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Gaza war stifles democracy in Israel

The current Israel-Hamas conflict has generated an aggressive political patriotic discourse in Israel that has taken a heavy toll on Israeli democracy, in which those who dare to oppose the operation are expected to keep silent.
A right wing activist waves a flag during a protest in support of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv July 29, 2014. An Israeli television station retracted its report on Tuesday that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict had been agreed, saying instead there was "movement" toward a truce between Israel and the Palestinian territory's dominant Hamas Islamists being brokered by Egypt.  REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR40KAT
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The way things look today, Aug. 3, the military investment in the Gaza war failed to result in any diplomatic dividends to either of the two sides. Israel did not achieve its long-term objective, as expressed by the prime minister, i.e., the demilitarization of Gaza from fighting means, and Hamas failed to force Israel into lifting its lengthy siege of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority (PA), based in Ramallah, was left out of the political game altogether, just as it was during the unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and Israel’s previous assaults. Even in the best-case scenario, the only partner with whom Israel might have reached a long-term arrangement in the occupied territories has been found irrelevant. In the worst-case scenario, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been portrayed to his constituents as a collaborator with Israel. Negotiations over a two-state solution now seem even more remote than they did on the eve of Operation Protective Edge.

At the same time, the hail of rockets aimed at the civilian population and the apocalyptic scenarios about the tunnels, have pushed peaceful dialogue and coexistence to the remote margins of Israeli society. According to a Channel 10 survey published on July 28, the vast majority of Israeli Jews (87%) supported a continuation of the fighting. Hamas can therefore take credit for a worrisome shutting of the hearts and minds of Israel’s Jews. Over the past few weeks, expressions of identification with the suffering of civilians in Gaza and voices protesting the killing of women and children have been met with vitriol and even with violence. It is true that Hamas is a brutal fascist group, for whom the lives of children — including Palestinian children — are a legitimate tool to fulfill its political and ideological agenda. Yes, the criminals of Hamas have turned schoolshospitals, homes and mosques into weapons depots and used them to conceal the entrances to assault tunnels. Hamas thugs forced helpless civilians to serve as human shields. Nevertheless, do these monstrous ethical standards justify the killing of more than 700 of the organization’s Palestinian hostages?

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