Anti-Semitic graffiti. Photo: AJN file

LONDON — Israel’s Gaza operation in December 2008 spurred a record number of anti-Semitic attacks in Britain during the past year.

The organisation recording anti-Semitic incidents, the Community Security Trust, reported an increase in incidents of 55 per cent from the previous year.

The 924 incidents were the most since records have been kept, according to reports.

The main rise in attacks was recorded in January and February, during and after Israel’s military action in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

According to the CST annual report, the 628 incidents in the first six months of 2009 were more than in any entire previous year. There were 296 incidents from July to December.

CST spokesman Mark Gardner said: “These record figures show that anti-Semitism is an increasingly significant problem for British Jews.
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IDF forces during ground maneouvres in Gaza. Photo: AJN file

GIDI GRINSTEIN

JERUSALEM — A year on from Operation Cast Lead, one thing is increasingly clear: together with the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the two military operations exposed a dire need to reform Israel’s security and foreign policy doctrine.

The borders of Gaza and Lebanon may be quiet, but a fierce global battle for our basic legitimacy is raging.

Many Israelis are frustrated. Within three years, we failed to achieve a decisive success in recent confrontations with Hezbollah and Hamas in spite of overwhelming military, technological and economic superiority.

In 2006, we were dragged through 33 days of an exchange that left a relatively high number of casualties, 133, as well as a trauma to Israeli society that will take years to heal. In the 2009 Cast Lead operation, our military power was unmatched, yet it was offset by the offensive on Israel’s international legitimacy that led to a significant setback in our standing among the family of nations and would constrain Israeli military planning and operations more effectively than any Arab military deterrence. This is a score card Israel finds hard to accept.
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AHRON SHAPIRO

THE Israel Defence Forces have deepened their probes into possible ncidents of suspected wrongdoing by its soldiers during the Gaza war of earlier this year, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

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Avigdor Lieberman. Photo: AJN file

DANIEL EDELSON

ANKARA - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned the acting Turkish ambassador to Israel to a meeting with high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials in order to protest against a television show which depicted Israeli solders as a murderous, bloodthirsty army.

The show, which debuted in Turkey recently may provide a partial answer to the recent spike in anti-Israeli sentiment evident in the country.
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RONI SOFER

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening harshly criticised the conclusions of a United Nations committee which probed the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in Gaza and accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.

“The Goldstone Report is a field court-marital, and its findings were prewritten,” Netanyahu said in a closed forum. “This is a prize for terror. The report makes it difficult for democracies to fight terror.”

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JERUSALEM - Israel issued a 160-page document justifying its military offensive in Gaza.

The publication Thursday of “The Operation in Gaza - Legal and Factual Aspects,” which deals with last December and January’s Operation Cast Lead, comes just days before the scheduled release of two United Nations reports on the Gaza war that are expected to be harshly critical of Israel. Read the full story