Tag Archives: Israel

News: ‘Forced Exodus’ Of Gazans To Egypt Proposal, Public Trust In Ukraine

The Globalist Podcast (November3, 2023) – Sari Bashi, programme director of Human Rights Watch in West Bank, and journalist Robin Lustin join Georgina Godwin to discuss the leaked Israeli government proposal for Gaza and the new emergency radio station for the territory.

We also examine public trust in the Ukrainian government and why Latin America’s aviation industry is booming. Plus: Andrew Mueller’s wry musings on the past week.

The New York Times — Friday, November 3, 2023

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Israeli Troops Encircle Gaza City as Global Criticism of Strikes Mounts

Many people dig through rubble and demolished buildings.

An Israeli military spokesman said that Israeli soldiers had surrounded Gaza’s largest city. White House officials said they would urge Israel to “pause” its bombardment on humanitarian grounds.

U.S. Investigating Whether Adams Received Illegal Donations From Turkey

Mayor Eric Adams has said that he has made numerous visits to Turkey.

A raid at the home of Eric Adams’s chief fund-raiser was part of an inquiry into whether foreign money was funneled into his mayoral campaign, a search warrant shows.

An ‘Israel Explainer’ Makes Her Country’s Case in America

Once a celebrated actress in Israel, Noa Tishby has emerged as a leading pro-Israel voice on U.S. TV, on social media and in print.

Sam Bankman-Fried Is Found Guilty of 7 Counts of Fraud and Conspiracy

The case against the founder of the failed FTX exchange had come to symbolize the excesses of the volatile cryptocurrency industry.

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Nov 4, 2023

Too good to be true: The contradiction at the heart of the world economy

The Economist Magazine (November 2, 2023): The latest issue features The contradiction at the heart of the world economy – Threats abound, including higher-for-longer interest rates; Why Israel must fight on – Unless Hamas’s power is broken, peace will remain out of reach; unless Hamas’s power is broken, peace will remain out of reach; Donald Trump’s tariff plans would inflict grievous damage on America and the world – You may think his worst ideas won’t get far. Sadly, on trade he has been singularly influential…

Too good to be true: The contradiction at the heart of the world economy

The world economy is defying gravity. That cannot last. Threats abound, including higher-for-longer interest rates

Even as wars rage and the geopolitical climate darkens, the world economy has been an irrepressible source of cheer. Only a year ago everyone agreed that high interest rates would soon bring about a recession. Now even the optimists have been confounded. America’s economy roared in the third quarter, growing at a stunning annualised pace of 4.9%. Around the world, inflation is falling, unemployment has mostly stayed low and the big central banks may have stopped their monetary tightening. China, stricken by a property crisis, looks likely to benefit from a modest stimulus. Unfortunately, however, this good cheer cannot last. The foundations for today’s growth look unstable. Peer ahead, and threats abound.

Why Israel must fight on

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is taking a terrible toll. But unless Hamas’s power is broken, peace will remain out of reach

Trade wars: episode II

Donald Trump’s tariff plans would inflict grievous damage on America and the world

You may think his worst ideas won’t get far. Sadly, on trade he has been singularly influential

The New York Review Of Books – November 23, 2023

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The New York Review of Books (November 23, 2023)The latest features Inhumane Times – Israel’s current war, the punishment of the Palestinian people and an offensive against Hamas; Camus on Tour – Travels in the Americas: Notes and Impressions of a New World by Albert Camus; Zoning Out – Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy by Quinn Slobodian, and more…

Inhumane Times

Kibbutz Be’eri, southern Israel, after the Hamas attacks

Israel’s current war seems to be as much a brutal insistence on the collective punishment of the Palestinian people as an offensive against Hamas.

By Joshua Leifer

The scenes of devastation in Israel’s south on October 7 were almost beyond description. Children killed in their beds, babies taken from their mothers’ arms, the elderly slaughtered in their kitchens. Kfar Aza, a kibbutz close to the separation barrier with Gaza, was burned nearly to the ground: a charnel house. Between a quarter and a third of nearby Kibbutz Nir Oz’s residents were killed or kidnapped. Roughly 10 percent of Kibbutz Be’eri’s population was murdered. At least a dozen of tiny Kibbutz Holit’s two hundred members are dead. The streets of the city of Sderot were littered with bodies. At an outdoor rave near Kibbutz Reim, more than 260 young men and women were gunned down as they tried to flee.

Camus on Tour

Most of Albert Camus’s evaluations from his promotional trips across the Atlantic are superficial or laughably snotty. What’s intriguing is how quickly he demands that things make sense.

By Vivian Gornick

Travels in the Americas: Notes and Impressions of a New World by Albert Camus, edited and with an introduction by Alice Kaplan, translated from the French by Ryan Bloom

Nothing in a professional writer’s life more resembles the life of a traveling salesman than the literary book tour. The superficial difference between writers on tour and salesmen on the road is that writers are encouraged to imagine themselves prized personae whose pitch is eagerly awaited by the anonymous crowd, whereas salesmen know themselves to be an intrusion, albeit one with an edge. While both are beggars at the gate, each one singing for a bit of supper, salesmen are independent entrepreneurs, pretty much calling their own shots; writers, on the other hand, are performers in someone else’s show—a talk at ten, a class at twelve, a panel at three, a reading at seven, and oh, did I forget the ten or twelve interviews tucked in at every break in the day?—all the while being dragged around by people otherwise known as “handlers” who every half-hour tell them how much they are loved, how much their work is prized, how many lives it has changed, and yes, they know how tired you must be by now, but would you mind giving just one more very small interview, this guy’s been waiting all day to talk to you.

News: Blinken’s Second Visit To Israel, West Bank Violence, AI Safety Summit

The Globalist Podcast (November 2, 2023) – International Crisis Group’s Palestine analyst, Tahani Mustafa, joins Georgina Godwin to discuss the purpose of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s second visit to Israel and the reported increase in settler violence in the West Bank.

Plus: we explain the biggest challenges addressed at London’s AI Safety Summit and why Switzerland is handing out iodine pills. 

The New York Times — Thursday, Nov 2, 2023

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Limited Flight From Gaza Strip Begins, as Israelis Close In on Main City

Foreign passport holders at the Rafah border crossing check a list to see if they were permitted to leave the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people, including a few Americans, left the besieged territory for Egypt, the first group allowed across the border since the war began.

For Europe’s Jews, a World of Fear

Observing a minute of silence during a rally in solidarity with Israel in Berlin on Oct. 22.

The Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and a surge in acts of antisemitism have awakened a repressed horror in Jewish populations across the continent.

In Protests Against Israel Strikes, G.O.P. Sees ‘Woke Agenda’ at Colleges

As the Mideast war escalates, the party’s politicians and activists are casting antisemitic incidents and progressive protests as part of a larger cultural battle over education.

Infant Deaths Have Risen for the First Time in 20 Years

The increases were particularly stark among babies born to Native American, Alaska Native and white mothers in 2022. Rates among Black infants remained highest of all.

Current Affairs: Prospect Magazine – December 2023

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Prospect Magazine (December 2023) – The latest issue features Oh, the humanities! – History, literature, film studies; I still dream of peace – How Israel might emerge from the Gaza horror, and more…

I still dream of peace

My country will emerge from this horror—and when it does the peacemakers, not the zealots, will reign, writes a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset

By Avraham Burg

The following words were written amid the storm of battle. Planes constantly circling in the sky, the bedroom turned into a shelter, the radio telling of new atrocities, the heart torn with fear as to the fate of missing persons. The days are now devoted to funerals and condolences, and the evenings to guarding our small community. I have participated in many demonstrations against the terrible folly of Benjamin Netanyahu, which found its outcome in the revenge and rage in Gaza on 7th October. Today, I try to be available for acts of support and solidarity with the victims on all sides. This beautiful land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea weeps bitterly, its two communities refusing to be comforted. 

Oh, the humanities!

History, literature, film studies—these subjects expand our understanding and enrich our democracy. They are also under assault

Priyamvada Gopal

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – November 3, 2023

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The Guardian Weekly (November 3, 2023) – The new issue features Bletchley Park, the main center of allied second world war codebreakers, and it’s no coincidence that the English country house was chosen as the venue for this week’s landmark summit on safety in artificial intelligence. The age of AI brings opportunities but also significant risks, as a number of experts in the field outlined in an open letter last week.

Global technology editor Dan Milmo discusses the pros and cons with one of the technology’s leading thinkers, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, who says the rise of AI must be thought of as seriously as the climate crisis. Then, Observer columnist Sonia Sodha argues that calling for AI to be reined in is not simply a sign of luddism.

As Israeli forces entered Gaza this week, Bethan McKernan and Rory Carroll report for us on the increasingly unbearable nature of life in the besieged enclave, and there’s expert analysis and commentary from Julian BorgerPeter Beaumont and Jason Burke.

News: Gaza Health Crisis, EU President In Balkans, Dutch Arctic Ambassador

The Globalist Podcast (November 1, 2023) – The World Health Organization warns that civilians in Gaza face a looming health crisis, Ursula von der Leyen continues her Balkans tour and we hear from The Netherlands’ ambassador for the Arctic.

Plus: is the future of the pharmacy in jeopardy and how is climate change affecting cheesemakers?

The New York Times — Wednesday, Nov 1, 2023

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A Deadly Airstrike, and Gazans at the Breaking Point

The aftermath of the airstrike at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel said it killed a Hamas leader at a refugee camp, but many other people were wounded and killed, Hamas said. The assault came as fuel, food and water shortages pushed civilians to the brink.

Israel Faces Hostage Dilemma in Gaza

Family members of the hostages held in Gaza and their supporters during a demonstration on Sunday in Tel Aviv.

The country has said there are two main goals in the war: Destroy Hamas and free the hostages held in Gaza. But are those goals compatible?

In Cyberattacks, Iran Shows Signs of Improved Hacking Capabilities

A monthslong hacking campaign targeted the governments of regional rivals, including Israel, and marked a turn, a new report says, as the attacks were used to collect intelligence, not just disrupt services.

Panel Says That Innovative Sickle Cell Cure Is Safe Enough for Patients

The decision by an advisory committee may lead to Food and Drug Administration approval of the first treatment for humans that uses the CRISPR gene-editing system.