An Israeli Playground, Armored Against Rockets

In a continued discussion about the roles of children in the recent conflict as well as the impacts of war on their development, I found a NYTimes story today entitled An Israeli Playground, Armored Against Rockets. This story focuses on Israeli children in Sderot but balances the story of an indoor recreation center with the impacts of this conflict on both Israeli and Gazan children. Interestingly included in the center are"two rooms set aside for counseling and a staff of mental health workers" and the author comments that "emotional trauma among the young is an area of great focus not only in Israel, but also in Gaza." The article is relativley unbaised when it focuses on children, it speaks to the great damage this is conflict causes to the children on both sides, but it ends admitting that Gaza may be worse off. Israeli children are being protected and considered, Israel can construct a recreation center to foster growth and support children affected by the conflict, and yet Gazan children are living in tents because their homes were destroyed.

When speaking to the actual conflict between Gaza and Israel, the article has a more biased tone, at least in my opinion: "Israel went to war in late December to put an end to the rockets, and though it pummeled Gaza for three weeks, killing some 1,300 people and destroying hundreds of buildings, the rockets have not stopped. On Tuesday, five fell around the Sderot area. Since the war ended on Jan. 18, some 160 mortar rounds and rockets, including nine long-range ones, have been launched from Gaza at Israel." It almost rationalizes the deaths of the 1300 people with the fact that Gaza continues to attack Sderot, even though the death toll in Israel is around 20. Obviously the article is focusing on Israel and the danger in the region, but in the section describing the similarities to the story of Purim and the current conflict, I felt like instilled some pity for Israelis over Gazans.

Disproportianate uses of force (sorry for the new post)

Hey, sorry I made a new post for this because I know we talked about keeping the remainder of our discussion to responses but I wanted to create a place for us to continue our in-class discussion of the disproportionate uses of force in this conflict. If you consider the crappy Soviet-era rockets against the 21st century Israeli military, the contrast is made very clear. To start, here is an article from the Huffington Post that discusses disproportionate use of force and self-defense, is concludes by saying that Israel's decision to bombard Gaza was ill-advised and that international criticism has mostly come from the UN and Sarkozy, while Obama has dodged the issue. If anyone finds any info regarding the quantifying/categorizing of force used by both sides, please post here,
Thanks!

Hamas and Fatah meet to talk about uniting

There was some discussion about what it would take for Palestinians and those who share the same views to gain some political leverage in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Recently the two political parties Hamas and Fatah who have so far been in heavy competition are having talks about Gaza's Future. As the article mentions, with any form of Hamas in the picture with government with a united two parties, official dialogue with the Israeli government would be pretty much impossible. Also talking with the EU and US could be problematic still if the new coalition is too Hamas-led. With possibly the same limited international governmental dialogue and a stronger Palestinian authority - is this a step back or a step forward for the region? What do you guys think?