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☆ Biden Says a ‘Real’ Palestinian State Must Come After War
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Edward Wong | More About Edward Wong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

President Biden said on Wednesday that the endpoint of the Israel-Hamas conflict has to be a Palestinian state that is “real,” existing alongside an Israeli one. Mr. Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken have been publicly emphasizing the need for a two-state solution in recent days. The last major push along those lines came from John Kerry when he was secretary of state in the Obama administration. Mr. Biden said he did not have a specific idea of when to tell Israel it should halt its war in Gaza. Israeli officials have said Hamas has at least 100 women and children and should release them all, the official said.

Persons: Biden, there’s, Mr, Xi Jinping, Antony J, Blinken, John Kerry, Obama, Shifa Organizations: Hamas, Shifa, Fighters, Al Locations: Israel, Palestinian, San Francisco, U.S, Gaza, Qatar, United States

director, said on Wednesday that the bureau had opened a slew of investigations into Hamas as it tries to thwart potential attacks and stymie financial support for the militant group. He added, “We’ve kept our sights on Hamas and have multiple investigations into individuals affiliated with that foreign terrorist organization.”Among those killed on Oct. 7 were about three dozen American citizens, with another 10 unaccounted for. In a heated exchange, Mr. Wray said neither F.B.I. “The answer is, emphatically not,” Mr. Wray said, his temper rising. “Your day is coming, Mr. Wray,” he said.

Persons: Christopher A, Wray, Mr, “ we’ve, “ We’ve, ” Mr, ”, Clay Higgins, peddled, Higgins Organizations: Homeland Security, Hamas, Islamic, Governmental Affairs, Republican, Capitol Locations: United States, Israel, Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Gaza, Louisiana

Two and a half weeks after sending tanks and ground troops into northern Gaza, Israeli forces entered a hospital early Wednesday that they claim Hamas operates out of. The Israeli army claims the militant group uses hospitals as cover for its fighters, and has set up its main command center in and beneath Shifa Hospital, the largest in the besieged territory. Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations. Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations. ISRAEL SAYS IT'S CARRYING OUT A ‘PRECISE AND TARGETED OPERATION’ INSIDE GAZA'S SHIFA HOSPITALJERUSALEM — The Israeli military says its forces have entered Gaza’s Shifa hospital, the site of a lengthy standoff.

Persons: Mohammed Zaqout, — Israel, ‘, ’, Ahmed Mhanna, ”, Jabaliya, Mhanna, NETANYAHU, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, ” Netanyahu, “, Fahrettin Koca, Koca, Hossein Amirabdollahian, Martin Griffiths, Meirav Eilon Shahar, “ Israel, ” Philippe Lazzarini, CAIRO —, Munir al, Boursh, ” Israel, Hamas ”, Paltel, Israel, ” Griffiths, Shifa, that’s, Jonas Gahr Støre, Espen Barth Eide, ” Barth Eide, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Erdogan, ” Erdogan, Israel —, Daniel Hagari, Hamas’s, ” Hagari, KHAN YOUNIS, Mohammad al, Abdallah, National Security Itamar Ben, Gvir, Nasser, Khan Younis, Catherine Russell, Russell, ” Russell, ISRAEL Organizations: Hamas, Shifa, Shifa Hospital, Health Ministry, . Security, ASEAN, AS, Awda Hospital, Awda, PEACEMAKING GROUP GENEVA, Centre, Associated Press, Iran's, Iranian, ” UN, UNRWA, United Nations, OFFICIAL, International Committee, COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, UN OFFICIAL, Health Organization, ” FIRST, NTB, ISRAEL, TEL, Israeli Defense Forces, IDF, MINISTRY, Ministry of National Security, National Security, UNICEF, JERUSALEM Locations: Gaza, Israel, Shifa, Myanmar, Washington, israel, GAZA, CAIRO, Jabaliya, GAZA ZIKIM, Israeli, Gaza City, TURKEY ANKARA, Turkey, Egypt, Rafah, Geneva, Basque, Spain, Iranian, Iran, Palestine, ”, Territories, United States, JERUSALEM, Palestinian, GENEVA, what’s, GAZA COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Norwegian, Norway, ISRAEL ANKARA, Turkish, TEL AVIV, West Bank, Ben, Khan, SHIFA

☆ Israel, Gaza and What We Get Wrong - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

We’ve reached a searing milestone: In just five weeks of war, half of 1 percent of Gaza’s population has been killed. The second myth is that Palestinians can be put off indefinitely, strung along by Israel, the United States and other countries. I’m all for surgical strikes against Hamas and I would be delighted if Israel managed to end extremism in Gaza. It also means renouncing what Netanyahu called “mighty vengeance” that transforms entire neighborhoods of Gaza into rubble, with bodies buried underneath. If you weep only for Israeli children, or only for Palestinian children, you have a problem that goes beyond your tear ducts.

Persons: —, We’ve, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Isaac Herzog, Israel, Roy Grow, Mohammed Alshannat, ”, Netanyahu, don’t Organizations: Hamas, Health Ministry, United Nations, Bank, Carleton College Locations: Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Western Sahara, Xinjiang, Israel, United States, Palestinian, Palestine, Saudi Arabia

☆ Opinion | Hostages Must Be at the Center of Every Conversation About This War
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Moshe Emilio Lavi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

But for my family, there will be no end to this pain and no peace until the 240 hostages that Hamas kidnapped are rescued. Omri, Lishay, Roni and Alma are not political pawns; they are human beings who deserve to be reunited as a family. But amid the chaos and complexity of this conflict, the hostages must not be forgotten. Taking hostages — civilians, including babies, children, the disabled and the elderly — is a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions. Addressing the plight of hostages is not a diversion from the broader political and military issues at the heart of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Persons: Omri Miran, Roni, Alma, Oz, Omri, Lishay, ”, Lishay Lavi, Israel, pidyon shvuyim, “, Omri — Organizations: Israel Defense Forces, Washington , D.C, Hamas, Sapir College Locations: Kibbutz, Gaza, London, Paris, Berlin, United States, Washington ,, Israel, Nahal Oz, Alma, Negev, Geneva, Qatar

☆ The West Should Welcome Gaza Refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Danny Danon | Ram Ben-Barak | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: Paul Gigot interviews Democratic strategist Doug Schoen. Images: AP/Twitter/Doug Schoen Composite: Mark KellyHamas’s unprovoked terrorist attack on Oct. 7 has endangered not only Israel but the more than two million people who live in the Gaza Strip. On Oct. 15, Hamas operatives stole food and medical supplies from humanitarian trucks. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported the theft in a tweet, which it later deleted. But U.N. sources confirmed the theft to Israel’s Walla News, and Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians confirmed that fuel and medical supplies went to Hamas.

Persons: Paul Gigot, Doug Schoen, Mark Kelly Hamas’s Organizations: Palestinian Authority, United Nations Relief, Works Agency, Israel’s, Israel’s Walla News Locations: Israel, Gaza, Israel’s Walla

☆ Israel Dominates Battlefield With Technological Advantage Over Hamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Dov Lieber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

NEGEV DESERT, Israel—In a cluster of single-story buildings the size of small classrooms, commanders from the Givati Brigade, the main Israeli infantry force in Gaza, watch a bank of screens showing the real-time location of all Israeli and Palestinian forces inside Gaza—information they use to move around troops and weapons and surveillance aircraft like pawns on a chessboard. This site, near the Gaza border, is a key node of a sprawling technological nerve center, receiving thousands of battlefield data points from drones, jet fighters, naval ships, tanks and soldiers, that has enabled the Israeli military to carry out a sweeping takeover of a swath of Hamas’s stronghold in Gaza City in less than three weeks with fewer than 50 troop deaths.

Persons: Israel — Organizations: Givati Brigade Locations: Israel, Gaza, Gaza City

☆ Found document suggests Iran sought to help Hamas make its own weapons ahead of attack, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Jake Tapper | Katie Bo Lillis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Israeli government declined to comment on the document, though sources in the government confirmed its authenticity on background. Israeli officials say this is the first known instance of Iran attempting to fund this kind of university-hosted training for Hamas operatives, a claim US officials said they could not confirm. Current and former US officials say the program is part of a well-known training program Iran provides to students from allied countries and groups to project soft-power influence across the region. As of now, Israeli intelligence has identified only a few Hamas military operatives who have already arrived in Iran. One candidate is marked to study “technologies,” one to study “physics,” one to study engineering,” one to study “programming,” one to study “law” and two to study “management.”

Persons: Jonathan Panikoff, ”, Panikoff, ” Panikoff Organizations: Washington CNN, CNN, Hamas, Lebanese, United Nations, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Locations: Gaza, Iran, Israel, East, Tehran, “

☆ Israel Needs a Biden Peace Plan - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

We will either have to become captives of Netanyahu’s strategy — which could take us all down with him — or articulate our own American vision for how the Gaza war must end. That would require a Biden administration plan to create two states for two indigenous peoples living in the areas of Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. The Biden plan — are you sitting down? Resolutions 242 and 338, which was also the cornerstone for negotiations in the peace plan put forward by President Trump in 2020. Is the Palestinian Authority up to such a deal?

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, Israel, Netanyahu, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Yoav Gallant, Benny Gantz, ”, Palestinian Authority —, Israel …, …, ” Bibi —, West Bank —, Antony Blinken, Blinken, ’, don’t, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben, — Netanyahu, —, President Trump, “ Bibi, ” Biden, Jan, ‘ Netanyahu, Gidi, Ehud Barak’s, Camp David, Grinstein, It’s, Will Israel’s, Ronald Lauder, couldn’t, Israel — Organizations: West Bank, Israel, U.S, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian, Times, Biden, National Security, Aipac, United Arab, Associated Press, Camp, Jewish, Republican, World Jewish Locations: Israel, United States, Gaza, America, Washington, Oslo, West Bank —, Tokyo, Palestinian, Europe, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Palestine, Saudi, Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Tuesday said it imposed a third round of sanctions on a group of Hamas officials, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who work to transfer money from Iran to Gaza, and a Lebanese money exchange service that facilitates the transfers. The Treasury Department sanctions, coordinated with the United Kingdom, come in response to the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that left roughly 1,200 people dead or kidnapped. The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans. This and two previous rounds of sanctions against Hamas and its affiliates are aimed at protecting the international financial system from abuse by Hamas militants and their enablers, the Treasury Department said. The State Department also is designating a Palestinian Islamic Jihad military leader for diplomatic sanctions.

Persons: Janet Yellen, Antony Blinken, “, Joe Biden, David Cameron, Mohammed Deif, Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: WASHINGTON, Islamic, Treasury Department, Hamas, The State Department, Jihad, Israel, Iranian, U.S, Health Ministry, Foreign Locations: United States, Islamic Jihad, Iran, Gaza, Lebanese, United Kingdom, Israel, U.S, Syria, Iraq, West Bank, israel

☆ The Israel-Palestine Conflict Has Been Raging for 75 Years - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Dalia Hatuqa | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

For the past month, normal life in Ramallah — a city in the West Bank usually known for its young population and its vibrant nightlife — has been brought to a standstill. It’s part of the atmosphere of escalating violence that has killed more than 130 Palestinians living in the West Bank since Oct. 7. But these were usually preceded by times of increased conflict, such as the first and second intifadas, or popular uprisings. In the West Bank, morale is low on the quiet streets. In the West Bank, we look around, and wonder: Could it happen here?

Persons: Shireen Abu Akleh, Itamar Ben, Gvir, Israel —, Benjamin Netanyahu, —, wasn’t, Dalia Hatuqa Organizations: West Bank, Al, National Security, New York, Facebook, Twitter Locations: Ramallah —, Gaza, Jenin, Al Jazeera, West, Israel, Qumya, Palestinian

CNN —President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he believes a deal can be reached to release hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, voicing optimism as officials tell CNN prolonged talks to free hostages are nearing an agreement. The broad parameters that are currently being discussed entail Hamas releasing a large group of hostages at the same time Israel frees Palestinian prisoners. Israel recently asked for 100 hostages to be released, according to a Hamas spokesman and a source familiar with the negotiations. A senior Israeli official told that CNN hostage negotiations are ongoing – and are being handled by Qatar, the CIA, and Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad. Another factor that had slowed talks was a lack of information about the hostages Hamas is holding.

Persons: Joe Biden, “ I’ve, ” Biden, “, it’s, Biden, Jake Sullivan, Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, CNN’s Dana Bash, – Organizations: CNN, White, US, National, Hostage Affairs, Israel, Qassam, CIA Locations: Gaza, Israel, Washington ,, Qatar, Israeli

More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by Palestinian militants. The army said Tuesday that it has captured Gaza’s legislature building, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters. Israeli news sites showed pictures of Israeli soldiers hoisting the Israeli national flag and military flags in some of the buildings. The Israeli military did not give a reason for her death, while Hamas said she was killed in an Israeli strike. On Nov. 5, the Israeli military struck a car on the road between the southern Lebanese towns of Ainata and Aitaroun.

Persons: —, Gilad, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Lula, ” Lula, “, Lynn Gottlieb, KNTV, WASHINGTON, Janet Yellen, Shelly Shem Tov, Omer Shem Tov, Benjamin Netanyahu, JERUSALEM — Vivian Silver, Silver, Yonatan Zeigen, ” Zeigen, Noa Marciano, Marciano, ”, Israel, Iqbal Abu Saud, Ramzi Kaiss, Israel’s, KFAR, Ayelet, David Kachko Kazir, Aftonbladet Organizations: Palestinian, Hamas, Health Ministry, “, FIRE, Jewish, Peace, Berkeley, Consulate, Grand, Station, New York, Islamic, Treasury Department, TEL, JERUSALEM TEL, Israel, JERUSALEM, Israel Radio, Rights Watch, Israel — Residents, DR Locations: Gaza, Israel, Gaza City, Palestinian, Gaza's, Detroit, israel, ISRAEL, GAZA, JERUSALEM, DE JANEIRO, Brazil, “, CALIFORNIA, FIRE OAKLAND, California —, Oakland , California, Chicago, New York, United States, Islamic Jihad, Iran, Lebanese, United Kingdom, U.S, TEL AVIV, JERUSALEM TEL AVIV, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Canadian, BEIRUT, Lebanon, Ainata, Rights Watch Lebanon, KFAR AZA, Israel —, Kfar Aza, SWEDEN, DENMARK, COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sweden, Danish, Egypt

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicTo much of the outside world, Hamas’s decision to murder hundreds of Israelis and trigger a war that has since killed many thousands of its own people looks like a historic miscalculation — one that could soon result in the destruction of Hamas itself. Hamas’s leaders, however, say that it was the result of a deliberate calculation. Ben Hubbard, the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times, has been reporting on their decision, and what went into it.

Persons: Ben Hubbard Organizations: Spotify, The New York Times Locations: Istanbul

☆ Democratic Aides in Congress Break With Their Bosses on Israel-Hamas War
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Kayla Guo | More About Kayla Guo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

They have voiced their dissenting opinions in internal meetings and grappled with what to say on calls with constituents. There is typically little tolerance on Capitol Hill for harsh criticism of the Jewish state, which some members of Congress — particularly conservative Republicans — almost reflexively brand as antisemitic. “I can’t think of a similar or comparable effort by staff,” said Mr. Slevin, who has worked in various jobs on Capitol Hill for the better part of a decade. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”In the last few weeks, hundreds of staff members have signed on to letters calling on members of Congress to endorse a cease-fire. The health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, estimates that 11,000 civilians have been killed there over the last month.

Persons: “, ”, Jeremy Slevin, Ilhan Omar, it’s, Republicans —, Adam Jentleson, John Fetterman of, Mr, Fetterman, Jentleson, ” Mr, Slevin Organizations: Minnesota Democrat, Israel, Capitol, Republicans, Democratic, Mr, Jewish Locations: Minnesota, Israel, Gaza, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

☆ Israel-Hamas War U.S. and Israel Strike Militias Tied to Iran in Reminder of Risks in Mideast
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Andrés R. Martínez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

“We need to see the following two things,” Mr. Netanyahu told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Gaza has to be demilitarized and Gaza has to be de-radicalized. He said that Israel must maintain security control there “for as long as necessary” and have the ability to enter Gaza at will to deal with perceived threats there. More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gazan health officials. “The massacre of Oct. 7 proved once and for all that in every place that Israel does not have security control, terrorism entrenches itself,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Saturday. Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative and Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has been prosecuting the war amid plummeting approval ratings.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Mr, Netanyahu, NBC’s “, ”, “, ” Mr, Netanyahu’s, Biden, Antony J, Blinken, António Guterres, CNN’s “ Fareed Zakaria, Israel’s, Mahmoud Abbas, forthrightly, Israel —, Abbas, ” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Abu Rudeineh, Wafa Organizations: Israeli Army, Palestinian, Press, Palestinian Authority, Israeli, West Bank, United Nations, “, West Locations: Gaza, Israel, Palestinian, Qatar, Samaria, ”, West Bank, East Jerusalem

☆ Edgar Bronfman, Jr., slams UPenn leaders for ‘morally bankrupt’ response to Hamas terror attack on Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Private equity executive Edgar Bronfman, Jr., whose family includes well-known supporters of Israel, is calling for the leaders the University of Pennsylvania to step down due to their response to the Hamas terror attacks against Israel, CNN has learned. College campuses have experienced a surge in tensions since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas and as the Israel-Hamas war continues. Last week, UPenn said it alerted the FBI to a series of threatening antisemitic emails sent to university staff. UPenn declined to comment on the Bronfman email. “This blurring of Hate speech as free speech is exactly what the University has enabled – even encouraged,” Bronfman wrote.

Persons: Edgar Bronfman , Jr, Bronfman, Liz Magill, Scott Bok “, “, ”, ” Bronfman, Magill, Marc Rowan, Dick Wolf, Jon Huntsman, Cliff Asness, Bok, UPenn, ” Magill, –, Edgar Bronfman Sr Organizations: New, New York CNN, University of Pennsylvania, CNN, Ivy League, “, Penn, Wharton , New York University, Bard, Harvard, Georgetown . College, FBI, University of Virginia, Waverly Capital, University, Warner Music Group, Seagram, Lauder Institute, Wharton, World Jewish Congress Locations: New York, Israel, Wharton ,, Palestine

☆ This Photograph of Dead Palestinian Children Demands to Be Seen - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Lydia Polgreen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +13 min

The photograph tells us nothing about whether or how these children are related. Hundreds of Israeli hostages, including children, are believed to be held in Gaza by Hamas, their families desperate for their safe release. It is a rare thing for mainstream news organizations to publish graphic images of dead or wounded children. There is nothing quite so devastating as the image of a child whose life has been snuffed out by senseless violence. And so the slaughter in Maine reminded me of another image from Gaza, one you may have seen on social media.

Persons: Mahmud Hams, Israel, I’ve, Emmett Till’s, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, Nick Ut’s, “, Biden, ” Susan Sontag, ”, Sontag, photojournalists, Aaron Young, Mohammed Salem, Khan Younis, Inas Abu Maamar, Saly, Mary, Jesus, Bashar al Organizations: Palestinian Hamas, Agence France, Ministry of Health, Times, The Times, Hamas, Oslo Accords, Reuters Locations: Al Aqsa, Deir al, Gaza, Israel, Palestinian, Mahmud, Vietnam, Syrian, Turkey, Europe, Oslo, ”, Bosnia, Sarajevo, Maine, Khan, Khartoum, Russian

☆ Hamas Needed a New Way to Get Money From Iran. It Turned to Crypto.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Angus Berwick | Ian Talley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In mid-2019, Israel’s military used a precision strike on a narrow street to kill a Hamas commander whom it called Iran’s money man in Gaza. The commander ran an off-the-books system of remittances in which trusted agents shuttled physical cash and goods across borders to settle customers’ balances. This so-called hawala network, as it is known in the Middle East, funneled tens of millions of dollars in financing from Iran to Hamas’s military wing.

Locations: Gaza, Iran

More than 100,000 demonstrators in Paris and cities across France took to the streets on Sunday to show their solidarity with the country’s Jews and to deplore antisemitic acts that have multiplied across the nation since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7. The marches in France came a day after a huge pro-Palestinian protest in London that police said involved about 300,000 people. Tensions have been rising in France and particularly in Paris, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, after Hamas’s attack and during Israel’s subsequent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In the past month, over 1,240 antisemitic acts have been reported in France. The police had made 539 arrests as of Nov. 10.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, ”, Macron Organizations: Senate, National Assembly, Le Parisien Locations: Paris, France, Israel, London, Gaza, Le

☆ Netanyahu says he sees no role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, for now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Isabel Kershner | More About Isabel Kershner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

“We need to see the following two things,” Mr. Netanyahu told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Gaza has to be demilitarized and Gaza has to be de-radicalized. His remarks appeared to be somewhat at odds with the Biden administration, which last week made it clear that there should be no Israeli “re-occupation” of Gaza. More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gazan health officials. “The massacre of Oct. 7 proved once and for all that in every place that Israel does not have security control, terrorism entrenches itself,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Saturday. Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative and Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has been prosecuting the war amid plummeting approval ratings.

☆ In Israel, Christie Says Trump Ducked Mideast Progress and Fueled Bigotry
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | More About Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey who is challenging Donald J. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said Mr. Trump’s rhetoric of intolerance — as evident today as it was during his presidency — had fueled the surge of bigotry confronting Jews and Muslims after Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the fierce Israeli response in Gaza. And Mr. Trump’s lopsided adherence to the wishes of Israel’s right-wing government, while widely praised in Republican circles, secured only the “low-hanging fruit” of Middle Eastern diplomacy during his presidency, Mr. Christie said, denigrating one of Mr. Trump’s chief foreign policy accomplishments. He argued that Mr. Trump’s lack of “intellectual curiosity” and foreign policy ambition had led his administration to give up the pursuit of a more elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Mr. Christie delivered a scathing assessment of Mr. Trump’s Middle East policy in an interview as he traveled to Israel on Sunday for what proved an emotional one-day visit in which he toured a kibbutz, Kfar Azza, near Gaza, where 58 residents were butchered by Hamas terrorists last month. Mr. Christie watched raw footage of the attacks at a military base near Tel Aviv, commiserated with survivors and families in a hospital and conferred with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, in Jerusalem.

Persons: Chris Christie, Donald J, Trump, —, Israel’s, Christie, Trump’s, Isaac Herzog Organizations: Republican Locations: New Jersey, Israel, Gaza, Trump’s, Kfar Azza, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

The militants, Israeli security officials say, have spent the better part of 16 years building a vast command complex under the hospital, and setting up similar bases underneath other medical facilities in the enclave. Hamas denies doing anything of the sort, and hospital officials say the facility houses nothing but the sick and injured and the medical professionals dedicated to helping them. In the estimation of most Palestinians, the obsession with Al Shifa is evidence of Israel’s willingness to target even the most helpless civilians without justification. The hospital, Israeli officials said, was spared in past Israeli operations out of concern for civilian life, but at the cost of leaving whatever may be underneath it intact. They say that the complex under Al Shifa is one of the principal Israeli targets of the war and will not be left untouched, despite the growing international outcry to spare Al Shifa and other hospitals.

Persons: Al Shifa, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, ”, Chuck Freilich, “, —, Freilich, “ it’s Organizations: Israel Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ U.S. Carries Out Another Round of Airstrikes on Iran-Linked Targets
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Eric Schmitt | More About Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The strikes came just four days after American warplanes hit a munitions warehouse in eastern Syria. Pentagon and other Biden administration officials rejected that criticism on Sunday, saying that the American airstrikes have been in self-defense, and in proportion to the attacks by Iran-backed militias. Unlike the two previous sets of strikes, the Pentagon did not make senior officials available after Sunday’s military response to discuss details. Pentagon officials said they were still analyzing the strikes and did not know if anyone on the ground was hurt or killed. The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria, mostly to help local forces fight remnants of the Islamic State.

Persons: Abu Kamal, Biden, Lloyd J, Austin III, ” Dana Stroul Organizations: Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Pentagon, American, Syria . Air Force, U.S, ”, United Locations: States, Syria, Iraq, Abu, Mayadin, Iran, United States, Asia, U.S, Germany, Islamic State, Israel, Lebanon, Yemen, Persian

☆ Opinion | Measuring Israel by the Just-War Yardstick
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( A. Walter Dorn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

While Israel easily has just cause and constitutes a legitimate authority, its case is far weaker regarding the other five criteria. In addition, the fact that Hamas has violated these principles does not absolve Israel from an obligation to live up to higher moral standards. So the downside of Israel’s war outweighs any benefit. Israel can rightly claim that its ground invasion helps Israeli forces better distinguish Hamas fighters from civilians. Just-war theory reinforces the human instinct to not only preserve human life but also lament its loss, and to try to find solutions.

Persons: Israel’s, —, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Netanyahu’s, Israel, Abraham, Netanyahu, Hamas’s Organizations: Hamas, Criminal, United Nations Charter, Palestinian, Palestinian Authority, West Bank, Abraham Accords, Civilian Locations: Gaza, Israel, The Hague, Oslo Accords, United States, Israeli, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia

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