“What can’t be seen or understood in the pictures and reporting coming out of Gaza is the long term impact the most recent Israeli assault is having on the young minds of children in Gaza. Unfortunately, our staff has seen this before — most recently in 2012 and 2009 during Operation Pillar of Defense and…

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, South African Navi “Pillay’s concern that the fire power being brought to bear on Gaza indicates that war crimes are being committed is well founded. The level of civilian deaths being caused is out of all proportion to whatever military objectives are being targeted.”

“During the latest crisis, the tone was set by July 8 when J Street’s home page carried the headline ‘J Street Expresses Solidarity with Israelis under Rocket Fire.’ It could have as easily read ‘J Street Expresses Solidarity with Israelis AND GAZANS under Fire,’ but that would have reflected an absent dedication to humanism. ……

“In Gaza, between 1967 and 1987, when Hamas was founded, the number of mosques tripled in Gaza from 200 to 600. And a lot of that came with money flowing from outside Gaza, from wealthy conservative Islamists in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. But, of course, none of this could have happened without the Israelis casting…

“As veterans who have witnessed the horror of war, we are deeply outraged by the state of Israel’s slaughter of many innocent civilians in Gaza. The military assault against children, women and men, by air, by sea and now by land, is a clear violation of international laws of war and of human rights. More…

Reuters reports: “Israel stepped up its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and declared it could ‘significantly widen’ an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.”

“The World Bank and its sister institution the International Monetary Fund, established 70 years ago, have lent billions to developing countries. Yet in their heyday — in the 1980s and 1990s — these institutions did not produce results in terms of poverty reduction or even in terms of increasing economic growth. In almost all regions,…

“The ‘ceasefire’ offered by Egypt came through in a most idiosyncratic fashion. It was announced to the media, which is where Hamas leadership said that they saw it. Egypt had not conducted the kind of back channel negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian factions to ensure a ceasefire. In other words, this was not a…

“In New York, a peace activist and grandmother has been sentenced to a year in prison for her role in peaceful protests at a base where U.S. drones are piloted remotely. Mary Anne Grady Flores had been issued an order of protection aimed at keeping her away from Hancock Field Air National Guard Base after…