The endless quest to see an end to suffering in Gaza
Get The Gavel
A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.
Enter Email
Sign Up
The Globe, to borrow the words of Jeremiah 6:14, heals the wounds of the people lightly, 'saying 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrong on so many things, is correct in demanding the disarming of Hamas, the exiling of its leaders, and some new form of governance.
Advertisement
Alan J. Schlesinger
Newton
Hamas's strategy has been effective
As I continue to follow the ongoing tragedy in Gaza, I have asked myself: What is Hamas's strategy? I think the answer, in a word, is martyrdom. From their perspective, it all makes a terribly perverse kind of sense. To paraphrase what Lloyd Austin, then secretary of defense,
Advertisement
The taking of noncombatant hostages by the weaker side of a conflict violates every international norm, yet the subsequent negotiation often favors the captors in driving public opinion. I'm reminded how in 1979 it was considered then-president Jimmy Carter's fault that the United States hadn't yet gotten back the US hostages taken by Iran. It helped cost him reelection in 1980.
Stuart Schulman
Arlington
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
20 minutes ago
- Axios
Israel and Syria agree to a ceasefire, U.S. envoy says
Israel and Syria agreed on a ceasefire after days of heightened tensions and Israeli airstrikes in Damascus and southern Syria, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said on Friday. Why it matters: The Trump administration that mediated the ceasefire has become extremely concerned that the crisis this week could further destabilize the region and undermine the U.S. diplomatic push in Syria. What they are saying:"BREAKTHROUGH —— Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Syrian President al-Sharaa, supported by Secretary of State Rubio have agreed to a ceasefire embraced by Türkiye, Jordan and its neighbors", Barrack wrote on X. Barrack said the U.S. and its partners call upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis in Syria to put down their weapons "and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity."
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
After hitting rock bottom, higher ed might be about to climb back up
If you had to pick a single institution more responsible for America's social and political problems than any other, one stands out: higher education. Yet that may be starting to change, even if the process is slow and the road long. In just the past two years, and especially the past six months, US colleges and universities have faced a reckoning. Advertisement Their highly corrosive ills — affirmative action, DEI, radical faculty, bureaucratic bloat, raging antisemitism, sky-high tuitions, racist policies, flawed research and even their failure to teach — have all been exposed for the world to see. Yet a combination of court rulings, congressional hearings, public opinion and, not least, President Donald Trump's commendable pressure have sparked some small but notable changes. Advertisement The result could be a welcome new focus on the colleges' original goals: teaching, merit, scholarship, open inquiry, freedom of speech and thought. And perhaps all at lower costs. The damage universities, particularly the elite ones, have caused is indisputable: They've denied admission to countless well-qualified applicants on the basis of race. They've brainwashed students with untethered lefty worldviews and dubious morals. Kids wind up backing terrorist entities like Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, targeting Jews, hating cops and embracing Marxist, socialist fantasies. (Exhibit A: Zohran Mamdani) Advertisement Meanwhile, they learn precious little actual history, science, math, philosophy . . . Many wind up jobless with mountains of debt. The good news: The changes that have been forced on higher education may start to fix at least some of that. Take the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's rules for student loans. Advertisement Easy government money paved the way for schools to raise tuition, hire more staff, indulge in radical, ideologically driven agendas like DEI. But the OBBBA will rein in student loans. It places new limits on how much kids can borrow with government help. And it imposes tougher terms for repayment. Team Trump has also pushed student borrowers to resume payments halted during COVID, reversing the Biden loan-forgiveness programs. That will save taxpayers money, but equally important, tighter lending — and perhaps higher interest rates in the private market — will force kids to think more carefully about taking on debt. Students may see college more as place to acquire knowledge and prepare to earn a living than as a playground for childish activism. The new rules may also deprive colleges of funding that's fueled their bloat and allowed them to jack up tuitions. Schools may have to drop their prices and provide more value for the buck. Trump has also squeezed universities over their antisemitism, DEI programs, hostility toward conservatives and affirmative-action programs. The Supreme Court's 2023 ban on racial preferences in admissions also pushed higher ed to level the playing field, although with meager results so far. Advertisement On some fronts, a few key schools are starting to bend, even if just slightly. After ugly antisemitism erupted at Harvard following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis, and after congressional hearings exposed the school's tolerance for it, Trump held up billions in federal funding, donors cut the school off and Jewish students thought twice about attending. True, Harvard has refused to change many of its policies, but at least it knows it has a problem: Officials are now actively discussing the idea of center for conservative scholarship and have offered other small concessions as well. Baby steps for baby feet. Meanwhile, Columbia University — another leftist, antisemitic hotbed that has fought with Team Trump — just announced new steps it'll take to fight Jew-hatred on campus: It'll no longer meet with an anti-Israel, pro-terror student group, for example, and will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. More progress. Advertisement To be sure, it's taken decades for higher ed to reach its nadir — and it'll take years to reverse. But then, if college and universities have finally hit rock bottom, the only place for them to go is . . . up.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
The rest of the world struggles to restrain Israel
His entreaties, for now, amount to more hope and prayers. The conflict and misery in Gaza shows little sign of abating, while Israel keeps pounding targets across a wide swath of the region. That includes a bombing campaign this week in Syria, which Israel says is aimed at defending minority Druze from sectarian attacks but analysts also believe is part of a deeper strategy to maintain influence over the country's fragile post-dictatorship transition. Away from the war zones of the Middle East, Israel finds itself fighting other battles. Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague rejected Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who are both wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out under their watch in the aftermath of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, strike on southern Israel. In a bid to pressure the international court, the United States has placed sanctions on some ICC judges and prosecutors. Advertisement Earlier this week, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar went to Brussels for meetings with European counterparts. He emerged, in his words, victorious, having achieved 'an important diplomatic feat' of persuading the European Union to avoid adopting punitive measures against Israel. Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, said the bloc was keeping 'options on the table' but would not pursue mooted sanctions that it was considering after an earlier EU assessment found Israel possibly in breach of human rights commitments. Advertisement But rights advocates were frustrated, given the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and Israel's documented stifling of aid into the flattened territory. The EU's acquiescence, suggested Amnesty International's Agnès Callamard, would be 'remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU's history' and was 'a cruel and unlawful betrayal of the European project and vision.' The governments of Ireland, Spain, and Slovenia are the three European nations that have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel and spearheaded the attempted reckoning in Brussels. They are pressing ahead with their own measures to show their disapproval of Israel's conduct of the war, which has severely depleted Hamas but also destroyed Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many children. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez accused Israel of carrying out a 'genocide' earlier this month. Irish lawmakers are advancing legislation banning trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, much to the anger of some US officials. And Slovenia declared two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers as personae non gratae, banning them from the country. 'This kind of measure is the first of its kind in the European Union,' Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon said. 'We are breaking new ground.' There's reason to be cynical about the efficacy of such attempts by small countries. In Europe, the governments of Britain, France, and Germany remain far more reluctant to confront Israel in similar fashion, while French President Emmanuel Macron's efforts to revive international momentum toward the creation of a Palestinian state seem to be fizzling out. Advertisement Israel's boosters in the United States can shrug and smirk. 'An unstated reason for Europe's particular animus toward Israel over the decades is that the continent's leaders secretly resent Israel's willingness and ability to regularly defend itself through tough military action,' mused veteran Washington wonk Robert D. Kaplan, 'something Europe's elites never had even to countenance, and arguably couldn't manage.' Kaplan and his ilk were unlikely to be impressed by a summit that took place earlier this week in Bogotá, where delegations from 30 countries convened to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, as well as its occupation of the West Bank. The session of The Hague Group was cohosted by South Africa, which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and the left-wing government of Colombia. It concluded Wednesday with 12 countries agreeing to implement a set of measures to 'restrain' Israel. These include a denial of arms to Israel, banning of ships transporting such arms, and reviews of public contracts with companies linked to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. A scan of the list of the countries that immediately signed on may suggest Israel's leadership isn't quite shaking in its boots: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa. But the conference's backers argued that it's a first step in a global shift. Advertisement 'For too long, governments have been too afraid of the consequences of angering the United States to risk taking action to uphold international law,' Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who attended the proceedings in the Colombian capital, told me. 'This is about more than Israel and Palestine, this is about a new multilateralism taking shape to replace the old system.'
