Ok so let me get this straight. Since the start of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, the reasons why Israel attacked Gaza got blurrier and blurrier. Let’s draw the timeline: 1) April 22: During negotiations with Kerry, Abbas and Netanyahu, Fateh declares a unity government with Hamas, a move which the world – including Washington - welcomes 2) Netanyahu wants to hear nothing of it, and uses this unity as a pretext to end the negotiations. Tries to convince Palestinian factions in the West Bank to reject the unity agreement – and fails. 3) May 15th: 2 unarmed Palestinian teenagers are shot in cold blood by Israeli snipers. CCTV captures the entire ordeal on tape. Story barely makes a ripple in mainstream media 4) June 11th: Netanyahu escalates matters after halting negotiations: Israeli Air Force targets a Palestinian man, allegedly a member of an armed group, who was riding at the time with a 10 year old boy on a bicycle, in Beit Lahia, Gaza. Both are killed. Palestinian armed groups retaliate by launching a few rockets into Israel, no one is killed. Israeli forces strike back with a series of airstrikes that damage a few military installations, 25 homes, a school, a clinic run by UNRWA. No one killed, several injured. 5) June 12th: kidnapping of three Israeli boys in the West Bank. Netanyahu uses the opportunity to raise hell in the West Bank, arresting hundreds of Palestinians, while destroying and confiscating property, and killing 2 Palestinian protesters. 6) June 30th: bodies of Israeli boys are found. Netanyahu declares: “Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay” and says he has proof. But his actions are briefly delayed by the burning alive of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, a 15-year old Palestinian boy who was abducted by Jewish Israelis, forced to drink gasoline, and then set on fire. 7) July 6th: Israeli forces kill 9 Hamas members by blowing up a tunnel, saying it was going to be used for a terror attack. Hamas fires back rockets at Israel. 8) Israel launches a full-scale attack on the population of Gaza, killing 1,300 people until now, injuring thousands, blowing up schools and hospitals, and reducing thousands of homes and entire neighbourhoods to rubble. 9) July 25th: Israeli officials admit Hamas had nothing to do with the kidnappings. Remind me again, what just happened?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:02:09 +0000
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