaders
Israel expands Gaza campaign as militants fire rockets

Financial Times
Oil and gold higher on Middle East violence
Why Israel’s military option is likely to backfire
‘Even our homes are not safe. There’s nowhere safe in Gaza’

The Times
‘Prepare to be bombed’: calls mark psychological campaign
Surge of support for ‘genius’ of Israeli politicians
David Aaronovitch: Enough pointless outrage about Gaza

New York Times
Gaza toll passes 350 in 3rd day of Israeli strikes
For Hamas, logic led to cease-fire’s end

Most British leader columns have been negative towards the invasion

Indy: The bombardment of Gaza will destroy lives, not Hamas
FT: Bombing Gaza is not a solution
Times: Israel’s action shatters hopes for Middle East peace plan
Telegraph: Gaza raids hand propaganda coup to Hamas and Iran

Perhaps surprisingly, David Aaranovitch is also quite critical of Israeli foreign policy today:

The historian Tom Segev, writing in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, yesterday reminded readers that “all of Israel’s wars have been based on yet another assumption that has been with us from the start: that we are only defending ourselves”, but that “no military operation has ever advanced dialogue with the Palestinians”. He wasn’t saying that Israel hadn’t the right to stop the rockets from being fired from Gaza, but that it would get the larger process precisely nowhere.

Adamant though I am about the need to combat Islamist violence, it is hard not to see Western and Israeli policy towards Gaza since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005 as one huge strategic error. There was the refusal to deal with the Hamas Government elected in January 2006, the siding with Fatah in the subsequent internal dispute, the imposition of an effective blockade on Gaza that amounted to collective punishment. The capacity of Hamas to govern, or fail to govern, in the eyes of the Palestinians was thus never tested.

In some ways this policy towards Hamas, though wrong, was understandable. But the failure of Israel to proceed in any substantial way with easing the conditions for Palestinians on the Fatah-controlled West Bank, or the commencement of a policy of dismantling West Bank settlements before an agreement, meant that no encouragement was given to the opponents of Hamas either.