VIDEO: Journalist Max Blumenthal on the 51-day war against Gaza

The 51-day war against Gaza last year differed from other military operations against the enclave in two respects. The amount of explosives and ammunition used by the Israeli military was unprecedented. By the military's own admission, it fired two bullets for every inhabitant of Gaza. And Israeli public opinion was wholly supportive.

Anti-war protests were hounded off the streets by right-wing mobs. Colonel Ofer Winter, the national religious commander of the Givati Brigade, responsible for mass civilian casualties in Khuzaa and Rafah, was welcomed home as a hero, and a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that while 95 percent supported the war, 45 percent thought the army did not use enough force.

Max Blumenthal, author of The 51 Day War, told MEE: “We see a steady transformation within Israeli society from labour socialism, which was responsible for the Nakba and the mass disposition of Palestinian society, into a religious nationalist form of government, and a major transformation within society where key figures fall under religious nationalists.”