News

A year after Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, fallout from the war
is deepening political divisions in the Jewish state. The three-week
conflict claimed the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, according to Arab
accounts, and 13 Israelis.

A right-wing Israeli advocacy group
has ignited a storm with a public campaign targeting an Israeli human
rights organization that assisted United Nations officials investigating
the Gaza War.

The U.N.'s subsequent Goldstone Report accused
Israel of war crimes in Gaza, prompting outrage in Israel. The popular
view among Israelis is that the nation was acting in legitimate
self-defense in response to years of Palestinian rocket attacks from
Gaza.

So the right-wing group Im Tirzu launched an ad campaign
accusing the left-wing New Israel Fund of treason for helping the
Goldstone Commission bring war crimes allegations against Israel. Im
Tirzu spokesman Erez Tadmor says the fund is backing the Palestinian
militant group Hamas that rules Gaza and is giving a bad name to the
Israel Defense Forces.