(2) It is an allusion to antisemitism to identify the perpetrator of Gazan suffering as “grinning ringletted” IDF soldiers, i.e. Jews. I don’t believe it is prima facie evidence of antisemitic hatred but it does conjure up the old images. However an important point has to be entered somewhere in the above text that the religious units in the Zahal (that is the Hebrew term for the army) were likely guilty of the worst atrocities, as was discovered in subsequent investigations, mostly by the army itself.

Disclosure: I’m currently living in Tel Aviv, I’m Jewish (and American), and I was horrified by what the state of Israel did during “Cast Lead,” and ashamed. That all said it is very easy to slip from legitimate critique to something sinister. It’s important to watch out for that, but not hysterically tar any and all critics as automatic Jew-haters.

And the Brits - a rather nasty and ill-bred people to begin with, for the most part - have embraced anti-Semitism openly for centuries.

All Marshall-Andrews manages to accomplish with his Jew-hating ranting is to further remind the global Jewish community that our survival as a people is absolutely dependent on Israel’s survival as the only Jewish nation in the world, and we will defend her with everything we have. We know the score all too well.

@ Winston Pickett: I can tell you that most British Jews think that this kind of article is absurd.

“Then he goes on to talk about the devastation visited upon Gaza. He describes a scene of apocalypse, in which a population living in the shadows of bombed sewage plants, cowed by chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs, somehow survives.”

One must admit that this is actually pretty accurate. Here is a BBC report on the devastation in the wake of the attacks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7836869.stm

Israel has prevented the Gazans from rebuilding, this is a major issue in the wake of the destruction. You gloss over it in this point:

“Those tempted to believe it should question the credentials of a man who, a few paragraphs earlier, confesses that he has “little experience of extensive war damage in civilian areas.””

But this is a major distinguisher. Because of the blockade, the Gazans have had significant trouble rebuilding in the wake of the attacks. Here is a report where the UN and numerous aid agencies ask Israel to end the blockade:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31174&Cr=gaza&Cr1

You seem to think that if the Gazans get enough food to eat, then they live in an enviable position. But the blockade is an economic strangle and it is preventing people from rising about subsistance. You seem to justify this. You are aware that in Gazan the statistics are this:

“A report by the UN Development Programme finds that 65% of Gazans live below the income poverty line and 37% live in extreme poverty. Sixty-six per cent of the unemployed are extremely poor - compared to 56% before the recent Gaza conflict.”

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/71409.html

Keeping up the blockade ensures that Gazans live in poverty. That isn’t a health environment for anyone.

I think that your claims of anti-semitism would have more legitimacy if you weren’t dishonest about the actual situation in Gazan. You post seems to be partly about pretending the situation in Gaza isn’t as bad as it truly is.