Broader View: Israel Resource Center

New on Broader View: July 2014

• American Jews: Fault Lines Open by Steve Lipman, Jewish Week, July 23
• BDS: BDS Is DOA by Spencer Case, National Review, July 22
• Churches: Goodbye PCUSA, Divest This, July 2
• Hamas: The first Palestinian army by Shlomi Eldar, Al-Monitor, July 23
• IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza by William Saletan, Slate, July 11
• Israelis: Because They Were Jews by Daniel Gordis, NY Daily News, July 3

In the News

• The Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas has fired over 2,600 rockets and mortars into Israel since July 8.  Rockets from Gaza threaten 6 million Israelis and have hit homes in Sderot, Beer Sheva, and Yehud; a Sderot factory, a kibbutz cowshed, a power station supplying Gaza, Ramallah in the West Bank, a hotel in Eilat, a residential street in Hadera, an oil truck in Ashdod, and a peace conference (!) in Tel Aviv.  Many rockets fell short, landing within the Gaza Strip (including on a school, a hospital and a refugee camp). 
• Israeli citizens have only seconds to take shelter, though the Iron Dome missile-defense system has been highly effective in intercepting rockets aimed at populated areas.
• Israel responded with air strikes on Hamas rocket launchers, weapons caches, command-and-control bases, tunnels, training facilities, and other terror infrastructure—while making every effort to avoid civilian casualties.  Hamas has placed military targets at residential neighborhoods, hospitals, UN schools, and other civilian installations, and used civilians as human shields, resulting in deaths and injuries to hundreds of innocent bystanders, including children.
• On July 17, the IDF discovered 13 Hamas terrorists emerging from an offensive tunnel inside Israel.  After launching a ground operation, Israel uncovered miles of tunnels and a massive threat to infiltrate Israel, kill and kidnap Israelis.
• Israel thwarted an attempted Hamas attack from the sea, an armed drone from Gaza, an explosives-laden donkey, a car bombing from the West Bank, a shipment of guns and drugs from Jordan via the Dead Sea, and a weapons cache in Sudan
• Support for Israel and condemnation of Hamas’ attacks expressed by senior government officials from the U.S. administration and Congress, Canada, Germany, France, the EU, U.K., Russia, India, the UN, American Jewish Leaders, and even the Palestinian Authority, among many others
• A ceasefire proposal by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was met with scorn by Israelis across the political spectrum, and rejected by both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority
• The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration banned flights to Tel Aviv for two days (July 23-24) due to rocket threat; many foreign airlines suspended flights
• The bodies of teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Frenkel were found after an 18-day search, apparently murdered shortly after their abduction
• 16-year old Mohammed Abu Khudeir was kidnapped and killed by Israeli Jewish thugs, an apparent revenge murder after the discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teens
• A mortar round from Syria landed on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights
• Visitors to Israel include the foreign ministers of Italy, Norway, and Britain; the Albanian Parliament Speaker, India’s Defense Secretary, a business delegation from China’s National Development & Reform Commission and another headed by Japan’s Economy Minister, the head of the Lebanese Maronite Catholic church,  seven US law-school deans, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg (defying the FAA air-travel ban), sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a delegation of American firefighters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, filmmaker Paul Haggis, director Spike Jonze, American rock band Pixies, and the indefatigable U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (attempting to mediate a cease-fire agreement)
• Palestinian Authority continues to pay terrorists with foreign donations
• Israeli pediatric surgeons save 5 Palestinian heart patients
• Police rescue 21-year-old Israeli woman found bound in PA territory
• Yahoo buys Israeli streaming start-up RayV
• Reuven Rivlin sworn in as Israel’s 10th president
• Israeli scientists demonstrate world’s first photonic router