"Israel won defensively but lost politically in Gaza"

El Universal Saturday December 26,2009

Israel won defensively but not politically in Gaza, claimed El Universal. While it has improved security greatly, it caused major hostility within the United Nations. There have been significantly less terrorist attacks but at the cost of the murder of Palestinian civilians that deserve general recognition in a public forum. The diplomacy surrounding the event has caused a lot more issues, then the defensive success has attained. Israel's exterior relations foreign minister, Igal Palmor, alluded to the trials that Israelis responsible for the attacks will have to go through in countries like Spain and England. He also discussed the initiatives of the Muslims that were attacked and the issues Gaza caused within the United Nations. While Madrid has stopped its trials, the accusations in England are so extreme that Tzipi Livni refuses to travel there because of the fear of being detained.In the ONU, the majority vote of the Muslim countries is to try Israeli Leaders during the time on a public trial for the crimes against humanity they are accused of committing. During Operation Cast Led, after being initially attacked by Hamas Israel began a three week attack on Gaza including air, land, and water strikes. Just forty kilometers long and ten kilometers wide, and hosting one and a half million inhabitants Gaza remains one of the most overpopulated zones in the world. It only exists, according to El Universal, because of the "generous donors" of those against Israel's operation. The result of the war was that "Israel committed its seventh war against their Arabic neighbors" in its sixty year existence. But since the Palestinians had "nowhere to find refuge" there were 1400 civilians killed. One third of the victims were women and children, there were 5000 injured and "hundreds" of institutions destroyed. One of the "strategic" purposes of the war was to rescue kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit, and while Israel is closer in their negotiations they have not yet been successful.
This article is clearly anti-Israeli. Just like with the Goldstone Report, this article strives off the twisting of facts and information. It portrays the Palestinians as the victims of Israel's powerful regime. Not once does it mention Israeli casualties or the fact that the rocket fired by the Palestinians was not the first rocket fired, but that ketushas had been falling on cities such as sderot daily for years. The article also says that its the seventh war Israel committed against the Palestinians when this war as well as the others, had mutual effort on both sides. It also claims that the civilians had no place to find refuge, but it fails to note that the IDF warned the civilians that they were going to attack and that they should leave the area for their own protection. In the end it criticizes Israel because they did not achieve what they set out to do which was to rescue Gilad Shalit. It is this type of misinformation and criticism that creates such rampant anti- semitism within Venezuela. It is hard to be mutual and objective when you are only presented with one side of the story.

LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://economia.eluniversal.com/2009/12/26/int_ava_israel-gano-en-termi_26A3231293.shtml