“Gaza” on The Daily Caller

Are you a Chamberlin or a Churchill, Mr. Cameron?  
The annals of English history shall record you in one light or the other.  You have snatched back a rudderless country out of the hands of directionless leftists – and for this, we across the Atlantic are thankful.  But don’t light your cigar just yet, sir.  You have failed your first test of fortitude. (more)

Speaking in Turkey on Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron slammed Israel and called Gaza a “prison camp.” (Apparently Gaza is the first prison camp with luxury shopping malls.) The British Foreign Office has been taking the blame for this betrayal of Israel, but they’re claiming they were as surprised as anyone. Now, a high-placed and knowledgeable source has informed me that it was Obama’s people who put the slamming of Israel into Cameron’s speech. (more)

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it.  Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing.  While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991.  Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving.  For an administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure. (more)

In an article in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram on the economic situation in the Gaza Strip, journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote about the burgeoning recreation industry and of the low merchandise prices. (more)

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military failed to prepare adequately for what turned into a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, according to findings of a military inquiry quoted by the Israeli media on Monday. (more)

The aim of the Libyan backed aid ship the Amalthea remains to sail directly to Gaza, Youssef Sawani, executive director of Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, which has mounted the operation, said Sunday in an interview with Army Radio. (more)

While the rest of the country was celebrating the Fourth of July, CNN’s senior editor of Mideast affairs, Octavia Nasr, was mourning the death of Hezbollah spiritual mentor and U.S. designated terrorist Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. (more)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Masked men trashed a U.N. summer camp Monday, tying up guards and slashing tents and an inflatable pool in the second such attack blamed on suspected extremists in just over a month — a sign of how, in Gaza, youth camp is not just about crafts and volleyball. (more)

Listening to Prime Minister Erdogan’s amped-up rhetoric against the United States and Israel makes me genuinely scared for my country. I believe that people should be able to think for themselves, and to assess a situation based on the facts, not based on someone trying to make them afraid or blame some outside “bogeyman” for what’s going wrong with their lives or their country. It’s time to see those tactics for what they are: popular demagogy is a manipulative act that requires close scrutiny as people are looking toward the future to what they could become. (more)

Israel has given details of its plan to ease the blockade of Gaza, with most civilian goods now expected to be let into the territory. (more)

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President Obama has now transformed the United States into an official “state sponsor of terrorism” a designation, that when applied to other countries, means no aid, no trade, you are now an adversary of the U.S. and her allies. It remains unclear how Obama’s actions will affect our ability to trade with ourselves as a nation. (more)

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli decision Thursday to ease its blockade of Gaza under intense international pressure could spell the beginning of the end of the chokehold that has hurt ordinary Gazans far more than their militant Hamas rulers. (more)

For anyone who has paid attention to the continued conflict in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the model of this newest conflict – the Israeli Navy’s boarding of the “humanitarian” flotilla – is too familiar. Conservatives praise Israel as a maligned underdog or a misrepresented hero, and liberals (including the United Nations) are quick to decry what they claim to be a recurrence of the country’s history of systematic human rights violations. (more)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is likely to significantly ease the land blockade of Gaza in coming days in an effort to blunt the international outcry over its deadly raid on a blockade-busting flotilla, officials said Wednesday. (more)

Israel has announced the formation of its own commission to investigate last month’s seizure of an aid flotilla attempting to break the country’s blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza. The operation resulted in the deaths of nine passengers, though Israel maintains that the deaths only occurred because the activists threatened the lives of the soldiers attempting to board one of the boats. The United Nations has expressed a desire for an internationally led inquiry into the incident, but Israel has refused to acquiesce to the body’s request thus far; instead, Israel maintains that its own commission’s report will be sufficient. The New York Times reports: (more)

While you’re watching Team USA soundly whomp England (hopefully) on day 2 of the World Cup tomorrow, ponder this: could soccer, the obsession of every country in the world other than the slightly backwards and somewhat confused USA, possibly be a bad thing? (more)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Three out of four factories in Gaza have closed because they can’t import or export. Legitimate businesses have been replaced by a Hamas-controlled black market economy. Millions of gallons of sewage are pumped into the sea every day because a lack of spare parts holds up infrastructure repairs. (more)

Much has been discussed since the May 31 incident on the Mavi Marmara and the situation in Gaza. The world jumped all over the response by Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the following day that the IDF acted in a disproportionate manner. I am still unclear on how so many people can come to a conclusion without seeing all the facts. In the aftermath, I believe that we will continue to see this scenario played out more and more. (more)

Isn’t it a shame about what happened to the humanitarian aid intended for Gaza last week? Damn shame, I’d say. But then again, I say that every week, as I’m an American in Gaza who stubbornly insists we can do something better. (more)