News and Analysis (7/16/14)

With the cease fire truce between Hamas and Israel foredoomed because “the proposal fashioned by Egypt was not discussed with Hamas leaders, who feel it suits Israel far more than them” …

• Why the Israel-Gaza Cease-Fire Failed (TIME)

… the bombardment of Gaza continues …

• Israeli Strike Kills Four Boys Playing on Gaza Beach (AP / abc News)

… while Israelis, feeling secure under their “Iron Dome” from the Palestininan’s rockets, take a stroll down the road in Siderot, sit down, watch the airstrikes on Gaza … “about a dozen locals who cheered on their military from plastic chairs while eating popcorn”:

• Israelis Watch Bombs Drop on Gaza From Front-Row Seats (The New York Times)

“Israel is guilty either of aggression in violation of the UN Charter or is in flagrant violation of its obligations as the Occupying Power under the Geneva Convention”:

• Palestine’s Dilemma: To Go or Not to Go to the ICC (Middle East Eye)

Since the invasion, Iraqi refugees have been fleeing the country, seeking refugee in neighboring countries, such as Syria and Jordan, but, there  are yet more to flee under the current circumstances with ISIS:

• Iraq’s Refugees Stuck In Jordan Aid Limbo (BBC)

In efforts to salvage Iraq from division, the Iraqi parliament elected a moderate Sunni speaker. The decision  “represented something of a breakthrough since it starts the clock for setting up the entire government”:

• Iraqi Parliament Elects Speaker in Effort to Form New Government (New York Times)

“[C]reating the Islamic State” is “playing Shiites against Sunnis,” said a Turkman rice farmer who blamed the Iraqi government for the crisis there, while some minorities say they are ” better off” since the Kurds moved into Kirkuk:

• In Iraq’s Disputed Territory, Minorities Are Embracing Kurdish Control  (The Washington Post)

“Three Israeli Jews who were arrested for the murder of a Palestinian” are expected to claim insanity:

• 3 Israelis Say They Killed Palestinian Teen ‘In Revenge’ (Russia Today)

Looking back on the Iraq policy that has turned part of the country over to a self-appointed extremist “Caliph,” and moved the the rulers of Iraq into the arms of Iran, the former VP has no regrets; he does regret that the current President prefers spending on highways and food stamps over killing:

• Dick Cheney: I Have No Regrets About the Iraq War (Newsweek)

Muslims, Christians and Jews get together for interfaith Iftar “to extend a mutual gesture of peace” in response to the recent events between Gaza and Israel: 

• United by Their Faiths in Allston (The Boston Globe)

Hanan Hameed