Gaza: Did Israel want a human(itarian) crisis?

Ben White wrote a provocative opinion piece in the Guardian, under the title "Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis:"

Targeting civilians was a deliberate part of this bid to humiliate Hamas and the Palestinians, and pulverise Gaza into chaos.(...)

First, to what this war on Gaza is not about: it's not about the rockets. During the truce last year, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was reduced by 97%, with the few projectiles that were fired coming from non-Hamas groups opposed to the agreement. Despite this success in vastly improving the security of Israelis in the south, Israel did everything it could to undermine the calm, and provoke Hamas into a conflict.(...)

Estimates for the proportion of civilian deaths among the 1,360 Palestinians killed range from more than half to two-thirds. Politicians, diplomats and journalists are by and large shying away from the obvious, namely that Israel has been deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians and the very infrastructure of normal life, in order to – in the best colonial style – teach the natives a lesson. (Full)

Another clip, also published in The Guardian, features an audio-slides about the use of phosphorous shells in the bombing of the Gaza UN school.

Discovered via The Road Daily.

Picture courtesy PopulistAmerica