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As an Israeli soldier, I fought in Gaza. It made me fight for peace

As an Israeli soldier, I fought in Gaza. It made me fight for peace

Benzion Sanders writes: When my Israeli infantry unit arrived at the first village in Gaza, in July 2014, we cleared houses by sending grenades through windows, blowing doors open and firing bullets into rooms to avoid ambush and booby traps. We were told Palestinian civilians had fled. I realized this wasn’t true as I stood over the corpse of an elderly Palestinian woman whose face had been mutilated by shrapnel. She had been lying on the sand floor of a…

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Art collectors try to silence artists who call for ceasefire in Gaza

Art collectors try to silence artists who call for ceasefire in Gaza

The New York Times reports: In the days after Artforum magazine fired its top editor, David Velasco, because of an open letter it published about the Israel-Hamas war, at least four other editors resigned and several prominent artists said they would boycott the publication unless Velasco was reinstated. Divisions over how to discuss the conflict in the Middle East have frayed yearslong relationships between collectors and artists. On Friday, Nicole Eisenman and Nan Goldin criticized the magazine’s owner for terminating…

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Fossilized molecules reveal a lost world of ancient life

Fossilized molecules reveal a lost world of ancient life

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: A tree has something in common with the weeds and mushrooms growing around its roots, the squirrels scurrying up its trunk, the birds perched on its branches, and the photographer taking pictures of the scene. They all have genomes and cellular machinery neatly packed into membrane-bound compartments, an organizational system that places them in an immensely successful group of life forms called eukaryotes. The early history of eukaryotes has long fascinated scientists who yearn to understand when…

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‘America will be blamed around the world for every civilian death’ in Gaza, says FT’s Edward Luce

‘America will be blamed around the world for every civilian death’ in Gaza, says FT’s Edward Luce

Yes! It’s considered America’s war.Biden unconditional support+ 14bill $ in military aid to Israel.Sending war ships to the ME. Voting against UN resolutions calling to protect civilians, & upholding int’l humanitarian laws. Ignoring Arabs’ warnings re regional conflagration. https://t.co/St9DkOFaXF — Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) October 29, 2023 Jewish lives matter. Palestinian lives matter. Disheartening how many believe only one of these two. — Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) October 28, 2023

Shock, awe and absolute terror as Gaza goes dark

Shock, awe and absolute terror as Gaza goes dark

Jesse Rosenfeld reports: Gaza has been plunged into darkness and cut off from the world as Israel knocked out phone and internet connections in the besieged Palestinian strip amidst its military’s unprecedented bombardment campaign from land, air and sea. In the desolate, evacuated southern Israeli town of Sderot, the explosions echo constantly as the ground shakes from Israeli bombs smashing one of the world’s most densely populated places, only a few kilometers away. From a vantage point that overlooks Israel’s…

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U.S. seems to view Al Jazeera news coverage as more inflammatory than Israeli bombing

U.S. seems to view Al Jazeera news coverage as more inflammatory than Israeli bombing

The Guardian reports: The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reportedly asked Qatar to moderate Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas, amid concerns within the Biden administration that the channel is inflaming public opinion and heightening the risks of a wider conflict. Blinken raised the satellite news channel’s coverage with the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, according to the website Axios, which said the US’s top diplomat had disclosed the request in…

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Left revolts over Biden’s staunch support of Israel amid Gaza crisis

Left revolts over Biden’s staunch support of Israel amid Gaza crisis

The Observer reports: On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of liberal Jewish American activists staged sit-ins in the Capitol Hill offices of top Democrats, including in the senate office of progressive champion Bernie Sanders, to demand a ceasefire in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas. As they sang in Hebrew and prayed for peace, the House floor resumed legislative activity for the first time in weeks after the election of a new Republican speaker, congressman Mike Johnson. In his first act,…

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Palestinians deserve equal rights — human rights. What makes that controversial?

Palestinians deserve equal rights — human rights. What makes that controversial?

Hala Alyan writes: I’ve moved back to the United States twice since my birth. Once as a child, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Then again for graduate school. I’d had the privilege of a youth — adolescence and young adulthood — in countries where being Palestinian was fairly common. The identity could be heavy, but it wasn’t a contested one. I hadn’t had to learn the respectability politics of being a Palestinian adult. I learned quickly. The task of…

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Russian losses in battle for Avdiivka may be worst of 2023, says UK

Russian losses in battle for Avdiivka may be worst of 2023, says UK

The Guardian reports: Russian forces are believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far this year as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka. According to the UK Ministry of Defence’s intelligence update on Saturday morning, Russia has probably committed elements of up to eight brigades to the sector where it initiated a “major offensive effort” in mid-October. Ukraine’s armed forces claimed on Saturday that Russia had…

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How plants communicate with each other when in danger

How plants communicate with each other when in danger

The Washington Post reports: It sounds like fiction from “The Lord of the Rings.” An enemy begins attacking a tree. The tree fends it off and sends out a warning message. Nearby trees set up their own defenses. The forest is saved. But you don’t need a magical Ent from J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to conjure this scene. Real trees on our Earth can communicate and warn each other of danger — and a new study explains how. Injured plants emit…

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Over 375 former Bernie Sanders staffers urge senator to introduce ‘ceasefire now’ Senate resolution

Over 375 former Bernie Sanders staffers urge senator to introduce ‘ceasefire now’ Senate resolution

290 Former @BernieSanders Staffers Are Urging The Senator To Sponsor A "Ceasefire Now" Senate Resolution Story to follow. Watch their video message to Sanders: pic.twitter.com/fnV0DONhbp — Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 24, 2023 Dear Senator Sanders, We, the undersigned, worked for you in your 2016 and 2020 campaigns because we share your principles that all human lives are precious, and that all people deserve dignity, peace, and justice. We saw in your candidacy a chance to make life better for oppressed…

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Despite Biden’s doubts, humanitarian agencies consider Gaza toll reliable

Despite Biden’s doubts, humanitarian agencies consider Gaza toll reliable

Reuters reports: U.S. President Joe Biden has cast doubt on casualty figures provided by Palestinian officials in Gaza, but international humanitarian agencies consider them broadly accurate and historically reliable. Although there is no dispute that Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed many people since Hamas ran amok in southern Israel on Oct. 7, Biden said on Wednesday he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using”, without saying why. The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza responded by…

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Only 29% of Israelis support an immediate invasion of Gaza, poll

Only 29% of Israelis support an immediate invasion of Gaza, poll

Reuters reports: Almost half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of Gaza, according to a poll published on Friday, in what may indicate a dip in support for the planned next stage of the counter-offensive against Hamas militants holding some 200 hostages. Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas in response to the Palestinian Islamists’ killing and kidnapping spree in its southern communities on Oct. 7, and has been stepping up tank and infantry raids in concert with heavy…

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Dean Phillips could jolt the Democrats out of complacency — or gift the presidency to Donald Trump

Dean Phillips could jolt the Democrats out of complacency — or gift the presidency to Donald Trump

Tim Alberta writes: To spend time around Dean Phillips, as I have since his first campaign for Congress in 2018, is to encounter someone so earnest as to be utterly suspicious. He speaks constantly of joy and beauty and inspiration, beaming at the prospect of entertaining some new perspective. He allows himself to be interrupted often—by friends, family, staffers—but rarely interrupts them, listening patiently with a politeness that almost feels aggravating. With the practiced manners of one raised with great…

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