With missiles slamming into buildings, Israelis say they are losing their sense of security
For five days, Iran's ballistic missile salvos against Israel have torn through residential buildings and killed two dozen civilians, set cars and infrastructure ablaze.
The attacks have Israelis questioning their already fractured sense of security.
In Tel Aviv, Israel's otherwise bustling financial and cultural hub, the streets have gone
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NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
The wilful blindness of much of Israeli society about Gaza must be discarded
The attitude is projected from the top. 'There is no starvation in Gaza,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has declared. In a news conference this week he blamed Hamas and the international media for perpetuating a 'global campaign of lies'. He added that 'the only ones being deliberately starved' are the Israeli hostages in Gaza. This sentiment is widely shared in Israel. A poll in late July found that almost 80% of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel is making an effort to avoid causing suffering to Gazans. The same percentage — though primarily on the right and centre — said they are not troubled by reports of famine. While indications are growing that the tragedy is starting to register among Israelis, the wilful blindness of much of Israeli society must be discarded for Israel to begin pulling itself out of the quagmire in Gaza and repairing its own tattered image. The first step to resolving a problem is admitting there is one. When it comes to Gaza, Israelis live in an echo chamber, relying largely on local media, which often enacts self-censorship regarding Israeli wrongdoing and Palestinian suffering in Gaza. But it is also important to understand the powerful underlying emotions that have led many Israelis to close their eyes and ears to the suffering of Gazans and accept a different version of reality. Many feel fury at the humanitarians and international organisations that, while criticising Israel's every move, seemed to minimise Hamas's horrendous crimes on October 7, 2023, when about 1200 people in Israel were murdered and some 250 taken hostage. Fifty are still captive, 20 of whom are believed to be alive. There is a profound sense of unfairness over demands that Israel allow large transfers of aid to Gaza when many returning hostages describe being starved and abused even when there seemed to be enough food for their captors. Recent history also lingers bitterly in Israeli memory. It includes the 2005 disengagement of Israel from Gaza, followed by Hamas's 2007 takeover, and nearly two decades of cyclical attempts to deter and contain the organisation with limited military operations and economic carrots, like permits for Gazans to work in Israel. All seem to have amounted to nothing in the face of Hamas's futile and bloody drive to destroy Israel. The barbarity displayed on October 7, combined with the cheering chorus from enemies and the silence from many friends, hardened the conflict for many Israelis to the fundamental, zero-sum and inherently violent struggle for land and sovereignty that so many of the kibbutzniks murdered in their homes that day had sought to overcome with their peaceful intentions. Videos from Gaza circulate on Israeli social media, showing markets with food on display, open restaurants, gunmen looting aid. They might be real, but they are often old or fail to present a full picture across the strip. Nonetheless, these videos help Israelis to construct an alternative narrative: There is enough food going into Gaza, but the United Nations is failing to distribute it properly; Hamas and gangs are stealing it, while Israel is doing what it can. The warnings of famine have drawn more rational scepticism. Despite repeated alarms raised by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — the definitive international source for declaring a famine — there is still no clear indication that their predictions have come to pass at scale, leading the Israeli public to believe that the warnings are just another part of the global anti-Israel propaganda machine. Israelis also lay blame with the UN, which despite objective difficulties has seemingly opted for a principled approach over pragmatism. Nearly 90% of UN food aid has been seized by armed actors or hungry crowds since May 19. Palestinians collect humanitarian aid that was dropped by parachute from planes flying over Gaza City. Photo / Saher Alghorra, The New York Times Still, although the UN adopted Security Council Resolution 2720 in December 2023 to accelerate and monitor the delivery of aid to the people of Gaza, it was not until May that the UN added an online dashboard to monitor that aid. In addition, the UN prioritises the privacy of its local workers in Gaza, failing in Israeli eyes to register legitimate concerns regarding terrorists penetrating aid agencies. For Israelis, the reality is this: Israel, a flawed but real and vital country, is fighting an evil terrorist group that has the power to stop the horror at any time, but hates Israel enough to persist and does not care enough for its own people to stop. Yet what is happening in Gaza speaks for itself. People are starving, and as in any other crisis, the most vulnerable in society — the elderly, newborns, people with pre-existing conditions — are harmed first. Even after almost two years of war, Israel lacks a coherent humanitarian strategy for Gaza, switching aid on and off based on the calculations of Netanyahu, who is trying to balance keeping the political support of his right-wing coalition partners, who want the war to continue, and international pressure to stop it. After several hundred thousand tonnes of food aid entered Gaza during the second ceasefire, according to Israel — enough for several months, by World Food Programme projections — Israel's decision to cut off all aid in March pushed the strip into the dire crisis it faces today. Israel said that it hoped the blockade would disrupt Hamas's ability to profit from the goods coming in, weaken the group's governance and pressure it to capitulate in ceasefire negotiations. This was not just a morally wrong choice — humanitarian aid should not be a political issue — but a strategically foolish one that misread both Hamas and the international community. A humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza was never going to force Hamas's hand. The group needs very few resources to operate: just enough to continue to hold the hostages, carry out guerrilla attacks and continue making statements to influence public opinion. In May, Israel sought to sidestep the UN assistance system, which it relentlessly criticised as ineffectual and compromised by Hamas with the poorly planned and even more poorly implemented system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. But after months of no aid, stocks in Gaza had run down and prices had soared; the foundation's four distribution sites were almost immediately overwhelmed and exploited by profiteers, not to mention dangerous to access, with numerous casualties reported in lines for aid. The lack of aid has led to the death of more than 210 people by malnutrition since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The Israeli-American plan to quadruple the foundation's distribution centres will hardly address the grave situation. Even today the foundation faces logistical challenges, and the boxes they issue, both in terms of food quantity and diversity, don't translate easily to nutritious meals. The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is far broader than starvation. The vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once and lacks shelter. There is limited water and sanitation. Healthcare is devastated. Yet even though Israel now theoretically places no limits on aid to Gaza, it continues to refuse work visas to staff members of the UN and international aid groups. It restricts humanitarian operations to a small number of organisations that manage to successfully manoeuvre through an opaque registration. These conditions all seem likely to continue. Despite Netanyahu's statement last week that Israel would expand the war, beginning with the takeover of Gaza City, the Israel Defence Forces is loath to assume a civilian governance role. Glimmers of recognition of all this suffering have emerged in recent weeks. Despite denials of the extent of the grim reality in Gaza, Israel established fixed humanitarian corridors, conducted and facilitated airdrops and allowed in small amounts of commercial traffic and daytime pauses in operations in some areas to allow for aid delivery. The IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, reportedly protested against the plan to take over Gaza City mainly for Israeli security reasons, but he also mentioned the lack of plans for a proper humanitarian response for the million people who will be displaced. In addition, he cited the absence of civilian infrastructure in Gaza and called for building hospitals there. Mainstream media, including Channels 12 and 13 and the popular newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, have begun stating the obvious: that there is hunger in Gaza, and that the current aid system is not working. The intellectual and cultural elite has also become more vocal, with a petition signed by some 1000 prominent Israeli artists titled 'Stop the Horror in Gaza' and a demand by heads of universities to address the humanitarian situation. People at vigils in Tel Aviv hold posters showing pictures of dead children in Gaza. Israel has played a leading role in creating this crisis, and continuing wilful blindness to that fact will only worsen the damage in Gaza, radicalise Palestinians for generations to come, and further isolate Israel regionally and internationally. Israel's legal and moral obligations do not change because of the evil of the enemy it is fighting. Israel cannot ignore, deflect, or wish away the crisis in Gaza. It is now making the right strategic and moral choice to increase aid into the territory, but absent a holistic strategy, it will be too little, too late. Israelis must look beyond their own prism of pain and trauma, ignore the double standards at play and recognise the harsh reality in Gaza and Israel's responsibility for it. Israel needs the courage to see what it sees. Then it must act. - Shira Efron is a senior fellow and research director at Israel Policy Forum. She previously led the Israel programme at the Rand Corporation and was a consultant with the United Nations in Jerusalem on Gaza access. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Shira Efron Photographs by: Saher Alghorra ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Departures are often due to return-to-office policies and caregiving responsibilities
'It's become harder for women, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, to thrive in this job market,' she said, likening the moment to the Barbie movie when Ken takes over the feminist land of Barbie with masculine ideals. 'It's clear that we're backsliding in the Ken-ergy economy, that the return-to-office chest-pounding is having a real ripple effect.' In some cases, mothers say they are giving up jobs happily, in line with Maga culture and the rise of the 'traditional wife' (#tradwife on social media), which celebrates women choosing conventional gender roles by focusing on children instead of careers. The Trump Administration has doubled down on its message that Americans should be having more babies, with Vice-President JD Vance promoting the benefits of having a parent at home, saying 'young children are clearly happier and healthier' in such arrangements. Emily Santoni plays with her children at their home in Houston earlier this month. Photo / Lexi Parra, The Washington Post This year's pullback among mothers is part of a broader shift: some 212,000 women over 20 have stopped working or applying for jobs since January, with particularly pronounced drops for black women and those ages 25 to 34, Labour Department data shows. And while the unemployment rate, at 4.2%, remains low, the share of women in the workforce has fallen since January. In interviews with more than a dozen women who've recently left the workforce, many cited a confluence of factors – from layoffs to waning work-from-home flexibility while caring for children or ageing parents. Many also noted a discernible shift in workplace attitudes, including return-to-office mandates and discarded diversity policies, that made it feel like they were less valued at work. Several said they struggled to find new work after losing their jobs and decided to go back to school instead, or stay home with their children. Almost all of the women said the decision to stop working felt uncharacteristic for them, and wasn't something they would've considered a year ago. 'Work was a big, big part of my identity, but all of these little things added up,' said Isabelle Beulaygue, 37, a sociologist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who left her job as a university professor earlier this year to stay at home with her infant. 'I was always super career-focused, but it started feeling like women were expendable at work, like they weren't really respected anymore.' There wasn't any one thing that led her to quit, she said, but rather a culmination of small changes – including a move for her husband's job, growing pressure to be in the office for long hours and worsening morale because of federal budget cuts. When she had to leave work early a few times to care for her sick baby, it was difficult to co-ordinate. 'Flexibility feels like a thing of the past,' she said. The pullback comes at a time when the broader labour market is cooling after years of hefty post-pandemic growth. US employers added 106,000 jobs between April and July – less than one-third of jobs added in the same period last year, according to the latest Labour Department data. 'The US is the only advanced economy that's had declining female labour force participation in the last 20 years, and a lot of that is because of lack of social safety net and caregiving supports,' said Kate Bahn, chief economist at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. 'It's a long-term trend that appears to be getting worse.' Although black women are more likely to be in the workforce than white or Hispanic women, Bahn said they have been disproportionately hit by recent overhauls, including federal government cuts and the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. The labour market has slowed down considerably for all workers, but the unemployment rate for black women over 20 has risen by nearly an entire percentage point so far this year, to 6.3% in July, its highest level in almost four years. After six months of job-searching, Jovanna, who was laid off from her healthcare copywriting job in early February, is changing course entirely. The mother-of-two, who is black and lives in the Midwest, recently enrolled in a 15-week project management certification programme in the hope of switching careers. 'I sent out at least 500 applications, worked with three different career coaches, and networked as much as I could,' said Jovanna, who asked to be identified by her middle name only, because she worries about jeopardising future employment. 'I am depleting my savings and ended up having to borrow against my 401(k), so it got to the point where I had to make a bigger change.' Economists say they worry that the latest labour force departures could indicate a longer-term setback for women, especially if they decide to return to work. Historically, breaks in work history have coincided with lower pay and fewer opportunities for advancement, said Heggeness. 'There are huge implications for the women themselves,' she said. 'Their lifetime earnings will be lower, they will most likely come back to a job that does not pay the salary they were making when they left. It'll be harder for them to get back in, harder to move up the ladder to senior management positions because they've had this gap in employment.' Emily Santoni left her position as a chief marketing officer at an energy consulting firm in Houston to stay home with her children, ages 1 and 3, this year. It wasn't a decision she made lightly – she and her husband spent months lining up their finances and preparing for the transition. Last year, the couple spent more than US$140,000 on a fulltime nanny and other childcare. It was financially doable, Santoni said, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing out. 'I worked hard, I had a great career, we were both making great money,' the 39-year-old said. 'But I was working so much, there were weeks when I saw my kids for maybe 30 minutes a day. Finally it was like, 'Let's slow this down so I can be a present mother.'' Santoni said she felt like she was missing out on spending time with her children before she left her job this year. Photo / Lexi Parra, The Washington Post Plus, her workplace was doing away with a policy that allowed parents to work from home two days a week. That wasn't a 'major deciding factor', Santoni said, 'but it was one more thing that was like, 'Blargh, this sucks.'' Major corporations around the country, including JP Morgan, AT&T and Amazon, as well as large swathes of the federal Government, have begun mandating that employees clock in to the office five days a week. Although enforcement has been uneven, labour economists say those requirements have added extra strain for many workers, particularly those with young children. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.) Santoni says leaving the workforce has been a refreshing change. She's spending a lot more time with her children, and is also going to more workout classes and happy hours with friends. Although it took a few months to find her rhythm, she's now encouraging other women in her circle to consider stepping back from the labour force. 'My decision to leave my corporate role had nothing to do with politics or a movement telling women to stay home. It had everything to do with what success looks like for me right now,' Santoni said. 'I've worked relentlessly since I was young, and now I choose to give my best energy to my kids while they're little. 'For mums choosing to leave the workforce for this same reason, it's not weakness or submission – it's power.'
NZ Herald
18 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Trump says crime in Washington DC is out of control. Here's what the data shows
Local and federal data, though, paint a contrasting picture. DC police have made about 900 juvenile arrests this year - almost 20% fewer than during the same time frame last year. About 200 of those charges are for violent crimes, and at least four dozen are for carjacking. This northern summer, DC officials have also implemented stricter curfew laws for teens in response to concerns about large brawls - recorded in videos that spread on social media - breaking out in communities across the city. Violent crime in DC has been on the decline since 2023, when a generational spike in killings rendered the nation's capital one of America's deadliest cities, plunging communities into grief and igniting a local political crisis that escalated to Congress. The decrease since then is part of a nationwide drop over the past two years that in 2024 brought homicide rates to their lowest level in decades. This year, homicides are down more than 30% in data that the Washington Post collected from more than 100 police departments in large US cities. Reports of burglaries and robberies also dipped by double-digit percentages. Discussing crime today, Trump pointed to other cities that he said 'are bad, very bad', appearing to suggest the federal government could take action in places beyond Washington. Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for Washington, DC, holds a news conference. Photo / Tom Brenner, for The Washington Post 'You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. 'And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland,' Trump added, calling them 'so far gone'. Every city Trump mentioned by name has seen homicide and violent crimes decline this year. Not captured in statistics, though, is the grief, pain, and shattered sense of safety that follow each crime. A few hours before 19-year-old software engineer and Elon Musk protege Edward Coristine was beaten, a man suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound. Later that day, a 27-year-old man would be fatally shot blocks from the Capitol. The following night, a 38-year-old Northwest Washington resident was killed in gunfire in Columbia Heights. None of these crimes made national headlines. But the image Trump shared of Coristine continues to ricochet online. Last week, the President described crime in DC as 'out of control', with young 'thugs' and 'gang members' who are 'randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens'. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (Democrat) refuted that image on Monday, noting the recent drops in crime while adding that the city could use the federal government's help with other law enforcement priorities, such as adding more prosecutors and judges in the city. 'If the priority is to show force in an American city, we know he can do that here,' Bowser, who had been silent since the President initially threatened to take over the city, said of Trump in an interview on MSNBC. 'But it won't be because there's a spike in crime.' FBI arrest data collected by the Washington Post shows juvenile arrests nationwide have largely been dropping since the 1990s. In 2024, the rate was about 439 arrests per 100,000 juveniles, down 7% from 2023 and five times lower than in 1997. Juvenile arrests are down in DC this year, but the trend doesn't hold everywhere. In Baltimore, police made 1377 juvenile arrests in 2024, a 47.4% increase from the previous year, according to FBI data. In New York City, juvenile arrests were up 10.9% in 2024 compared with 2023 and are continuing to rise. New York police made more than 5200 arrests from January through June this year, up almost 10% from the same period the year before. And Chicago is seeing an even sharper rise, but the juvenile arrest count there remains less than half of the 2019 figure. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed prosecutor who handles most of DC's adult crime, said the nation's capital shields violent youngsters from consequence. She joined the President in advocating that more teenagers, including those as young as 14, be funnelled into the adult justice system. In DC, suspects as young as 15 can be charged as adults. 'Young people are coddled, and they don't need to be coddled anymore,' Pirro said last week at a news conference. 'They need to be held accountable.' A sign in response to the city's summer curfew on youths. Photo / Eric Lee, for The Washington Post Eduardo Ferrer, policy director of Georgetown Law's Juvenile Justice Initiative, said it was important to keep in mind that the vast majority of DC's teenagers are doing the right things. And for that minority of young people who commit serious violent crimes, the solution should not be charging them as adults, Ferrer said. He pointed to an influential Centres for Disease Control study from 2007 that found youths charged as adults were 34% more likely to be rearrested than those who went through the juvenile justice system. 'The evidence shows that this is a policy that may sound tough on crime but actually undermines public safety,' Ferrer said. Since early July, an 11pm citywide curfew has been in effect for those aged 17 and younger. It runs until the end of the month. Local leaders also implemented stricter curfew laws for teens in response to concerns about large brawls, including at the Southwest Waterfront and in the U Street corridor in Northwest Washington. The city has had four 'juvenile curfew zones' this summer - locations with more restrictive rules from 8 to 11pm. The night Coristine was attacked, a curfew zone was in place in parts of Southwest and Northeast Washington. There have been no reported violations of those curfews, according to DC police. Hours after Coristine was attacked, residents in a nearby block were awakened by shouting on their usually quiet, tree-lined street. One person described seeing a rowdy crowd of youngsters, some in masks. Later, they saw a young man, beaten and bloodied. When DC police arrived, 'all parties had fled the scene and the officers had nothing found', according to a department spokesperson. When asked whether there were other incidents in the area in the predawn hours, the spokesperson said 'there were unfounded reports of suspicious groups; however, officers did not locate any such groups'. The weekend's incident unnerved residents, even before the nearby attack of Coristine captured the President's and the nation's attention. 'This is a safe city, but overhearing and witnessing gang threats and then watching the camera footage of the thuggery is disturbing,' said one resident. The crowd of teens, he said, were roaming the street and appeared to be checking for unlocked cars and things to steal. 'The language Trump uses to describe DC is wrongbut clearly there is something bad going on that needs to stop.'
