Ten days into a bloody conflict, and Israeli, Palestinian and international voices are louder than ever calling for an immediate cease-fire, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays with the foreign press, noting he hasn’t ruled out re-occupying Gaza. Haaretz's editor-in-chief Aluf Benn makes the case to stop, now, on the basis of Israel’s own strategic and national security interests, calling this "Israel’s most failed and pointless Gaza operation ever." Muhammad Shehada asks if Hamas has already won this round. And senior Fatah official Sabri Saidam welcomes a resurgent, unified national purpose among Palestinians both within and outside the 1967 borders. Don’t believe the noisy calls for solidarity with Gaza from Muslim world leaders, says Kunwar Khuldune Shahid; it’s antisemitism, not love for Palestine, that animates their politics. There is another violent conflict breaking out simultaneously within Israel’s borders, though it’s been simmering for decades: between Jews and Arabs. Louis Fishman points the finger of blame at Netanyahu for leading the country into civil war. Noa Landau says it’s time for Israeli Jews to finally listen to their Palestinian co-citizens. And from one conflict zone to another: Denmark is deporting Syrian refugees back to Damascus, claiming the area is now "safe." Robert Ellis asks if the Nordic nation is about to repeat its shameful WWII history, when the state collaborated with the Nazis to deport Jews to their deaths. |