Killings near a West Bank village show even Americans aren't immune
Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya, a picturesque village where most residents are U.S. citizens, had for years escaped the worst of the violence roiling the occupied West Bank. But its residents had watched as settlers toted M-16s and Israeli security forces transformed the neighboring hamlet into what its mayor describes as an 'open-air prison' encircled by barricades and fences.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Israelis begin to question morality of war in Gaza amid widespread starvation claims
GAZA AFFAIRS: Israelis have begun to question the morality of the country's war in Gaza after widespread claims that Gaza's population faces crisis levels of food insecurity. The news on Israel's main TV channel had just finished a segment on howhunger in Gaza is portrayed around the world, when the anchor looked up and said: 'Maybe it's finally time to acknowledge that this isn't a public relations failure, but a moral one.' Whether or not it was a Walter Cronkite moment, as when the US broadcaster declared on live TV in 1968 that the Vietnam War was unwinnable – a turning point in public opinion – it seemed significant in a country that's been steadfast in its defense of the war against Hamas in Gaza for 22 months. There are other indications – from WhatsApp group chats to new reports by Israeli human rights organizations – that the mood is shifting away from a robust embrace of the conflict. Some commentators are announcing a change of heart about the war, triggered when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250. The subsequent Israeli offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins. The United Nations World Food Program has warned for weeks that Gaza's population of more than two million people faces crisis levels of food insecurity, with scores of aid groups reporting widespread starvation. 'After the massacre, it was imperative to strike at Hamas with all our might, even at the cost of civilian casualties,' wrote Nahum Barnea, a columnist for centrist newspaper Yediot Aharonot. But 'the damage – in military casualties, Israel's international standing, and civilian casualties – is growing worse. Hamas is to blame, but Israel is responsible.' Sherwin Pomerantz, who runs an economic consulting group, wrote in The Jerusalem Post: 'What was a just war two years ago is now an unjust war and must be ended.' Shifting sentiments in Israeli society The shift in Israeli sentiment is reflected in a pileup of bad news: Hamas still holds hostages in Gaza and remains a military force, soldiers continue to die, Israelis abroad are shunned, even attacked, and now scenes of starving children are shown across global media. US President Donald Trump, a fervent defender of Israel, even weighed in, saying this week he didn't agree with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assertion there is no starvation in Gaza. 'That's real starvation stuff, I see it, and you can't fake that,' Trump said in Scotland on Monday. There haven't been any recent polls published in Israel related to the war. One in May showed 65% of Israelis unconcerned about humanitarian conditions in Gaza. But until this past week, little of the destruction and death there appeared in Israeli media. Now the issue of hunger dominates news coverage. Other shifts in public discourse are noticeable. Human rights lawyers abroad have been accusing Israel of war crimes and genocidal intent in Gaza since just after the war started – charges the vast majority of Israelis have rejected. For the first time, two Israeli human rights groups are now using the term 'genocide' for what's happening – B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel. ALSO ON Monday, the presidents of five Israeli universities wrote an open letter to Netanyahu urging him to 'intensify efforts to address the severe hunger crisis currently afflicting the Gaza Strip. 'Like many Israelis, we are horrified by the scenes from Gaza, including infants dying every day from hunger and disease,' they wrote. 'As a people who endured the horrors of the Holocaust, we also bear a responsibility to use every means at our disposal to prevent cruel and indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women and children.' Yair Lapid, head of Israel's main opposition party, gave a fiery speech this week describing the war as a disaster and a failure and calling on Netanyahu to end it and eliminate Hamas through cooperation with regional powers. After ceasefire talks stalled again last week, a new effort is under way to revive negotiations with Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and others. There's growing commentary in mainstream media declaring Hamas defeated, making an end to the war easier to accept. There's also pushback to the starvation narrative. Israeli military authorities said, without additional evidence, that one photo of a skeletal boy published on front pages around the world was of a child with a genetic disease that makes his bones protrude, and that he'd been evacuated from Gaza more than a month ago. In addition, the military has distributed photos purported to be of Hamas operatives surrounded by food and looking healthy. And, so far, Netanyahu has shown no sign of shifting policy. 'We are fighting a just war, a moral war, a war for our survival,' he said in a statement on Monday. 'No country in the world would allow the continued rule in a neighboring territory of a terror group bent on its destruction that already stormed across its borders in a genocidal attack. 'We'll continue to act responsibly, as we always have, and we'll continue to seek the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas,' he said. 'That is the only way to secure peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israel PM says in 'profound shock' over hostage videos
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed "profound shock" over videos showing two emaciated hostages in Gaza, with the EU also denouncing the clips on Sunday and demanding the release of all remaining captives after nearly 22 months of war. Over the past few days, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three videos showing two hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David have sparked strong reactions among Israelis, fuelling renewed calls to reach a truce and hostage release deal without delay. A statement from Netanyahu's office late Saturday said he had spoken with the families of the two hostages and "expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations". Netanyahu "told the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing", the statement added. Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of people had rallied in the coastal hub of Tel Aviv to urge Netanyahu's government to secure the release of the remaining captives. In the clips shared by the Palestinian Islamist groups, 21-year-old Braslavski, a German-Israeli dual national, and 24-year-old David both appear weak and malnourished. There was particular outrage in Israel over images of David who appeared to be digging what he said in the staged video was his own grave. The videos make references to the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned a "famine is unfolding". EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the images "are appalling and expose the barbarity of Hamas", calling for the release of "all hostages... immediately and unconditionally". - 'Hamas must disarm' - Kallas said in the same post on X that "Hamas must disarm and end its rule in Gaza" -- demands endorsed earlier this week by Arab countries, including key mediators Qatar and Egypt. She added that "large-scale humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need". Israel has heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, which was already under blockade for 15 years before the war began. UN agencies, aid groups and analysts say that much of the trickle of food aid that Israel allows in is looted by gangs or diverted in chaotic circumstances rather than reaching those most in need. Many desperate Palestinians are left to risk their lives under fire seeking what aid is distributed through controlled channels. On Sunday, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed nine Palestinians who were waiting to collect food rations from a site operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israeli attacks elsewhere killed another 10 people on Sunday, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. - 'Emaciated and desperate' - Israeli newspapers dedicated their front pages on Sunday to the plight of the hostages, with Maariv decrying "hell in Gaza" and Yedioth Ahronoth showing a "malnourished, emaciated and desperate" David. Left-leaning Haaretz declared that "Netanyahu is in no rush" to rescue the captives, echoing claims by critics that the longtime leader has prolonged the war for his own political survival. In his conversations with Braslavski and David's families on Saturday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of "deliberately starving our hostages", and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was "initiating a special UN Security Council meeting on the issue of the Israeli hostages". Braslavski and David are among the 49 hostages taken during Hamas's 2023 attack who are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Most of the 251 hostages seized in the attack have been released during two short-lived truces in the war, some in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. - Red Crescent says HQ hit - Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,430 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a post on X early Sunday that one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Yunis headquarters, in southern Gaza. There was no comment from Israel. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence and other parties. Overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Israel's military said it had "most likely intercepted" a rocket launched from southern Gaza. Meanwhile, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he had prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where his repeated visits are seen as a provocation to many Palestinians. The mosque is Islam's third-holiest site, and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, though Jews are barred from praying there under a long-standing convention. In a video statement recorded during his visit -- Ben Gvir said "the response to Hamas's horror videos" should include Gaza's occupation and plans for the "voluntary emigration" of its people. Jordan, which acts as the site's custodian, condemned the minister's visit as "an unacceptable provocation, and a reprehensible escalation". hba/ami/smw
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Pro-Israel Democrats try breaking with Netanyahu to stop party's shift amid Gaza crisis
The Middle East Israel-Hamas war Donald Trump Primary electionsFacebookTweetLink Follow Fearing Zionism could die among Democrats, many party leaders are explicitly breaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to stop anti-Israel attitudes from becoming a litmus test for next year's midterms and the 2028 presidential primaries. But privately, several tell CNN, they worry it may be too late. Last week's failed resolution to block new arms sales to Israel, supported by a record number of Senate Democrats, was just the start. A new letter to recognize a Palestinian state is gaining signatures in the House. Devoted allies of Israel are speaking out against its government, brushing off whatever texts and phone calls they've been getting from the dwindling number of party voters or donors still standing steadfast behind Israeli actions in Gaza nearly two years after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack. It's no longer just the far left rejecting Netanyahu's years of identifying more with Republicans. There is also a bitter backlash among many Democratic politicians, who have felt bullied by the Israeli government and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group, and there's revulsion over the images of starvation and dying children. 'We can disagree about a lot of things in the foreign policy space, but there's no room to tolerate mass starvation,' said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, who is Jewish and widely seen as one of the party's future leaders in the Senate. Schatz argues there's a conflation of opposing the Israeli government and opposing Israel's right to exist that he calls 'ridiculous' and an 'intentional strategy' meant to distract. 'I think there's a recognition that Netanyahu is making Israel and Israelis and Jews unsafe all over the world,' Schatz said. 'More and more of us are saying so and voting accordingly.' US Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who represents a moderate district in New Jersey with a significant Jewish population and is now the Democratic nominee for governor in a traditionally blue state where Trump ran stronger than expected, said she has sensed a clear shift among voters. 'We are seeing more and more people coming to: October 7 was horrific, the hostages need to be released, Israel has a right to exist, Netanyahu has been a really bad actor in this space, the starvation of people in Gaza is unacceptable, the idea that in rooting out Hamas you're going to kill hundreds and hundreds of innocent children and families is not the way the United States conducts their support of their allies,' Sherrill told CNN in an interview last week. 'So Netanyahu has to be held accountable.' And Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee and is considering his own presidential run, said after how he saw the Israel conflict resonate on the trail last year, 'it'll still be an issue' for 2028. As for what comes next, Walz said, 'People are going to have the conviction of how they talk about it.' When Netanyahu visited Capitol Hill during a trip to Washington in July, only a handful of Democratic senators participated in a bipartisan photo with him. Among those was New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, an adamant defender of Israel who was mocked on social media for seeming to stand in a way that his face couldn't be seen in the shot. Booker, who has been raising money ahead of another potential presidential run, told CNN that was just about a bad angle and he stood where the photographer directed. He said he agrees in being critical of Netanyahu, but 'you cannot demand, negotiate, work towards a resolution of the conflict if you are not having conversations with the principal players that are doing those things.' Leaders of multiple Jewish and pro-Israel groups told CNN privately that they have grimly determined their best and most practical approach is to see what Israelis do in elections next year. But critics have tried in vain for parts of four decades to wait out Israel's longest-serving prime minister, a conservative who has stymied Democratic presidents going back to Bill Clinton. Netanyahu rejects the creation of a Palestinian state and has claimed there is 'no starvation' in Gaza, even as his government has been under international pressure to permit the distribution of more aid. And there are still top Democrats who will stand with Netanyahu or at least limit the distance they keep from him. Asked whether they were ready to break with Netanyahu, an aide to House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries pointed to recent statements decrying violence and calling for humanitarian aid. An aide to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer did not respond. The traditional AIPAC-funded trip of House Democratic freshmen to Israel, this year led by Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former House majority leader, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California, leaves later this week. The group is expected to meet with Netanyahu while there. A Hoyer spokesperson declined to confirm details of the trip, including whether the group would meet with Netanyahu. The rare Democrat to stick with Netanyahu in public, voicing feelings that still resonate among some voters and donors, is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. 'That's the democratically elected leader. If you have to make a choice, Hamas or the democratically elected leader, I'm always going to stand with Israel through this,' Fetterman said. 'I saw those pictures. Obviously it's appalling, heartbreaking. Many people will blame Israel for that. I only blame Hamas, and I blame Iran ultimately.' Zohran Mamdani's June win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary proved both that being unwilling to affirm support for Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state or calling Israel's conduct a genocide is not disqualifying, even in a city where Jews make up a large portion of the electorate. A mid-July CNN poll found just 23% of Americans saying Israel's actions have been fully justified, in a 27-point drop from a poll shortly after the October 7 attacks. The share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults saying that the US provides too much military aid for Israel rose from 44% in March to 59%. Democratic-aligned adults under the age of 35 are particularly opposed to US military aid to Israel, with 72% saying the US is doing too much. Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, known much more for the seriousness with which he approaches military matters than for chasing political trends, said he voted for a narrow rifle sales stoppage amendment to last week's resolution to get Netanyahu's attention, though 'we have to balance sending a message and also ensuring that strategically they can protect themselves.' Being out of the White House and either majority in Congress limits their options, Reed said, arguing Republicans have not done enough beyond President Donald Trump expressing dismay over the photos of starving children and trendsetter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene using the word 'genocide.' But Reed, 75, said he's disturbed to see anti-Israel sentiment taking root anywhere, including among younger Democratic voters. 'Part of it is they're reacting to the scenes of the violence against children, and they're also, I think, a generation that have not, like me, literally grown up with Israel, when you saw a struggling nation that had been persecuted worse than any people on Earth start building a real democracy,' Reed said. To Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, another Democrat stoking chatter about a 2028 run, there's no ambiguity in how to talk about it. 'I know our political enemies want to make people believe that if you don't support what Netanyahu is doing right now inside Gaza then you don't support Israel. We shouldn't concede that. We shouldn't operate from a position of fear,' Murphy told CNN. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, also being talked about as a presidential hopeful, said his own conviction is that 'we always need an Israel that is able to defend itself, both for its and the United States' national security, and also people shouldn't be starving in Gaza.' Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wrote the military aid resolution but also cautioned Mamdani when they huddled last month to be more deliberate about making clear he wasn't anti-Israel or antisemitic, told CNN he thinks his colleagues risk losing an authentic connection to voters if they don't rapidly change what they're doing and saying on Israel. Asked whether that risked Democrats being seen as anti-Israel, Sanders pointed out that he is Jewish himself and decades ago lived in Israel for a few months. 'To be anti-Netanyahu, anti-a-right-wing-racist-extremist government, that's anti-Israeli government,' Sanders said. 'If you're against Trump, you're not against America.' Rahm Emanuel, whose middle name is literally Israel, recalled Netanyahu calling him a self-hating Jew when he was President Barack Obama's chief of staff. Devoted Obama supporters raged at what they perceived as disrespect, especially as Obama approved aid increases, including for the missile defense system known as the Iron Dome. In 2015, Netanyahu broke protocol to go around Obama and address a joint session of Congress to blast the Iran nuclear deal the president was pursuing. By 2016, he was building up a supportive relationship with Trump, which eventually had him talking up the Republican just days before the close 2020 election. Netanyahu cleaved close to Trump to the point of hesitating to condemn the president's 'some very fine people on both sides' comment following the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Last month, Netanyahu accepted an interview with a MAGA-friendly podcast and when asked about Mamdani's position on Israel, responded first by talking about the candidate's past support of 'defund the police,' a favorite Trump topic. 'He made a conscious decision to position Israel as a partisan political issue. Everybody warned him it was a mistake,' said Emanuel, a CNN contributor. 'As always, he thought he was the only smart guy in the room.' Now Emanuel is considering a presidential run of his own. Asked whether he worried Israel support would be a litmus test, he said, 'I don't believe you can say where things will be in two or three years, but if we don't change course, you can see where this road leads.' Leaders of multiple Jewish and pro-Israel groups told CNN privately that they have grimly determined their best and most practical approach is essentially to quietly wait out the trauma and hope the politics turns. There's another Israeli election next year, and while Netanyahu is now in a minority coalition, he has been counted out before. 'To the extent that Democrats are increasingly voicing their concern and disapproval on the situation in Gaza, this is largely aligned with where the vast majority of Jewish Americans are as well,' said Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a group formed in the aftermath of Trump's comments about Charlottesville and which she said has seen a massive increase in its membership since his second inauguration. Many American Jewish voters last year were driven toward Republicans by a mix of feelings that Democratic leaders were not pro-Israel enough and that they had been too accepting as some anti-Israel protests tipped into antisemitism. That was with Joe Biden in the White House, a president who was unabashedly Zionist and who in retrospect, several Democratic leaders say, should be seen as having staved off how much worse the humanitarian crisis has gotten since he left office. Biden's actions and comments also fueled the 'Uncommitted' movement and protesters who regularly interrupted his events last year, arguing that the same positions that others deemed insufficiently pro-Israel were in fact overly pro-Israel. By November, Kamala Harris' campaign had been tied into knots trying to satisfy all the factions. The widespread disappointment helped fuel narrow losses in Michigan and Pennsylvania, which both have large Jewish and Arab American populations, and beyond. There are three major Democrats running Michigan's open Senate seat next year: Abdul El-Sayed, who backed the Uncommitted movement and has accused Israel of genocide; state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who at a campaign event on Wednesday spoke about being a mother watching the suffering and said of Netanyahu, 'We cannot let this man tell us that what we are seeing with our own eyes is not what is actually happening'; and US Rep. Haley Stevens, who has been praised by AIPAC for her support of Israel and described it in April as a 'strong ally of the United States of America, a democracy, and a beacon of hope.' Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who leads the Senate Democrats' campaign arm, have expressed a preference for Stevens, who put out a statement last week calling for cooperation to get food into Gaza and Israeli hostages out. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, the first Jewish leader of his state, said that he is not convinced the issue will move voters overall. But he said there is no way to look at the policy or politics and not be incredibly sad. 'Democrats have a tougher line simply because Republicans say, 'We're all in with Israel,' so people know to either go or leave, whereas people just get angrier at Democrats,' Stein said. 'I think you can be a Zionist and critical of the government of Israel. I don't think those things are in conflict. And the reason I think that is because that's where I am personally.'
