News Roundup for October 23, 2024

October 23, 2024
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Top News and Analysis

Israel Complicates Election’s Final Stretch, an Issue Democrats Hoped Would Fade, The Washington Post
This account of the Biden administration’s handling of ballooning violence in the Middle East during the election’s final weeks is based on interviews with more than two dozen officials […] The dynamic they conveyed is of an improvisational White House that has followed Israel’s lead into a widening regional war while only marginally influencing Netanyahu’s actions […] The war’s spread has alarmed the Harris campaign, which sees the images of dead civilians as complicating her path to victory in key swing states with sizable Arab American and Muslim populations. “It’s a huge concern. It comes down to people saying, ‘I can’t support anyone who supports a genocide,’” a person who advises the campaign said.

He Dreamed of Escaping Gaza. The World Watched Him Burned Alive. [Gift Link], The New York Times
Bilal Shbair and Erika Solomon write, “Since Israel launched its devastating retaliation for the Hamas-led attack just over a year ago, Mr. al-Dalou wrote impassioned pleas on social media, posted videos from his family’s small plastic tent and even launched a GoFundMe page calling out to the world for help getting out of the Gaza Strip. Instead, the world watched him burn to death.”

Israel Expands Deadly Strikes in Beirut After US Envoy Visits Lebanon, The Washington Post
At least 18 people were killed, four of them children, and 60 more were wounded in the Israeli strike near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital late Monday, with the nationwide death toll for the day reaching 63, health authorities said. In Beirut, the strikes expanded into new neighborhoods for a second day, signaling the widening scope of Israel’s military ambitions against Hezbollah militants, even as US officials toured the region talking up hopes of de-escalation.

News

Inside the Last Ditch Hunt by Harris and Trump for Undecided Voters, The New York Times
The Trump campaign’s research found that up-for-grabs voters were about six times as likely as other battleground-state voters to be motivated by their views of Israel’s war in Gaza. The campaign also found that undecided voters were less likely to be white than those in the battlegrounds overall and more likely to be Black. About 25 percent of undecided voters are Black, according to the Trump team.

Blinken Presses Israel’s Netanyahu on Dire Conditions in Northern Gaza, The Washington Post
Blinken, in his hours-long meeting with Netanyahu, “emphasized the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ensure that assistance reaches civilians throughout Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. The official Israeli summary of the Blinken-Netanyahu meeting made no mention of humanitarian aid for the territory.

Israeli Military Says It Killed Top Hezbollah Leader, The New York Times
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to Hezbollah’s recently slain leader, in an airstrike near Beirut, Lebanon, in early October.

Interview: Yair Lapid Urges Deal to Free All Captives at Once, Pushes for Saudi Normalization, The Jerusalem Post
Lapid, who lost the premiership in November 2022, had already been in battle mode as one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s harshest and most vocal critics, warning against the internal threat to Israeli democracy posed by Netanyahu’s judicial reform program. October 7 added a new dimension to that battle, underscoring Lapid’s belief that the prime minister and his government posed a threat to Israel – and deepening the soul-searching societal crisis within the country.

US Is Pushing for a Deal to Release a Few Israeli Hostages in Exchange for a Limited Cease-fire in Gaza, Haaretz
In a meeting with families of hostages with American citizenship, Blinken outlined a plan, in which the initial stage would involve a limited deal, leading to the release of a small number of hostages – less than 10 – in exchange for an Israeli agreement to a temporary cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel Arrests Second Group of Alleged Iran Spies, BBC
Seven people have been arrested in occupied East Jerusalem on suspicion of planning attacks for Iran, the Israeli security services say, the second such case in as many days.

Rocket Slams Into Building After Barrage Unleashed on Northern Israel, The Jerusalem Post
Twenty-five projectiles were identified crossing over from Lebanon into Israel following the Wednesday rocket barrage that targeted northern Israel, the IDF announced shortly after the incident.

US Lawmakers Call for Probe Into Israeli Strike That Injured US Journalist in Lebanon, The Times of Israel
Collins and five others — including AFP’s Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated — were wounded and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while they were reporting in southern Lebanon in October 2023.

“Our Job Is to Flatten Gaza. No One Will Stop Us”: Inside One Israeli Battalion’s Yearlong Mission Of Destruction, Drop Site News
Over the past year, the 749 Battalion has played an indispensable role in Gaza. Its soldiers are reservists—alumni of the combat engineering corps, which trains soldiers in demolition. The battalion comes in after combat units, toppling buildings and homes that managed to survive air strikes.

Opinion and Analysis

I Ran Israel’s Largest Company. Here’s Why I Support Kamala Harris, The Forward
Jeremy Levin states, “Harris’s stance against antisemitism is especially important to me. I have seen in South Africa what antisemitism can do. Under the Biden-Harris administration, 2023 saw the release of the first-ever US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. This strategy includes over 100 new actions the administration will take to raise awareness of antisemitism, protect Jewish communities, reverse the normalization of antisemitism, and build cross-community solidarity.”

Gazans Ordered to Evacuate Besieged North as Israeli Operations Deepen [Photos], Reuters
More than two weeks ago, Israel began a wide military offensive in northern Gaza, especially inside Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic camps.

Israel’s Race to Dismantle UNRWA May Backfire, The Times of Israel
Jess Manville writes, “Destroying UNRWA without a strategic plan will only deepen the region’s instability and complicate Israel’s multilayered security challenges. Instead, a more prudent approach would be to leverage international pressure for serious, enforceable reform – while building up capacity elsewhere to eventually phase out UNRWA’s role in the future.”


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