Attention to the Unseen

Shane Burley writes: “Let Gaza live! Let Gaza live!” The chant bounced off the century-old granite walls of New York City’s historic Grand Central Station on Oct. 27, as thousands poured onto the floor wearing black T-shirts reading “Jews Say Ceasefire Now.” This messaging has become familiar, as massive rallies around the country, including one of 5,000 people in Washington, D.C., and others in dozens more cities, have been organized by Jewish activists speaking primarily as Jews. These protests represent…

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The New York Times reports: The United States-led airstrikes on Thursday and Friday against sites in Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia damaged or destroyed about 90 percent of the targets struck, but the group retained about three-quarters of its ability to fire missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea, two U.S. officials said on Saturday. The damage estimates are the first detailed assessments of the strikes by American and British attack planes and warships against nearly 30…

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Middle East Eye reports: After three months of Israel’s war on Gaza, and after months of widespread mass protests against the war and calls for US President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire, Washington ordered air strikes on Yemen, an escalatory move that could push the region into a wider war. The decision by Biden has exponentially increased the level of anger from lawmakers and progressives who have been working since October to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. But…

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HuffPost reports: Top White House official Brett McGurk is quietly floating a controversial plan to reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s assault concludes, HuffPost has learned, despite serious concerns from some officials inside the administration that it would sow the seeds for future instability in the region. In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that…

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Elisabeth Kendall writes: On 14 November 2023, the military spokesman of Yemen’s Houthis, General Yahya Sarea, released a statement with an image of an Israeli ship on fire with a vow to ‘sink your ships’. Five days later, dramatic footage captured on the bodycams of Houthi hijackers and beamed around the world showed heavily armed insurgents clad in black balaclavas jumping out of a helicopter onto the deck of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman,…

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  Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen and Middle East expert, Girton College, University of Cambridge, says: “Of course the reason behind the strikes by the United States and the UK is to try to disengage the Houthis from wreaking havoc in the Red Sea. So the whole point is to try to tamp down the conflict there, and to ease the burden of fear on the shipping industry and therefore the knock-on effects that that has on our economies. The problem now…

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The Observer reports: An unlikely charge of intent to commit treason landed Meir Baruchin, a grey-haired, softly spoken history and civics teacher, in the solitary confinement wing of Jerusalem’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison in early November. The evidence compiled by police who handcuffed him, then drove to his apartment and ransacked it as he watched, was a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticising the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge. “Horrific…

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Houthi supporters rally in Yemen following U.S.-U.K. airstrikes. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region. The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command, including in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the main port of Hodeida and…

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Patrick Wintour writes: The near-official slogan of the Houthi movement is: “God is the Greatest / Death to America / Death to Israel / A curse upon the Jews.” Crowds of supporters in the group’s northern Yemen strongholds have been chanting it for more than 20 years, ever since the phrase was brought back from Tehran at the turn of the century, when it was first directed at the then Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. So those who claim the…

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