It is not entirely surprising that Amos Gilad, an Israeli general who once sued his own government for "irreversible mental damage" caused by his role in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has publicly courted controversy again. On Monday, Ehud Olmert, Israel's...
Is Israel’s Army Waging a Jewish Jihad?
NAZARETH - Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics. In a process one military historian has termed the rapid "theologization" of the Israeli...
Israel Intensified Assault in Final Days
In the last days before Israel imposed a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza to avoid embarrassing the incoming Obama administration, it upped its assault, driving its troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment, and creating thousands more...
Israeli Assault Injures 1.5 Million Gazans
This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after nearly three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible...
Israeli Arab Parties React to Election Ban
The only three Arab parties represented in the Israeli parliament vowed yesterday to fight a decision by the Central Elections Committee to bar them from running in next month's general election. In an unprecedented move signaling a further breakdown in Jewish-Arab...
Blueprint for Gaza Attack Was Long Planned
As Israel rejected the terms of the proposed United Nations cease-fire at the weekend, Israeli military analysts were speculating on the nature of the next stage of the attack on Gaza, or the "third phase" of the fighting as it is being referred to. Having...
Criticism of Israeli War Crimes Mounts
Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave's civilian population. The petitions – over attacks...
Israel’s Aim: To Make the Gazan Prison Even More Secure
There are two persistent myths about the aim of Israel's onslaught on Gaza: the first that it is an entirely defensive move, a way to end the rocket fire of Hamas; and the second that it is designed to restore the army's credibility after its failure to cow Hezbollah...
The Real Goal of the Slaughter in Gaza
Ever since Hamas triumphed in the Palestinian elections nearly three years ago, the story in Israel has been that a full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip was imminent. But even when public pressure mounted for a decisive blow against Hamas, the government...
Electioneering With Bombs
Of the three politicians who announced the military assault on Gaza to the world on Saturday, perhaps only outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert has little to lose – or gain – from its outcome. Flanking the Israeli prime minister were two of the main...