All the Rage
“We will not stand by and do nothing again.” Joe Biden referenced the Holocaust during his speech in Israel during which he reiterated the US support of Israel. But he also offered words of caution rooted in America’s own experience following 9/11. “Justice must be done. But I caution this, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.” Biden spoke of the plight of the hostages, the need for humanitarian aid, and more during a speech he made before leaving Israel. It’s worth a watch.
+ Biden’s trip was impacted by the bombing of a hospital in Gaza that led to the cancelation of his scheduled meetings in Jordan and resulted in mass protests in the region. It’s notable how quickly Western media took Hamas at its word and blamed Israel for the hospital bombing. The media needs to pause, gather facts, and wait for definitive proof, but it should predisposed to believe the word of a democracy and an ally over that of a murderous, terrorist organization. NYT: “American officials say they have multiple strands of intelligence — including infrared satellite data — indicating that the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday was caused by an armed Palestinian group.” And here’s the BBC on what video, pictures and other evidence tell us about Al Ahli hospital blast. There’s the political story, the media story, and the messaging story. We shouldn’t lose sight of core story: The massive and tragic loss of life. As I said last week, the loss of life among innocent Palestinians in Gaza is heartbreaking. If you can’t feel that, you’ve lost your humanity and there’s really not much left to fight for.
+ There’s one group that has suffered both the terrorist attack of October 7 and the ensuing onslaught of Israeli airstrikes. The hostages. “Imagine enduring both. The roughly 200 hostages Hamas carried away at gunpoint were awakened at dawn by the terror of a missile onslaught and faced the darkness of Gaza beneath the thunder of Israeli munitions. They form a kind of human bridge between two realms.” Time: The Families of Israelis Held Hostage by Hamas Speak Out.
+ At least 15 journalists killed in Hamas-Israel war.
+ “I start with this portrait to emphasize the extreme asymmetry of the conflict now unfolding in Gaza: the truly deranged nature of Hamas’s decision to initiate a war against the region’s preeminent military power—and to do so in a fashion of almost unimaginable brutality that necessarily brings the full weight of Israeli military power against a territory, teeming with civilians, which the militia cannot possibly hope to defend; the impossibility of effective Israeli military operation in Gaza without horrifying civilian death and destruction; and the concurrent impossibility of refraining from conducting such an operation given the extreme proximity of these two populations across this line and the need to prevent similar atrocities in the future.” Benjamin Wittes with a detailed look at the ethical questions often obscured by the fog of war. On Strategy, Law, and Morality in Israel’s Gaza Operation.
