The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza

by Max Blumenthal

Overview

On July 8, 2014, Israel launched air strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza, followed by a ground invasion. The ensuing conflict led to 51 days of war that left over 2,000 people dead, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian civilians. During the assault, at least 10,000 homes were destroyed and, according to the United Nations, nearly 300,000 Palestinians were displaced. Max Blumenthal was on the ground during what he argues was an entirely avoidable catastrophe. In this explosive work of reportage, Blumenthal reveals the harrowing conditions and cynical deceptions that led to the ruinous war — details that slipped through the cracks of the mainstream media.

Here, for the first time, Blumenthal unearths and presents shocking evidence of atrocities he gathered in the rubble of Gaza after much of the Western media had packed up. He radically shifts the discussion around a number of controversial issues, like the use of civilians as human shields by Israeli forces; the arbitrary targeting of Palestinian civilians; and widespread incitement to genocide by Israeli military personnel, political leaders, and state-sponsored clerics. Blumenthal recorded testimonies from scores of Gazan residents, documenting potential war crimes committed by the Israeli armed forces. He also documented details of the battles that took place between Israeli forces and the armed guerrilla factions of the Gaza Strip, explaining their military and political significance with intimate proximity to the subject. And he explains the outcome of the ceasefire agreement that arrived after 51 days of fighting, showing how US and Egyptian-led diplomacy makes another, even more horrifying war almost inevitable.

The horrors the world witnessed in Gaza, Blumenthal argues, did not occur in a vacuum. They are reflections of the political trajectory of the state of Israeli society today. Here, Blumenthal demonstrates that while residents of Gaza are indeed victims who suffer immensely, they also engaged in dramatic acts of resistance. The 51 Day War exemplifies the fearless reporting and unflinching style that Blumenthal has become known for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568585444
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	06/28/2016
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	468,121
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Max Blumenthal is the author of Republican Gomorrah, a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller, and Goliath, winner of the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award. His writing and video documentaries have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Beast, the Nation, the Guardian, the Independent Film Channel, the Huffington Post, Salon.com, Al Jazeera English, and many other publications. He blogs at maxblumenthal.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Rogues 7

2 Human Animals 15

3 The Resistance 27

4 The Battle of Shujaiya 39

5 A Thin Red Line 57

8 Bloodlands 67

7 Human Shields 85

8 Hannibal 95

9 Good Night, Left Side 111

10 The Attrition Factor 121

11 Three Million Bullets 131

12 Assassins 143

13 Bringing the Towers Down 157

14 Defiance in the Rubble 169

15 Dodging Death 179

16 The Deadliest Catch 187

17 Singapore or Darfur 195

18 The Teacher 207

Notes 219

Acknowledgments 252

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

05/25/2015
Blumenthal’s (Republican Gomorrah) latest is a heart-wrenching narrative of being caught in the middle of wartime. In July 2014, following the kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens by two Palestinian men with ties to Hamas, Israel launched rocket strikes against the Gaza Strip for 51 days. Blumenthal, who was on the ground for part of the offensive, bore witness to the loss of life, shelter, and possessions—but never hope—among Gaza’s Palestinian residents. His experiences in Gaza shed valuable light on the miserable living conditions there, while also fueling Blumenthal’s rebuttal to defenses of the strikes as justifiable responses to terrorism. He portrays Israel’s response as vastly disproportionate, particularly emphasizing the toll on Palestinian economic development. While vividly recounting firsthand experience and interviews with Gaza residents, Blumenthal also carefully charts the ascension of the right wing in Israeli politics and offers a jaundiced eye on the maneuvers of the Israeli government. The result is a harrowing, transfixing narrative of a people’s ordeal that will provoke and challenge any reader more accustomed to pro-Israel perspectives. Agent: Anna Stein, Aitken Alexander Associates. (July)

Publishers Weekly

The 51 Day War is…a tribute to the resilience of a people facing an indescribable reality. ... Whether reading this book with an advanced knowledge of the history of Israel-Palestine or as an introduction to the conflict, The 51 Day War will leave you better informed and filled with an unquenchable, and very angry, thirst for justice and equality in Palestine and beyond.” —Muftah.org

"As we would expect from one of the finest and most intrepid journalists working in America today, this meticulous, first-hand report on The Fifty One Day War will stand as the definitive account of the man-made catastrophe so cruelly inflicted on the men, women and children of Gaza in the summer of 2014.” —Andrew Cockburn, author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High Tech Assassins

"Max Blumenthal has spent the last decade transforming himself into one of the most vital voices in journalism today, always speaking truth to power with fearlessness and integrity. As with his previous books, The 51 Day War is sure to be talked about for years to come.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and No god but God

"Max Blumenthal audaciously takes in-your-face, on-the-ground journalism into the realm of geopolitics.” —Juan Cole, Informed Comment, author of The New Arabs and Engaging the Muslim World

"[A] heart-wrenching narrative...Blumenthal, who was on the ground for part of the offensive, bore witness to the loss of life, shelter, and possessions—but never hope—among Gaza's Palestinian residents...The result is a harrowing, transfixing narrative of a people's ordeal that will provoke and challenge." —Publishers Weekly

"An alarming report on Israel's devastating 2014 attack on Gaza.... Explosive, pull-no-punches reporting that is certain to stir controversy." —Kirkus

“The 51 Day War lays bare some of the names, faces and experiences behind [the] statistics…Blumenthal offers an unembellished look at the misery on the ground in the Gaza Strip during Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014.” —In These Times

“Max Blumenthal's unflinching book on Gaza war must not be ignored…The 51-Day War is the first account by a US journalist of an assault that dropped almost the same tonnage of explosives on Gaza as that on Hiroshima.” —Electronic Intifada

From the Publisher

2015-05-20
An alarming report on Israel's devastating 2014 attack on Gaza. Alternet senior writer Blumenthal (Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, 2013, etc.) arrived in Gaza on the 38th day of the recent conflict, just as the Israeli military took to the air with fighter jets and drones to deliver a relentless barrage of missiles and bombs. In a narrative based on interviews with citizens, physicians, and others, the author writes that the Israeli military "unleashed massive force against the civilian population," killing 2,200 people (mostly Palestinian civilians), wounding over 10,000, and destroying about 18,000 homes. Some 3 million bullets were expended in wreaking $7 billion in damage, he writes. "The shocking level of firepower Israeli forces exerted against Gaza's civilian infrastructure told the story of a frustrated Goliath unable to punish its vastly underarmed foe into submission," writes Blumenthal. Israel, protected by an advanced sheltering and early warning system, had far fewer casualties. Sympathetic to Gaza's 1.8 million refugees and highly critical of Israel's increasingly right-wing leaders, the author attributes the ferocity of the Israeli attack on "bloodlust" over the deaths of three Israeli teenagers who, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been "abducted and murdered by human animals." Netanyahu added: "Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay." Based on his observations and accounts from survivors, the author charges that the Israeli onslaught targeted Palestinian civilians rather than Hamas fighters. He claims that Israeli soldiers engaged in execution-style killings, deliberately destroyed Gaza City high-rise buildings housing dozens of local media organizations, used Palestinians as human shields, and attacked cemeteries as well as U.N. schools that served as refugee shelters. The war elevated the status of "fundamentalist warriors" in Israel and left a wake of "rage and spreading radicalism" that is certain to bring more military conflict. Explosive, pull-no-punches reporting that is certain to stir controversy.

Kirkus Reviews