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Category: Politics

A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

Politico reports: In notably blunt terms Thursday, top U.S. officials made a series of warnings to the Israeli government that they were nearly out of patience with its conduct of the war in Gaza. President Joe Biden and his top deputies said they would consider changing their policy towards Israel unless more consideration was given towards the humanitarian crisis its military was producing. A top Biden ally in the Senate argued that aid could be conditioned should Israel follow through…

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Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

  World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés is speaking out after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza: “Humanitarians and civilians should never be paying the consequences of war. This is a basic principle of humanity.” video showing the Israeli army shooting a Palestinian civilian several times after he managed to get an aid package thrown from the air . The Israeli army continued shooting him after he was injured while he was trying to crawl…

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‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

The New York Times reports: One of the strongest voices inside the White House urging an end to civilian casualties in Gaza is the person closest to the president: Jill Biden. At a meeting with Muslim community members at the White House on Tuesday evening, one guest told President Biden that his wife had disapproved of him coming to the meeting because of Mr. Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Mr. Biden replied that he understood. The…

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MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

Reuters reports: The Doctors Without Borders medical charity (MSF) said on Thursday it rejected Israel’s position that an airstrike which killed seven aid workers was a “regrettable incident”, saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously. Seven workers from World Central Kitchen, which provides food relief in crisis and conflict zones, were killed when their convoy was hit on Monday night shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to the Palestinian enclave by sea. “We…

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Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

The Guardian reports: A fourth former supreme court justice has put his name to a letter warning Rishi Sunak that the UK is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, as the number of legal experts signing the letter rose to more than 750. Lord Carnwath joins Lady Hale, who was president of the UK’s highest court, and lords Sumption and Wilson, in urging ministers to act to prevent the “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza. Another new signatory…

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Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Politico reports: The Biden administration put the finishing touches Thursday on a plan to restrict presidents from unilaterally nixing civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce, as former President Donald Trump renews his vow to uproot a perceived “deep state” if he is returned to the White House. While a future president could take steps to squelch the new directive, it reflects a larger effort by the Biden administration to put a protective wall around its policies….

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Why Judge Aileen Cannon is on thin ice in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case

Why Judge Aileen Cannon is on thin ice in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case

Norman Eisen, E. Danya Perry and Joshua Kolb write: On Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith threw down the gauntlet in an extraordinary filing in the Mar-a-Lago prosecution, the case that centers around former President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents and his resistance to government attempts to recover them from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Smith warned Judge Aileen Cannon that her approach to the law governing the handling of presidential records — and so Donald Trump’s culpability in the case —…

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In Gaza, Israel unleashed a rogue army in which ‘every commander makes his own rules’

In Gaza, Israel unleashed a rogue army in which ‘every commander makes his own rules’

The Times of Israel reports: [O]n Tuesday evening, the Haaretz daily spoke to unnamed military sources who revealed that the cause of the strike [killing seven World Central Kitchen staffers] was undisciplined, rogue commanders, not a lack of coordination between the IDF and the WCK. A source in the intelligence branch told Haaretz that the IDF’s Southern Command “knows exactly what the cause of the attack was: in Gaza, everyone does as they please.” Army regulations require final approvals from…

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José Andrés: Let people eat

José Andrés: Let people eat

José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, writes: In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always. The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity. They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war. Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, John Chapman, Jacob Flickinger,…

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‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

The Guardian reports: The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war. In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict. Their…

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‘Not a normal war’: Doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

‘Not a normal war’: Doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

The Guardian reports: Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes. “I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said….

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Palestinian American doctor explains why he walked out of Biden meeting

Palestinian American doctor explains why he walked out of Biden meeting

  President Biden held a meeting at the White House with Arab and Muslim leaders and activists Tuesday amid ongoing criticism for his stance on the Israel-Hamas war. Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American emergency physician from Chicago who traveled to Gaza earlier this year, said he walked out of the event after delivering a note to Mr. Biden from an 8-year-old. “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign correspondent Margaret Brennan spoke with Dr. Ahmad about his…

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1 in 5 Americans think violence may solve U.S. divisions, poll finds

1 in 5 Americans think violence may solve U.S. divisions, poll finds

NPR reports: One in 5 U.S. adults believe Americans may have to resort to violence to get their own country back on track, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, an attitude that experts say puts the nation in “an incredibly dangerous place” in the months before the 2024 presidential election. Most Americans, no matter their political affiliation, do not believe that violence is a solution to domestic political divisions, according to this latest poll. But Republicans were more likely…

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Trump Media saved in 2022 by Russian-American under criminal investigation

Trump Media saved in 2022 by Russian-American under criminal investigation

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation. The former US president stands to gain billions of dollars – his stake is currently valued at about $4bn – from the merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and the blank-check company Digital World Acquisition…

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Israel’s habit of targeting and killing humanitarian workers

Israel’s habit of targeting and killing humanitarian workers

  The Times of Israel reports: Speaking to Channel 12, a senior Israeli official echoed the fears that the incident could be a turning point in the war. Channel 12 reported that Israeli officials fear the WCK deaths and disruptions to aid deliveries will exacerbate famine concerns. Other aid agencies may also stop their operations, which would leave Israel forced to choose between taking over food distribution — effectively making it a military governor of Gaza — or ending the…

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Israel is now ‘a step away from international ostracism,’ says former president following attack on WCK

Israel is now ‘a step away from international ostracism,’ says former president following attack on WCK

The Daily Beast reports: On Tuesday, former Israeli president Reuven Rivlin told IDF Radio that Israel is now “a step away from international ostracism,” according to Haaretz. “We are losing the tremendous morality that all Israeli governments for generations have enjoyed, by the conduct and behavior of the IDF and by the behavior of the State of Israel in everything related to the wars we have waged for 76 years,” Rivlin said. According to the World Central Kitchen, its staff…

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