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Initial U.S. intelligence suggests Iran was surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel

Initial U.S. intelligence suggests Iran was surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel

CNN reports: The United States has collected specific intelligence that suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught by surprise by Saturday’s bloody attack on Israel by Hamas, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence. The existence of the intelligence has cast doubt on the idea that Iran was directly involved in the planning, resourcing or approving of the operation, sources said. The sources stressed that the US intelligence community is not ready to reach a full conclusion about whether…

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The history of Palestinian liberation movements

The history of Palestinian liberation movements

  The history of Palestinian liberation movements is paved with setbacks, betrayals and bitter rivalries. What began as an attempt to unify the resistance against Israeli occupation has over time been undermined by regional and global political interests, ideological differences and disagreements over the justification, and use, of guerilla tactics. Today the question of who represents Palestinian interests is hotly contested, with Hamas and Fatah vying for control, and a wave of dissatisfied young factions on the rise in Gaza…

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The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders

The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders

Ian Millhiser writes: The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority spent Wednesday morning seemingly hunting for a reason to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that everyone agrees was gerrymandered to benefit the Republican Party. The case is Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Under the Supreme Court’s precedents, federal courts are not allowed to hear lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymanders — that is, maps drawn to benefit one political party or the other. But federal courts may hear challenges to racial gerrymanders — maps drawn…

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Exxon, Apple and other corporate giants will have to disclose all their emissions under California’s new climate laws – that will have a global impact

Exxon, Apple and other corporate giants will have to disclose all their emissions under California’s new climate laws – that will have a global impact

Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Los Angeles refinery, California’s largest producer of gasoline. David McNew/Getty Images By Lily Hsueh, Arizona State University Many of the world’s largest public and private companies will soon be required to track and report almost all of their greenhouse gas emissions if they do business in California – including emissions from their supply chains, business travel, employees’ commutes and the way customers use their products. That means oil and gas companies like Chevron will likely have to…

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Trump’s overrated peace plan helped enable the horrors in Israel and Gaza

Trump’s overrated peace plan helped enable the horrors in Israel and Gaza

Nicholas Grossman writes: No American president caused Hamas’ surprise assault across the Gaza border that killed over 900 Israelis—mostly in deliberate, brutal attacks on civilians, including 260 at a music festival—and kidnapping about 150 more. But U.S. policy, especially the Trump administration’s, contributed to the unsustainable situation that made an outbreak of violence more likely. Claims that “Trump brought peace to the Middle East” are almost an inversion of reality. He shifted U.S. policy fully in Israel’s favor—reducing support for the Palestinians and treating their quest for statehood…

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How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack

How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack

Reuters reports: A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel was caught off guard when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating attack, enabling a force using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes to take on the Middle East’s most powerful army. Saturday’s assault, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps and convincing Israel it did not want a fight….

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Israel massed troops in the West Bank. Then Hamas attacked from Gaza

Israel massed troops in the West Bank. Then Hamas attacked from Gaza

The Washington Post reports: The surprise attack started around 6 a.m., with a barrage of rocket fire followed by cross-border attacks. Yet it wasn’t until late afternoon that buses and trains were mobilized to ferry soldiers south. It took some 10 hours for the first troops to arrive in towns overrun by militants. Miri Regev, Israel’s transportation minister and a longtime Netanyahu ally, was in Mexico. Private citizens donated food, flashlights and other basic supplies to the reservists as they…

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AOC knocks ‘bigotry and callousness’ of Times Square rally for Palestinians

AOC knocks ‘bigotry and callousness’ of Times Square rally for Palestinians

Politico reports: The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is facing a political firestorm after the organization promoted a pro-Palestine rally in the wake of Hamas militants’ attacks on Israeli communities. The group did not organize Sunday’s rally, its leadership said Monday. But several lawmakers with DSA ties are distancing themselves from what was said at the event. “It should not be hard to shut down hatred and antisemitism where we see it. That is a…

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Putin offers muted response to attack on Israel. That speaks volumes

Putin offers muted response to attack on Israel. That speaks volumes

The New York Times reports: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has long cast himself as a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. He helped establish visa-free travel between Russia and Israel in 2008, presided over the construction of a sprawling Moscow Jewish Museum in 2012 and, side by side with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in 2020, unveiled a memorial to the victims of Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad. But amid the worst attack on Israel in…

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After years of exaggerating his business assets, Trump confronts them in court

After years of exaggerating his business assets, Trump confronts them in court

The Washington Post reports: When Donald Trump needed to value his Trump Tower apartment for homeowner’s insurance in 2010, he personally showed an appraiser around the unit for 15 minutes but ushered him out before the expert could take any measurements. Trump’s company then declared that the 11,000-square-foot unit measured 30,000 square feet, nearly three times its actual size. A few years later, expert appraisers told Trump his 70-story office building at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, steps from the…

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A tantalizing detail in a new Trump legal filing

A tantalizing detail in a new Trump legal filing

Aaron Blake writes: Donald Trump’s many legal problems have led to a veritable fire hose of often-mundane, procedural court filings. But occasionally, there’s a nugget that catches your eye. Such was the case Monday, in the government’s latest filing in Trump’s classified documents case. While arguing against the motion by Trump’s lawyers to delay the May 20 trial, special counsel Jack Smith’s lawyers assured they’re ready to go and that such a delay isn’t necessary, unsurprisingly. But they also said…

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In times of crisis, Israelis rally around their leaders. This time is different

In times of crisis, Israelis rally around their leaders. This time is different

Janine Zacharia writes: I started hearing from friends in Israel on Saturday that the number of partygoers murdered at an all-night rave near the Gaza border was much higher than authorities were disclosing. Soon after, distraught relatives began appearing outside hospitals, recounting on live TV their final conversations with their missing loved ones. “Nissim, I am dying,” one grief-stricken man recalled his brother saying before he lost contact with him. Many said they then heard conversations in Arabic before lines…

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IDF sees no evidence of Iranian involvement in the attack that it saw no evidence of coming

IDF sees no evidence of Iranian involvement in the attack that it saw no evidence of coming

The Israeli military affairs journalist, Yossi Melman: IDF spokeperson Brig-General Danny Hagari said that there is no indication of an Iranian involvement in the war in Gaza. — Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) October 9, 2023 Israeli researcher in Iranian studies, Raz Zimmt: My two (or more) cents about Iran's involvement in recent developments in Southern Israel. In my opinion, two crucial distinctions are required. First, it is necessary to distinguish between Iranian support to Hamas, as well as the ongoing coordination…

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Intelligence failures are often the result of hubris

Intelligence failures are often the result of hubris

David Ignatius writes: Israel seemed to be coming apart in the months before Hamas fighters broke through the Gaza cage. Thousands of Israelis were marching in the streets of Tel Aviv to protest Netanyahu’s attempt to alter what they saw as the fundamental character of the state. Did that political chaos contribute to the Gaza attacks? I don’t know. But, surely, the domestic feuds of the past few months might have led Hamas and its backers in Tehran to believe…

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