JCPA e-book on Operation Protective Edge

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has produced an interesting e-book about last summer’s conflict between Hamas and Israel which includes a lot of useful information, graphics and videos.

A house in Be'er Sheva after a missile hit on 13/7/14. Photo credit: IDF
A house in Be’er Sheva after a missile hit on 13/7/14. Photo credit: IDF

In the overview, under the sub-heading ‘The War’s Other Victim: The Truth’ contributor Hirsh Goodman writes:

“Operation Protective Edge escalated into 50 days of conflict during which Hamas and other groups fired 4,258 rockets and countless mortar rounds into Israel. Israel responded with 5,226 air strikes and a limited ground campaign. The actual death count in Gaza is still an open question, but has been put at over 2,100 combatants and civilians. Israel suffered 74 dead. Had the Iron Dome system not intercepted 735 rockets fired from Gaza and calculated to be on trajectories toward densely populated areas, the Israeli casualty count would have been incalculably higher.

The dead and wounded, however, were not the only casualties of this war. Truth was another.

The evidence of Hamas’ war crimes and violations of all accepted humanitarian norms is plentiful and irrefutable, ranging from the placement of headquarters under hospitals, tunnel entrances under houses, and rocket launchers in schools, to the storage of weapons in mosques. The list is nearly endless. To cite just one example: in an interview with CBC News on July 30, John Ging, the UN OCHA director, said: “Yes, the armed groups [in Gaza] are firing their rockets into Israel from the vicinity of UN facilities and residential areas, absolutely.” […]

This is not the image many have of the war, partly because for 50 days public opinion was fed by Hamas-controlled reportage and footage, skillfully framed to conform to the “victim doctrine.” Casualty figures from dubious sources, with nothing to back them up, were reported as gospel. Few in the international media based in Gaza during the war (or their editors back home) dared challenge the restrictions imposed on them, fearful of reprisal.”

That last paragraph will certainly ring true for those who followed the BBC’s coverage of the conflict.

Readers can find the whole e-book at this link

 

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