The Punishment of Gaza Paperback – 17 May 2010

The author knows at first hand what he is writing about.He states that powerful countries support Palestinian oppression in Gaza. Should these arms suppliers stop their arms sales then Peace would soon follow. However arms sales for one major world power is King.

The recipient read it quickly and informed me it was a really good book.

Good

Written by a self-described Israeli patriot this short book covers what happened in Gaza during the years 2006 to 2009 inclusively . Each essay-like chapter is dated to it`s one-day of narrative and covers an incident not only as it happens through the author`s eyes but also put into it`s historic perspective and context. The result of this is quite extraordinary in it`s depth and feeling of being close in each case to the Palestinian participants who are all named and detailed backgrounds are given.Surely it is unprecedented for a journalist from the opposition side to become so close to his subjects under some of the war conditions that prevail throughout these chapters in a seemingly endless recital.A book I am glad to have purchased from Amazon and which has certainly enlightened me on many aspects of Israeli policy and pre-emptive actions towards the Gaza strip and it`s 1.5 million inhabitants. As Johann Hari says of the author Gideon Levy , he is perhaps the most heroic man in Israel today.

When the Holocaust happened and the full horrors was shown to the world, the pain of how my ancestors could treat one another like that, just shames me. But now it's my turn and the media is at my fingertips, and I am so proud that I joined a peace convoy that took aid to Gaza from London. What is amazing is how the world just looks the other way though and does nothing at all!

In many ways this is a depressing book, because the abuse of the Palestinian population which it catalogues over a number of years continues and if anything worsens; but full marks and great admiration go to Gideon Levy for his courage in speaking out against his Zionist compatriots (and government) and to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz which was willing to publish his views.

Straight from the horses mouth.The right rhetoric of a racist state which indicates that there is nothing new under the sun,A people once once victims in turn become the oppressor.It has happened all through history. Des Clark

great collection of Gidieon Levy's writings. I highly recommend..

For the many people who back Israel unconditionally and have no concern for the Palestinian people, largely because they are so misunderstood due to being misrepresented in the news, this book is a must read. A real eye-opener, written by a Jewish person who speaks out truthfully, and he is well qualified to do so. He is also an excellent writer. I urge others to get a copy of this book and read it if they want to expand their knowledge and understanding of what has gone on for far too long in Gaza.

Dass was uns täglich im Fernsehen gezeigt wird, ist nur eine Seite des Storys, und zwar die Seite die den "grossen" gut gefällt. Es geht hier um echte Journalismus, vom feinsten Art.Es ist tatsächlich eine kronologische Zusammenfassung von Artikeln, die das Israel-Gaza Konflikt aus eine andere Perspektive darstellt....und die ist an manche stelle grausam...Ein Buch voller Emotionen, sollte man jeder lesen der hinter Kulissen einen Einblick werfen möchte.

Mr Levy does not only report but able to humanise the ‘justifiable aggressions’ perpetrated against people who are trying to live a quiet lives. When the bees are constantly been aggravated, dont fault if they come back to attack you.

That is how Gideon Levy characterizes the Gaza War of December 2008 and January 2009. Levy is a journalist for the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz". For twenty years he has covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in particular the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. This slim book is a collection of his columns on the Israeli treatment of the Gaza Strip after the withdrawal of Israeli forces (the supposed "liberation" of Gaza) in September 2005 through the summer of 2009.I am somewhat ambivalent about the book. I value it as an alternative to the abysmal mainstream media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire here in the U.S., but I sense that it too veers away, in the other direction, from sober objectivity (both in intent and effect).In the U.S., the end of the Israeli military occupation of Gaza was much ballyhooed. But Levy, in THE PUNISHMENT OF PALESTINE, argues that Israeli withdrawal "did almost nothing to change the living conditions for the residents of the Strip":"Gaza is still a prison, and its inhabitants are still doomed to live in poverty and oppression. Israel closes them off from the sea, the air and land, except for a limited safety valve at the Rafah crossing [into Egypt]. * * * Gaza has no chance of escaping its poverty under these conditions. Nobody will invest in it. Israel locked the cage, threw away the keys and left the residents to their bitter fate."And matters then got worse, culminating in the Gaza War. Actually, as Levy points out, "war" is an example of Orwellian distortion of language in the interest of political misinformation. It certainly was not "an armed clash between armies." The staggering disparity in firepower is highlighted by the disparity in deaths - around 100 Palestinian deaths (about one-third of them children) for each of the thirteen Israelis who were killed. Although within Israel it was celebrated with all of the usual trappings of patriotic wars, in reality it was, as Levy quotes one senior officer, "a superb call-up and training exercise." And, in line with the title of Levy's book, it was one more step - a rather harsh one - in the punishment of Gaza.Levy is at his best when he deals in the realm of facts, including the numerous accounts of the "collateral damage" - the children, women, and nose-to-the-grindstone apolitical men who have been killed or maimed simply because their unfortunate lot in life was to be among the caged Palestinians of Gaza. (Footnote: Israel made it much more difficult for Levy and his colleagues to report on those facts when it barred Israeli journalists from entering Gaza in late 2006.) Levy's political criticism is at its strongest when he rebukes Israel for ignoring or (at best) being disingenuous about that collateral damage. But, aside from the repeated injunction "STOP!", Levy does not really offer any proposals. And his moral outrage becomes shrill and even, I fear, unfair (as, for example, when he criticizes Amos Oz and David Grossman).The book suffers somewhat from being a collection of forty newspaper columns. In a column, rhetorical overstatement and emotional appeals are both natural and expected. When repeated forty times in succession, however, that mode of discourse is rather mind-numbing. Still, Levy tells us things that have been ignored by most of the U.S. media and he gives us an idea of what life is like in Gaza - something anyone who deems herself a humanitarian should be familiar with, regardless of her views on which side is more to blame.

Gideon Levy doesn’t mince words much in this book. It’s a pretty easy and quick read and really gets to the heart of the matter. Chapters are concise and to the point.This book not only accurately describes what happened during the time the book was written about, but I often caught myself saying “this could be describing the current situation” without changing anything but the dates.A must read IMO