Attention to the Unseen

Peter Beaumont writes: Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces. In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun…

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  Battle lines are being drawn around the war with Hamas as the United States and Russia comfortably slide into their Cold War-era roles as backers of opposite sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Insider’s Simon Ostrovsky gets to the bottom of what Russia’s deteriorating relationship with Israel could mean for the war in Ukraine as well as its position in the Middle East.

  The Guardian reports: A German foundation has said it will no longer be awarding a prize for political thinking to a leading Russian-American journalist after criticising as “unacceptable” a recent essay by the writer in which they made a comparison between Gaza and a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe. Masha Gessen was due to be presented with the Hannah Arendt prize for political thought on Friday. But the award ceremony will now not take place as planned after the…

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The Guardian reports: Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has blocked a €50bn EU aid package for Ukraine, hours after leaders side-stepped his opposition to agree to open talks with Kyiv on joining the bloc. A crunch summit in Brussels broke up close to 3am on Friday with the Hungarian leader refusing to green light funding to help Ukraine’s government over the next four years. EU leaders will postpone their discussion on the budget to January, concluding that after seven hours…

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  CNN reports: Political appointees and Biden administration staffers held a vigil in front of the White House on Wednesday to call on President Joe Biden to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. More than three dozen people, including political appointees, administration staffers and civil service career staff, attended the early evening vigil in front of the White House. The participants wore sunglasses and masks to conceal their identities. Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned from his…

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  CNN reports: Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas since October 7 have been unguided, otherwise known as “dumb bombs,” according to a new US intelligence assessment. The assessment, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and described to CNN by three sources who have seen it, says that about 40-45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used have been unguided. The rest have been…

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  CNN’s Clarissa Ward witnessed the horror and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza during a visit to a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates.

On Tuesday, Biden said Israel was carrying out "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza. On Wednesday, administration officials told CNN Biden has "no plans to shift its position and draw any red lines around the transfer of weapons and munitions to Israel." https://t.co/LTOTyvOmLE — Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) December 13, 2023 CNN reports: The Biden administration currently has no plans to place conditions on the military aid it is providing to Israel, officials told CNN, despite growing calls by Democratic lawmakers and human…

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  Israel’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News’ Mark Austin that her country would not accept a two-state solution when the war with Gaza ends. When pressed on the question of the Palestinians having their own state, Tzipi Hotovely said: “Absolutely no.” Asked how there can be peace without a Palestinian state, she added: “Israel knows today and the world should know now… that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.”

Wendy Pearlman writes: The aftermath of last week’s congressional hearing on antisemitism with presidents from three elite universities saw the resignation this week of University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill. Although the others, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth, have survived calls for their ousters, the outcry continues. I’ve been paying close attention to what’s being discussed during this uproar — and what isn’t. As a graduate student two decades ago, I was president of the Students…

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Reuters reports: U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel is losing support over its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu should change, exposing a new rift in relations with the Israeli prime minister. Biden’s remarks, made to donors to his 2024 re-election campaign, were his most critical to date of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. They are a stark contrast to his literal and political embrace of the Israeli leader days after Hamas militants’…

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The New York Times reports: Nine weeks ago, the Gaza Strip was a bustling home to more than two million people. Today, neighborhoods have been flattened by Israeli airstrikes and farming communities have been bulldozed by invading Israeli tanks. Video and satellite imagery captured in late November and early December reveals a devastating transformation in much of northern Gaza. The Port of Gaza used to be a lifeline for the Gazan fishing industry, with a fish market next to the…

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Maura Reynolds writes: It was nearly two years ago that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in recent months, the fighting appears to have ground to a stalemate. Aid from the United States has helped Ukraine get this far — but now Americans are asking, how long should they continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia? At this point, just what are the stakes for the United States? Since the war began, I’ve turned to Fiona…

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The New York Times reports: The Russian push in eastern Ukraine this fall and winter was designed to sap Western support for Ukraine, according to a newly declassified American intelligence assessment. The drive has resulted in heavy losses but has not led to strategic gains on the battlefield for Russia, said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Since the beginning of the war Russia has suffered from a staggeringly high number of losses, according to another newly…

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