Yes, the same Gaza that reigning Israeli PM "Bibi" Netanyahu had launched two wars against in less than two years... just like his predecessor did before him... (pdf) All cynical murderous failures. All supported by the main opposition, hailed by the mainstream media as "necessary", even "ingenious". All - did I say that already? - Never mind, worth repeating: all cynical murderous failures. Surely at the expense of southwest Israel's residents, including my wife's family; the latest war disrupting many lives as far as the country's main Tel-Aviv metropolis, not to mention several civilians and dozens of soldiers killed. But of course, the main victims have always been Palestinian civilians, and their quest for a semblance of that crazy little thing called "Life".
December 11, 2014: Palestinian woman Safa Fayez, 29, during her rehabilitation treatment session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City. She was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the war, when IDF shells hit the UN school crowded by hundreds of Palestinians seeking shelter on July 24,2014. She lost her her baby and husband. She was a mother of four. (Heidi Levine/Sipa Press; from a Washington Post story featuring Heidi's postwar images)The sanctimonious assertions and promises by Western leaders that "things should improve for the people of Gaza" or "This time is different", made only a few months ago in the war's aftermath have been long forgotten. The locals have come to expect this amnesia. It is a replay of the aftermath to every war and crisis in the past decade: the solemn Western pledges that "This time will be different" are now beyond hollow and farcical. They are part of the torment itself.