Gov and War
Sadly, the poor House leadership is one element that connects America and the Middle East. Tom Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article): The Two Things Worrying U.S. Military Officials About Israel and Hamas. “If it sounds like an utterly incoherent worldview that would undermine the American global leadership that has shaped a world we’ve thrived in for the past century, it’s because it is. And if it feels as if House G.O.P. leaders are small thinkers in a big time, it’s because they are. They are shameless, shameful and dangerous. Please do our country a favor and audition for Fox News on some other issue.” And Israeli politicians present a dilemma of their own (many, actually, but here’s one). “It looks as if Israel’s army is reoccupying Gaza to eventually turn it over to some kind of legitimate Palestinian Authority — while Israel’s extreme right-wing politicians and settlers are working overtime to delegitimize that authority and drive Palestinians out of the West Bank.”
+ Israel aid drama is the latest failure of American governance.
+ NYT: How a Campaign of Extremist Violence Is Pushing the West Bank to the Brink.
+ “A growing list of Israeli officials have accepted responsibility for failing to prevent Hamas’ brutal attack on Israeli communities during the Oct. 7 incursion that triggered the current Israel-Hamas war. Conspicuously absent from that roll call is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” For this war to lead to anything other than more wars in the future, Israel needs to get the settlers under control and to get a new Prime Minister.
+ “As U.N. officials say hospitals in Gaza are running dangerously low on fuel, Hamas is maintaining a stockpile of more than 200,000 gallons of fuel for the rockets it fires into Israel and the generators that provide clean air and electricity to its network of underground tunnels.” And from NY Mag: The Tunnel War: “From the air soldiers breathe to the guns they fire, everything is different underground.”
+ “”When I see a Palestinian child, a boy or a girl pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else. So this is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will.” So said Antony Blinken on his way to Tel Aviv, the IDF has surrounded Gaza City, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel has plans for Hamas’ tunnels, water and fuel shortages making a dire humanitarian crisis worse, more foreign nationals cross into Egypt. Here’s the latest from CNN, NBC, Times of Israel, and BBC.
+ If you missed it yesterday, I shared some quick thoughts on the rise of antisemitism. A Return to the Familiar.
