Gaza Roundup: Change.org Voices and More

My fellow Change.org bloggers have been posting on Gaza as well, all excellent posts chock full of informative videos, links and commentary:

Israeli/Palestine and the Logic of Nationalism, focusing on the ways that citizenship struggles figure into the I/P struggle. He also points this important tidbit out:

Matthew Yglesias reminds us that "It's important to recall that the rise of Hamas is, in part, the result of a very successful Israeli effort to undermine the authority and infrastructure of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority."  Yglesias doesn't harbor much hope that the current assault will magically produce a moderate alternative to Hamas.

Michael Kleinman of our Humanitarian Affairs blog writes about the human face of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza right now. It contains some excellent videos. Part one, part two.

According to a joint statement released yesterday by Israeli and Palestinian medical and human rights organizations: "The Gaza health system is in a state of collapse and cannot provide an adequate response to the growing needs."

Here is Ahmed Yousef in a NYT op-ed from 2006, explaining and promoting the Hamas long term cease fire proposal from 2006, which was never taken seriously by Israel. At the time he was a senior advisor to the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya (Hamas.) He addresses a main concern here:

Such a concept — a period of nonwar but only partial resolution of a conflict — is foreign to the West and has been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak to wonder how one can stop the violence without ending the conflict.

I would argue, however, that this concept is not as foreign as it might seem. After all, the Irish Republican Army agreed to halt its military struggle to free Northern Ireland from British rule without recognizing British sovereignty. Irish Republicans continue to aspire to a united Ireland free of British rule, but rely upon peaceful methods. Had the I.R.A. been forced to renounce its vision of reuniting Ireland before negotiations could occur, peace would never have prevailed. Why should more be demanded of the Palestinians, particularly when the spirit of our people will never permit it?

Look at the al-Jazeera Middle East headlines here. It's a good way to follow the story from Arab eyes. I was particularly interested in the reporting that Palestinian President Abbas is blaming Hamas for the violence.

BoingBoing.net wrote about a Twitter press conference held by the Israeli Consulate in New York. Nothing terribly suprising/interesting about the content, but I'm still impressed. To see the record, visit the link and scroll down till you reach the Twitter widget floating on the page.

So much is going on worthy of more posts. I'm particularly interested in honest evaluations of the protests that took place on Sunday, Monday, and today around the world. Are the they working? If not, what advice might we offer?