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☆ Opinion: Why crypto was the perfect tool for criminals and kleptocrats
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Opinion Casey Michel | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The news last week of money laundering charges against crypto exchange Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, sent shockwaves through both financial markets and crypto consumers alike. But for those familiar with the history of modern money laundering, they’re hardly surprising. Over and again, everything from Manhattan high-rises to Malibu beachfronts to Midwest manufacturing plants have allegedly housed illicit wealth, easily and anonymously. But crypto was also, in many ways, the perfect tool for kleptocrats and criminals trying to dodge sanctions and duck investigators. Like banks, real estate and more before it, the best days of the crypto industry as a haven for money laundering may yet be behind it.

Persons: Casey Michel, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, ”, Versha Sharma, Hamas’s Al, they’re, —, kleptocrats Organizations: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Binance, Hamas’s, ISIS, Patriot Locations: Washington, American, Manhattan, Malibu, Midwest

BEITUNIA, West Bank—After more than a year of detention, Azhar Assaf has finally returned to her home in the occupied West Bank. Although she doesn’t consider herself to be political, she says she owes her freedom to Hamas. Assaf and other freed prisoners, many of whom have been held without trial, are attributing their release to Hamas, with some openly praising the group. That is helping to boost Hamas’s public image among Palestinians amid a war with Israel that has left more than 15,000 dead in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to authorities in the enclave. The numbers don’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

Persons: Azhar Assaf, doesn’t, Assaf Organizations: West Bank —, West Bank Locations: Israel, Gaza

☆ Israel-Hamas War Live Updates: Gaza Fighting Resumes as Truce Expires
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

A weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas expired early Friday morning, prompting Israel to renew combat operations in Gaza after it said Hamas fired toward Israeli territory. Israeli offensive: Israel’s resumed offensive is expected to focus on southern Gaza, where it claims many of Hamas’s senior leaders are hiding. It published a map it says will be used to guide Gazans away from areas of fighting. Hostages: Hamas released two hostages late on Thursday and six more around midnight. Thirty Palestinians—seven women and 23 minors—were released from Israeli prisons as part of a swap deal.

Persons: Israel’s, Hamas’s, Antony Blinken, — Organizations: Al, Hamas Locations: Israel, Gaza, Al Jazeera, Qatar

☆ Opinion: A perfectly reasonable, highly unrealistic path to peace
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Is there any way to bring an end to this war and open a path to lasting peace? There is a perfectly reasonable, though extremely difficult and perhaps unrealistic solution. It might have expected Arab countries having diplomatic relations with Israel to sever them. And yet, this could be a moment for Arab leaders to step in with an act of heroism. Allowing Hamas leaders to survive in exile, bringing the PA and perhaps the UAE to Gaza is hardly risk-free.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, it’s, don’t, Israel’s, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, Ahmad Gharabli, Iran —, Joe Biden’s, Abraham, ”, Israel — Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Frida Ghitis CNN, Hamas, West Bank, Peacemakers, Abraham Accords, Trump, The New York Times, Israeli, Getty, US Navy, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Saudi, Palestinian Authority Locations: Israel, Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Palestinian, Tel Aviv, AFP, Druze, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Saudi, Tehran, Kippur, Egypt, Oslo

☆ Israel Considers How to Remove Threat of Hamas Fighters in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TEL AVIV—As Israeli forces prepare for a renewed offensive targeting Hamas’s top leaders in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military and political leaders are confronting the challenge of what to do about the thousands of fighters that represent the group’s power base. To address that challenge, some Israeli and U.S. officials are discussing the idea of expelling thousands of lower-level militants from the Palestinian enclave as a way to shorten the war. The idea is reminiscent of the U.S.-brokered deal that allowed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and thousands of fighters to flee Beirut during Israel’s 1982 siege of the Lebanese capital.

Persons: Yasser Arafat Organizations: TEL AVIV — Locations: TEL AVIV, Gaza, U.S, Beirut, Israel’s

☆ What the Polls Say About Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( David Leonhardt | More About David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A major reason appears to be the civilian death toll in Gaza, which is mostly women and children. Consider these two facts: One, most Americans say that Israel’s military response has been both reasonable and understandable. In the Ipsos poll, 68 percent of people agreed that “Israel should call a cease-fire and try to negotiate.”This combination of views doesn’t quite mesh. Still, you can understand why many Americans would hold this mix of views: They both support Israel’s effort to topple Hamas and do not want Palestinians to keep dying. Yes, only one of the two findings is convenient to each side in the debate, but both findings are real.

Persons: Ipsos, isn’t, Israel, don’t Organizations: Reuters, Israel, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel, Gazans

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out. The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.

Organizations: The New York Times, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel, paragliders

Some of the hostages were held in sweltering tunnels deep beneath Gaza, while others were squeezed into tight quarters with strangers or confined in isolation. There were children forced to appear in hostage videos, and others forced to watch gruesome footage of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. As some hostages captured that day in the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel have been released, they have relayed these and other stories of their captivity to family members. The New York Times interviewed the family members of 10 freed hostages, who spoke on behalf of their relatives to relay sensitive information. The relatives who spoke to The Times described how the freed hostages, many of them children, were deprived of adequate food while in Gaza.

Organizations: New York Times, Times Locations: Gaza, Israel

A weeklong cease-fire in Gaza collapsed on Friday morning after Israel said Hamas had fired rockets toward Israel in the hours before the truce was set to expire, and Israel responded with strikes on the territory. But early Friday, shortly before the truce was set to end, Israel’s military said on the social media site X that it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza. Nonetheless, minutes after the 7 a.m. deadline passed, Israel announced that it was restarting operations in Gaza. Shortly afterward, both the Israeli military and Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry said that Israel was carrying out strikes across Gaza. “We have sworn, I have sworn, to eliminate Hamas,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Persons: Israel, Hamas’s, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, ”, Mr, Netanyahu, Antony J, Blinken, “, ” Mr, ” Aaron Boxerman, Iyad, Johnatan Reiss Organizations: Hamas, Mr Locations: Khan Yunis, Gaza, Israel, Doha, Qatar, United States, Egypt, Tel Aviv, “ Israel

☆ Israeli Leaders Resist Calls for Longer Cease-Fire With Hamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Jared Malsin | Summer Said | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Key leaders in Israel’s government pushed back against proposals for a long-term cease-fire with Hamas, as negotiators in Qatar tried Wednesday to extend the pause in fighting and the U.S. tempered its support for a drawn-out war in Gaza. In a slew of public comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , along with members of his cabinet and coalition partners, laid down a firm marker that talks brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar were only about releasing hostages taken during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks. Once that process is over, Israeli leaders said, they would go back to war with the goals of removing Hamas from power and ending a security threat from Gaza.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu Locations: Qatar, U.S, Gaza, Egypt

Vice President Kamala Harris, President Isaac Herzog of Israel, Elon Musk and other leaders in business and politics spoke on everything from artificial intelligence, economic tensions between the United States and China, and Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel at the annual DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday. She has been tasked with wooing advertisers back to the platform after many were spooked by Mr. Musk’s erratic posts. [For select interviews from today’s DealBook Summit, follow and listen to our limited podcast series.] Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s economic record, as polls show that the president trails Donald J. Trump in battleground states ahead of the 2024 election. Ms. Harris said President Biden has done more to tackle inflation “than most advanced economies” but more work was needed to convince voters.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Isaac Herzog of Israel, Elon Musk, Andrew Ross Sorkin, ”, Linda Yaccarino, Donald J, Trump, Harris, Biden Organizations: The New York Times, today’s DealBook, Biden Locations: United States, China, Israel, New York

☆ Israel-Hamas War Talks in Qatar Are Focused on Extending Truce Between Hamas and Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Andrés R. Martínez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Israel and Hamas have extended their brief truce from four to six days, according to Qatar, which has been mediating their talks. Early in the war, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, ahead of a ground invasion. But there appear to be parts of northern Gaza that the Israeli military does not control. Ron Dermer, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, told Sky News on Nov. 7 that the Israeli military had killed “several thousand” Hamas fighters since the war began. More than 70 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion began, according to the Israeli military.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, —, Ron Dermer, “, Yahya Sinwar Organizations: Hamas, West Bank, Sky News, Palestinian Authority, Qatar Locations: Gaza, Israel, Qatar, Gaza City, Al, Gaza’s, Israel’s, Doha, Egypt, United States

☆ Fears Grow Over Fate of Bibas Family in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Talya Minsberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The Bibas family said in a statement that they hoped the claims would be “refuted by military officials,” and thanked the Israeli public for its support. The three — Shiri Bibas, 32; Ariel Bibas, 4; and Kfir Bibas, 10 months old — were among the roughly 240 people taken hostage by Hamas and other groups on Oct. 7. On Wednesday morning, Yifat Zailer, Ms. Bibas’s cousin, described waiting for the lists of hostages set to be freed as “this horrible mathematical equation.”“Our hearts skip a beat every time,” Ms. Zailer said. “It’s really hard to breathe.”When the cease-fire was extended on Monday, Ms. Zailer found herself losing a sense of time. On Monday, Admiral Hagari said the Bibas family was being held not by Hamas, but by other armed groups in Gaza.

Persons: Daniel Hagari, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas, Nir Oz, Yarden Bibas, Ariel, Yifat Zailer, Bibas’s, ” Ms, Zailer, “, Admiral Hagari, Adraee, Younis, Yosi Silberman, Margit Silberman Schnaider, ” Organizations: Al, Brigades Locations: Gaza, Tel Aviv

DOHA, Qatar—The chief brokers of the Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner exchange are pushing the two sides for a long-term cease-fire that would prolong the truce in Gaza beyond the current two-day extension and start talks that would end the war altogether, said Egyptian and Qatari officials. A long-term cease-fire would likely require Israel and Hamas to make hard-to-swallow concessions, such as trading Israeli soldiers for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the officials said. And it would require Israel to hold back on an offensive in southern Gaza intended to capture the strip and kill Hamas’s top leadership, the officials said. Hamas could also have to accept demilitarization, they added.

Locations: DOHA, Qatar, Israel, Gaza

TEL AVIV—Their Hamas captors told 13-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani and 9-year-old Emily Hand to keep their voices low when speaking. A day after the close friends’ release, safe in the arms of family and doctors, Hila was still whispering to Emily. Yair Rotem, Hila’s uncle, is now her primary guardian, as his sister Raaya remains a Hamas hostage. He said his niece doesn’t show emotion when talking about her time in captivity, held in the dark for 50 days with little food and no showers. He is reluctant to press her for details of what happened when Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel interrupted a sleepover she was having with Emily at Hila’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Persons: Hila Rotem Shoshani, Emily Hand, Hila, Emily, Yair Rotem, Hila’s Organizations: TEL AVIV — Locations: TEL AVIV, Israel, Hila’s, Kibbutz Be’eri

DOHA, Qatar—The chief brokers of the Israel-Hamas hostage-prisoner exchange are pushing the two sides to prolong the cease-fire in Gaza through the end of the week and start talks on a permanent truce that would end the war altogether, said Egyptian and Qatari officials. A long-term cease-fire would likely require Israel and Hamas to make hard-to-swallow concessions, such as trading Israeli soldiers for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the officials said. And it would require Israel to hold back on an offensive in southern Gaza intended to capture the strip and kill Hamas’s top leadership, the officials said.

Locations: DOHA, Qatar, Israel, Gaza

☆ Opinion | How to Kill a Palestinian State
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Bret Stephens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

On Oct. 7, the axis of resistance became the face of the Palestinian movement. On Oct. 8, demonstrators around the world chose to embrace that axis. When Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan congresswoman, posted that “75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day” and declined to accept Israel as a Jewish state, she was embracing it. When Judith Butler, the Berkeley professor, told an interviewer that “the roots of the problem are in a state formation that depended on expulsions and land theft to establish its own ‘legitimacy’” and supported a binational state, she was embracing it. “A left that lauds intersectionality hasn’t noticed that Hamas’s axis of support consists of Iran, famous most recently for killing hundreds of protesters demanding women’s freedom.”

Persons: ”, Assad, Mohamed Khairullah, Rashida Tlaib, Judith Butler, ’ ”, ” Susie Linfield, “, hasn’t Organizations: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Israel, Los Locations: Syria, Prospect Park, N.J, Michigan, Berkeley, Los Angeles, ”, N.Y.U, Iran

☆ The C.I.A. director heads to Qatar for talks on hostage releases.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

director, was scheduled to arrive in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday for a new round of negotiations aimed at freeing more hostages held in Gaza, according to U.S. officials. Mr. Burns and David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, Israel’s spy service, are scheduled to meet with Qatari officials. Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s political leadership in Doha, has been a mediator in the talks between Israel and Hamas. One U.S. official said Mr. Burns’s talks in Qatar would be meant to build on that agreement. Mr. Burns traveled to Doha on Nov. 9 as he and Mr. Barnea held talks with Qatari officials who have been working on the issue.

Persons: William J, Burns, David Barnea, Israel, Burns’s, Barnea Organizations: Qatari, Hamas, Qatar, One U.S Locations: Doha, Qatar, Gaza, Israel, One

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicHostages are at the heart of the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth day. As of Monday night, 50 Israeli hostages had been released, as had 150 Palestinian prisoners. More releases were expected on Tuesday, under what Qatari mediators said was a deal to extend the cease-fire by two days. Isabel Kershner, a Jerusalem-based reporter for The New York Times, explains how a grass-roots movement managed to pause the war, and what it will mean for the rest of the conflict.

Persons: Isabel Kershner Organizations: Spotify, Hamas, The New York Times Locations: Israel, Jerusalem

They walked for hours, raising their hands when they encountered Israeli troops with guns trained on them to display their I.D. All around them was the sound of gunfire and the incessant buzzing of drones. In the seven weeks since, Israel has pounded the tiny coastal enclave with the aim of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities. So far, more than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed as of Nov. 21, according to the Gazan health authorities. For weeks, Israel has been urging Gazans living in northern towns to flee along Salah al-Din Street, the strip’s main north-south highway.

Persons: Gazans, Salah al Organizations: New York Times Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ More Hostages Were Released From Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Twelve hostages who had been held captive by Hamas since its Oct. 7 attack on Israel were released today, as the cease-fire entered a fifth day and appeared to be holding. Not long afterward, the Israeli authorities said they had released another 30 imprisoned Palestinians. The release of the hostages came just hours after the two sides accused each other of violating their truce for the first time since it went into effect last Friday. Israel said that explosive devices were detonated near its troops in two places in northern Gaza. The truce has succeeded in freeing dozens of hostages — a central Israeli objective — while also allowing aid into Gaza and giving Palestinians a break from the hostilities.

Persons: Israel, —, Biden Locations: Israel, Gaza, Hamas, U.S

The deal came after an Israeli offer to continue the cease-fire by one day for every additional 10 hostages released, who would be exchanged for 30 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Hamas said it had received a list of three women and 30 minors that Israel would release in return on Monday. Dozens of Israeli soldiers as well as civilian Israeli men in their 70s and 80s are still being held captive in Gaza. The official said Hamas has said that in those cases, the mothers are being held by different groups, and it would take time to get them. Late Monday, Israel’s Army Radio, citing the prime minister’s office, reported that the government had received a list of hostages held by Hamas who are expected to be released on Tuesday.

Persons: Kibbutz Nir Oz, Sharon Alony Cunio, Emma, Yuli Cunio, David Cunio, Cunio’s Organizations: Hamas, Israel’s Army Locations: Israel, Gaza, Qatar

☆ Opinion | Analyzing Bernie Sanders’s Vision for Mideast Peace
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Palestinians Must Have Hope for a Brighter Future,” by Bernie Sanders (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 23):Senator Sanders states what has been obvious for decades to all who support two states living in peace, prosperity and dignity: The violence must end. In this long struggle, extremists on both sides scuttle every hope for compromise and ensure the endless cycle of murder and retaliation. The U.S. can pressure Israel by curtailing or attaching conditions to aid. Senator Sanders and other peace-loving Americans must call on those Arab states that support Palestinian extremists to end their support and work toward genuine transformation. I support Senator Sanders’s vision, but he doesn’t propose a concrete path forward, without which nothing will change.

Persons: Bernie Sanders, Sanders, Sanders’s Locations: U.S, Israel

☆ U.S. Navy Rescues Ship From Pirate Attack in Gulf of Aden
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | More About Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Mason, a Navy destroyer, they fell well short of the mark: They landed in the Gulf of Aden 10 nautical miles from the American ship. The Central Park crew reported they were under attack from an unknown entity, U.S. Central Command said. When the coalition vessels arrived at the Central Park, they demanded the release of the ship. Five armed people fled from the ship and attempted to flee in the small boat they had used to attack the cargo ship. While the Houthi rebels struck in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden where the Central Park was attacked is far from their area of operations.

Persons: Mason, Aden —, Eyal Ofer Organizations: U.S . Navy, Navy, U.S, U.S . Central Command, American, Central Park, Fox News, Pentagon, Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac Locations: Gulf, Aden, Somalia, Yemen, Iranian, U.S, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Red, London, Israeli

☆ Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Talk Finding a Moral Center in This Era of WarPhil Klay, as both a participant and a writer, has been thinking deeply about war for a long time. “I’m interested in the kinds of stories that we tell ourselves about war,” says Klay, who is a 40-year-old veteran of the Iraq war. But has this moment changed anything fundamental in how we think about war? I think that Ukraine represents not a good war — because the closer you get to war, the more obvious it is that a phrase like “a good war” has no valid meaning — but rather a necessary war. Here is a war with a clear front line with a clear moral imperative.

Persons: Phil Klay, ”, Klay, “ I’m, Phil Klay We’ve, hasn’t, we’ve, — Organizations: Hamas Locations: Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, America

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