MINDS ON ACTIVITY SETTING THE STAGE. News in Review January 2013 Teacher Resource Guide EIGHT DAYS: Israel and Hamas

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1 News in Review January 2013 Teacher Resource Guide EIGHT DAYS: Israel and Hamas MINDS ON ACTIVITY 1. Imagine you are living in a nation that has been the target of repeated terrorist attacks from a group living in a neighbouring country. These attacks have been coming in the form of suicide bombings and rocket attacks. How do you think your country should respond? What do you think would be a reasonable course of action in this circumstance? 2. Imagine you are living in a country whose trade is constantly restricted by a much more economically powerful and militarily dominant neighbouring nation. As a result, your standard of living is very poor while your neighbour with the strong army enjoys a relatively wealthy lifestyle. How would this make your feel? What might your do to rectify the situation? What would be a reasonable course of action for your nation to take? SETTING THE STAGE Assassination In an attack that demonstrated the precision and tactical efficiency of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari was assassinated in a brutal air strike that targeted his car as it made its way down a street in Gaza. Israel claimed the attack was justified after Hamas forces spent months firing rockets out of the volatile Gaza Strip toward targets in Israel. The IDF announced the killing of Jabari via Twitter just minutes after the assassination and then unleashed a series of bombardments on 20 other Hamas strongholds in Gaza. Israel s show of force What ensued was eight days of tension in the Middle East region where such episodes have been all too common since the birth of the state of Israel in According to some estimates, Israelis are subject to close to 700 rocket attacks a year from Hamas and over half of the nation s population is within striking range. After an apparent escalation in Hamas attacks through the fall of 2012, the IDF put Operation Pillar of Defense into play. The assassination of Jabari and the initial bombs were just the tip of the iceberg. During the weeklong conflict, the IDF struck over sites within Gaza, killing over 160 Palestinians (103 of whom were civilians according to the United Nations). And, from the outset, Israel threatened a ground invasion of Gaza, calling up army reservists to back up their threat. Hamas response For its part, Hamas started firing every rocket they could muster at their Israeli neighbours after hostilities began on November 14. Almost rockets were launched from Gaza with close to 60 hitting heavily populated urban areas including one rocket that struck the suburbs of Tel Aviv (the first rocket to hit Israel s capital since the Gulf War of 1991) and another that hit 20

2 Jerusalem (striking the holy city of Islam and Judaism for the very first time). In all, only six Israeli s lost their lives in the rocket attacks, thanks in large part to the IDF s Iron Dome the nation s air defense system that intercepted close to 400 Hamas rockets (though the IDF claims that their interception rate was over 80 per cent). The diplomats arrive With the might of the Israeli army threatening to escalate its attack on Gaza, the international community stepped up its efforts to try to get the two sides to agree to a ceasefire. Nations like the United States, Canada and Britain defended Israel s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas but encouraged their Israeli ally to stand down when it came to the threat of a ground attack. Meanwhile, Hamas found support with a number of Arab states including Iran (the main supplier of arms to Hamas militants), Egypt (the nation from which the arms are smuggled into Gaza via a network of tunnels on the Gaza-Egyptian border) and Turkey. Before the tense eight days had passed, heavyweight diplomats like United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-moon, United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr brought their influence to the table to try to bring the combatants together. Outside the negotiating room, US President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi were believed to have played critical roles in getting Israel and Hamas to suspend hostilities. On November 21, after intense negotiations at Egypt s intelligence headquarters in Cairo, Clinton and Amr announced the end of hostilities and the beginning of a ceasefire. Victory (?) With the ceasefire came posturing on both sides. Israel claimed that their military solution had brought Hamas to its knees and created an end (however brief) to the escalating rocket attacks. Meanwhile Hamas claimed that the international attention brought to bear on the crisis showed that they were a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East. While western countries like Canada and the United States agree with Israel s depiction of Hamas as a terrorist group, the fact that the conflict could attract the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Secretary of State of the United States lent some credence to the claim that Hamas was a powerful organization. While both sides claimed victory, the world held its collective breath as the tenuous ceasefire held itself together. Did you know? Hamas fired close to 1,400 rockets at Israel during the conflict in November Of those rockets, about 150 never made it out of Gaza, roughly 400 were intercepted, almost 900 fell in open areas, and nearly 60 hit urban areas in Israel. Source: The Economist, Gaza abacus November 19, 2012 Checking Understanding 1. How did the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas begin? 2. How forceful was Israel s response to the ongoing threats posed by Hamas? 3. How successful was Hamas response to Israel s attack? 4. What role did international diplomats play in negotiating a ceasefire? 5. Who emerged victorious at the end of the conflict? News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 21

3 VIDEO REVIEW Pre viewing Questions Israel was been at odds with Palestinian militants since its creation in If you look at a map of Israel you will notice that the Palestinian people are located in a small pocket on the coast called the Gaza Strip and a larger inland area called the West Bank. The land mass separating the two areas is the state of Israel. Keep in mind that Israel is in charge of the entire area. 1. What problems do you think this poses for the Palestinians? Viewing Questions 1. What happened to Ahmed Jabari on November 14, 2012? 2. What role did Twitter play in the announcement of what happened to Jabari? 3. What did Israel do shortly after taking action against Jabari? 4. How did Egypt respond to the attack on Gaza? 5. What message did United Nations Security Council President Hardeep Singh Puri and Canadian Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay echo in the wake of the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas? News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 22

4 6. Why does Peter MacKay think that the Middle East is too volatile a region for the world community to allow things to get out of hand? 7. a) What message did countries like Canada, France, Russia and Britain consistently send to Israel and Hamas over the course of the conflict? b) How did Israel respond to this message? 8. What role did the United State expect Egypt to play when it came to the Hamas-Israel conflict? Does this role match the expectations of people in the Muslim Brotherhood? 9. Describe the plight of the people of Gaza a week after the conflict began. 10. Why did civilian deaths in Gaza spike as the conflict raged on? 11. How has life changed for people living in the Yad Mardechai Kibbutz? 12. What fears do the people living close to the Israel-Gaza border have about living in a conflict ridden Middle East? News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 23

5 13. What unintended consequences came out of the ceasefire? Post viewing Questions 1. In his interview with Peter Mansbridge, Minister of Defence Peter MacKay maintained that Canada could play a role in peace discussions even though they are clearly on Israel s side? Do you think this is a realistic position? 2. In the end, Egypt played the role of mediator in the conflict; thus meeting the expectations established by the United States (who promised Egypt millions of dollars in aid money). This surprised some people because new Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi is part of the same Muslim Brotherhood as many members of Hamas. Based on this information, why do you think many international observers are very concerned about Egypt s commitment to peace between Israel and the Palestinians? News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 24

6 ACTIVITY: Social Media Minds On Activity 1. Do you use social media services like Facebook and Twitter? Describe how you use these social media sites on a typical day. 2. Are there any activities that the social media sites prohibit? For example, what policies do these sites have when it comes to posting violent or provocative images? 3. Do you think that government agencies should be allowed to use social media to promote their work? Should there be limits placed on a government s use of social media to promote itself? The Tweets of War In her article The Tweets of War, Emily Greenhouse describes how the Israel Defense Force (IDF) used social media to provide a narrative of their attack on Hamas. Read the examples listed below and complete the activity that follows: The IDF announced the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense on Twitter: The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets. A few minutes later they announce the assassination of Hamas military leader: The first target, hit minutes ago, was Ahmed Al-Jabari, head of the Hamas military wing. Later the IDF tweeted a distorted mug shot of Jabari with the word eliminated written at the bottom of the picture. A few days into the conflict, the IDF tweeted: Since the beginning of 2012, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired 768 rockets into Israel followed by this bold tweet All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza. The IDF s Flickr account showed photos of Hamas rocket launch pads with detailed graphics explaining what was in the photo. The IDF also used Tumblr to show followers leaflets that were distributed in Gaza that warned people to take responsibility for yourselves and avoid being present in the vicinity of Hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety until quiet is restored in the region. This showed the IDF s acknowledgment that some collateral damage could result if people didn t distance themselves from Hamas. According to Greenhouse, this use of social media is unprecedented. Certainly social media has been used by citizens during populist uprisings like the Arab Spring to organize and spread the news, but this is the first time a government has used social media as a propaganda tool in its effort to provide a play-by-play of its military efforts. Source: The Tweets of War by Emily Greenhouse. The New Yorker (online), November 19, 2012 News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 25

7 ACTIVITY: Take a Stand In a word opinion paragraph, state whether or not you agree with the IDF s use of social media to deliver its message. Focus on why you feel the IDF should or should not have used Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr to communicate to their followers. Overall, do you feel social media was intended to be used in the manner that the IDF used it. News in Review CBC Learning newsinreview.cbclearning.ca 26