The Strait of Hormuz is a vital route for oil. Closing it could backfire on Iran
The U.S. military's strike on three sites in Iran over the weekend has raised questions about how its military might respond.
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New York Times
18 minutes ago
- New York Times
Netanyahu Faces Pressure From Far Right Over New Cease-Fire Proposal
Far right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition denounced a proposed cease-fire deal with Hamas that would see the release of some of the remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas said on Monday it had agreed to the terms of a deal presented by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. But the flurry of statements from hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu's coalition illustrated the pressure he was under over the latest proposal, which would force him to forgo his stated plan to send the Israeli military into Gaza City, at least in the near term. 'Going for a partial deal is a moral folly and a difficult strategic error,' Moshe Saadeh, a lawmaker in Mr. Netanyahu's Likud party, told Israel's Channel 14 on Tuesday. 'In the end, it will strengthen Hamas,' he added. A 'partial deal' broadly refers to an arrangement that would allow for the exchange of some hostages and Palestinian prisoners and a temporary cease-fire, without resolving the dispute between Israel and Hamas over the end of the war. The terms accepted by Hamas include both a temporary cease-fire and a path to an agreement to end the war, according to officials briefed on its contents, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Mr. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new cease-fire proposal. In July, President Trump said Israel had agreed to 'the necessary conditions' to finalize' a 60-day cease-fire, during which the United States would work with 'work with all parties to end the war.' . Talks to reach that deal ultimately collapsed. Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, said on Monday that Mr. Netanyahu does not have a 'mandate to go to a partial deal.' Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, rejected 'stopping in the middle with a partial deal that abandons half of the hostages and that could lead to the suspension of the war in defeat.' 'It is forbidden to surrender and give a lifeline to the enemy,' he said. Mr. Netanyahu relies on the support of Mr. Ben Gvir's and Mr. Smotrich's parties to maintain the stability of his government. Hamas has said it is willing to release all the hostages on the condition that Israel ends the war. But Hamas has not publicly accepted Mr. Netanyahu's conditions for ending the war, which include the group's disarmament. The gulf between Hamas and Israel's position on ending the war, analysts say, shows that a partial deal is more realistic than a comprehensive agreement. Last week, Mr. Netanyahu suggested Israel was no longer interested in a deal that would involve the release of only some hostages. 'I think that is behind us,' he told the Hebrew-language channel of i24 News. But Gila Gamliel, a minister in Israel's security cabinet and an ally of Mr. Netanyahu, did not rule out the latest offer. 'There's a proposal. We know what it says,' she told Channel 14. 'We will examine what we will say about that.'
News24
an hour ago
- News24
Gaza and Sudan drove record number of aid worker deaths in 2024 ‘with zero accountability'
The UN says a record 383 aid workers were killed in 2024. The deadliest zones included Gaza and Sudan. So far in 2025, 265 aid workers have been killed. A record 383 aid workers were killed in 2024, the United Nations said on Tuesday, branding the figures and lack of accountability a 'shameful indictment' of international apathy - and warned this year's toll was equally disturbing. The 2024 figure was up 31% on the year before, the UN said on World Humanitarian Day, 'driven by the relentless conflicts in Gaza, where 181 humanitarian workers were killed, and in Sudan, where 60 lost their lives'. It said state actors were the most common perpetrators of the killings in 2024. The UN said most of those killed were local staff, and were either attacked in the line of duty or in their homes. Besides those killed, 308 aid workers were wounded, 125 kidnapped and 45 detained last year. 'Even one attack against a humanitarian colleague is an attack on all of us and on the people we serve,' said UN aid chief Tom Fletcher. Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy. Tom Fletcher 'As the humanitarian community, we demand - again - that those with power and influence act for humanity, protect civilians and aid workers and hold perpetrators to account,' Fletcher said. Provisional figures from the Aid Worker Security Database show that 265 aid workers have been killed this year, as of 14 August. The UN reiterated that attacks on aid workers and operations violate international humanitarian law and damage the lifelines sustaining millions of people trapped in war and disaster zones. 'Violence against aid workers is not inevitable. It must end,' said Fletcher, the UN emergency relief coordinator and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs. Meanwhile the UN's World Health Organisation said it had verified more than 800 attacks on healthcare in 16 territories so far this year, with more than 1 110 health workers and patients killed and hundreds injured. 'Each attack inflicts lasting harm, deprives entire communities of life-saving care when they need it the most, endangers healthcare providers, and weakens already strained health systems,' the WHO said. World Humanitarian Day marks the day in 2003 when UN rights chief Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other humanitarians were killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's claim of fighting antisemitism at UCLA is a dangerous charade
Days after UCLA settled a lawsuit brought by three Jewish students and a Jewish professor alleging antisemitism, the Trump administration announced that it would suspend $584 million in federal research grants to the institution, alleging failure to 'promote a research environment free of antisemitism.' Pressing that case, the administration demanded $1 billion from UCLA as part of a settlement, far exceeding the $221 million that Columbia agreed to pay over similar claims. We do not know what the outcome of the negotiations between the government and UCLA will be. The options do not look promising. In all likelihood, a settlement would entail not only a huge financial price tag but also deep concessions in terms of the institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Alternatively, if a deal is not struck, those values could be upheld at the cost of devastating losses to vital medical research, public health, thousands of jobs and the overall economic well-being of the region. It is a true Faustian bargain, with strong traces of a Mafia-style shakedown. And all in the professed name of combating antisemitism and protecting Jews. This is subterfuge. What's actually happening is a shallow and disingenuous plot to destroy the university and the values of free inquiry and debate in the name of a dangerous, illiberal ideology that has been against higher education for years. What this destructive path will not do is make the campus safer for Jews — or anyone else, for that matter. Sadly, in recent years antisemitism has reared its head at UCLA, as at other universities in the United States. And according to evidence presented in a recent lawsuit, Jewish students have been targeted with deeply wounding slurs such as 'Hitler missed one' and 'go back to Poland,' prevented from accessing public spaces and subjected to harassment because of their perceived pro-Israel stances. This is completely unacceptable, and the university must do everything within its power, especially through continued training and education, to create an environment in which such language and behavior are recognized as unacceptable. At the same time, we recognize that Jewish students, faculty and staff are not the only ones who have felt at risk on campus. Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students — and their supporters, including Jewish supporters — also faced harassment, discrimination and physical violence. On April 30, 2024, off-campus counterprotesters descended on the Palestinian solidarity encampment — even though Jewish students publicly pleaded with outsiders to stay away. Fifteen people were injured and dozens arrested. A separate lawsuit, filed by encampment participants who say the university failed to protect them, is working its way through the courts. The situation in Gaza has grown much worse since April 2024 — including a massive death toll and starvation of residents that has been widely condemned. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to occupy Gaza City that are opposed by the Israeli military itself. Will the Trump administration continue to brand activism calling for an end to this horrible conflict as antisemitic? No good will come to Jewish students — or Jews in general — by providing political or moral cover to the current Israeli government. Moreover, the insinuation that the Trump administration is acting on behalf of Jews threatens to awaken further the antisemitic trope of the manipulative Jew playing puppeteer, with the government as its marionette. UCLA is worth fighting for. And Jews, who have a long, proud history at the school and a huge stake in the well-being of universities, must be part of the fight to defend UCLA. And they have begun to join the fight: Jewish leaders and the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California have publicly opposed the cuts. The old strategy of aligning with whoever holds state power to preserve Jewish interests — known as the royal or vertical alliance — is no longer practicable or justifiable. Rather, we must commit to horizontal alliances with other groups that share a sense of grave apprehension over the dismantling of one of the great institutions of higher learning in the United States. In the past, we may not always have found ourselves in sync with the tone and tactics of these groups. But at this critical moment in our nation's history, we must join together with allies old and new to rescue UCLA, the estimable American system of higher education and the best version of democracy that the U.S. represents. David N. Myers teaches Jewish history at UCLA and is a member of Jewish Partnership for Los Angeles. Aaron Greenberg and Kate Pynoos are founding board members of Jewish Partnership for Los Angeles.
