Response to Avi Shlaim's Op-ed in Gaza

On Monday, The Guardian published this opinion piece by Avi Shlaim’s on Gaza (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/07/ten-years-first-war-gaza-operation-cast-lead-israel-brute-force ). Regrettably, it is extremely tendentious.

The situation in Gaza is indeed a human tragedy where there has been unnecessary loss of life in three major conflicts in ten years. Everyday existence for Gazans is bleak.

But the culpability for Gaza's tragedy sits with its Hamas rulers - an Islamist terrorist group committed to destroying Israel, and who murdered their internal Fatah Palestinian opponents upon seizing power.

Israel wanted Gaza to have self-rule and be an economic success - it withdrew from Gaza unilaterally in 2005 and forced Israeli settlers to leave to try to advance the peace process.

There is only an Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian Authority blockade of Gaza because Hamas is using every resource intended for civilians to build terror attack tunnels and missile arsenals - no such blockade exists of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has only carried out major military operations in Gaza when indiscriminate missile attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians have reached intolerable levels of hundreds of missiles. Shlaim is dismissive of the missile attacks saying "Israel claimed to act in self-defence" as though the pounding of Israel's southern communities was irrelevant.

Shlaim's claim that Israel uses force as "first resort" is a lie - in every case Israel has shown restraint in the face of hugely provocative and dangerous missile attacks to a point far beyond what any other nation would tolerate before resorting to military responses.

Shlaim accuses Israel of collectively punishing Gazan civilians when in fact the IDF has gone to unprecedented lengths to try to avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’ best efforts to place its own civilians in harm's way - using schools, hospitals and mosques as bases.

He claims Israel are trying to "terrorise" Gazans into repudiating Hamas - but it’s actually Hamas that for 13 years has terrorised the people it governs - it is running a totalitarian regime

Shlaim says that Gaza is "the biggest open-door [sic] prison on Earth"

He's right

And Hamas are the guards.

- Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe in Israel

A new opinion poll reveals that 38 per cent of people believe Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite, while 25 per cent believe he is a committed campaigner against racism and antisemitism.
 
Populus surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2035 GB adults from 5-7 October 2018 on behalf of BICOM. The annual survey asks questions about countries in the Middle East with specific questions about trade, counterterrorism and support for a boycott of Israel. 
 
Each year the survey includes a new question on a topical issue and this year BICOM measured support for Jeremy Corbyn’s own explanations in light of accusations of antisemitism.
 

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https://www.israelbritain.org.uk/wb/?referral=wb

The latest Israel Britain Alliance campaign, which we are supporting, is about BBC bias against Israel.

The BBC has a legal obligation to provide impartial news. In addition, its public purposes demand that it provides ‘information to help people understand and engage with the world around them’.
 
When it comes to Israel it often fails to do this. For example, coverage of the frequent rocket attacks that Israel faces from its southern border, during the two-year period up to August 2018.
 
The BBC reported that rockets had been fired into Israel on eight occasions. On just one occasion did the BBC correctly reference the chronology of events on the ground. In seven other reports the news item led with the Israeli military response, rather than the correct sequence of events, giving the impression to the audience that Israel had instigated the attacks.
 
Why is this important?
 
Because it doesn’t give the audience context about who is provoking the violence, and it doesn’t build people’s understanding of the world around them.
 
Moreover, it doesn’t provide context to the larger military operations that have developed from these events.
 
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Thousands of We Believe in Israel supporters have written to their MPs in repeated campaigns over the last few years to call for the UK to ban the whole of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, and end the absurdity where the UK bans its military wing but not its political wing. The latest news reports suggest such a ban is imminent: https://www.thejc.com/hezbollah-ban-1.470281

We will let you know as soon as the Government does take action.