American Snipers
As Kirk’s assassination draws global outrage, another American sniper boasts of killing scores of Palestinian civilians. Plus, West Bank annexation plans and Israel sabotages another ceasefire.
Quick editor’s note for new readers: I aim to send this out every Saturday or Sunday. It opens with a short reflection on what’s been on my mind, followed by a weekly news roundup organized by region: Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, the US, and occasionally elsewhere.
Charlie Kirk is dead, murdered in Utah on Wednesday. An assassin perched on a rooftop some 450 feet away fired a single rifle round into his neck as he debated mass shootings before thousands of students.
The killing was a heinous act that deserves unequivocal condemnation. But that doesn’t mean we should glorify the life of someone who was, to put it mildly, a toxic influence on American public life. I doubt Kirk would mind me saying this so soon after his death—in addition to being an ostensible free speech absolutist, he clearly relished being the subject of provocation. When I die, I can only hope I’m talked about half as much as he has been by friends and enemies alike.
I’ve heard the argument that Kirk’s willingness to host open, civil debates across the ideological spectrum was admirable, and I’ll grant that. But it’s far outweighed by his record of flatly racist statements; his cheerleading for the slaughter in Gaza; his contention that gun deaths are an acceptable cost of an “armed citizenry”; his Trumpian politics of resentment and demagoguery; his promotion of the “stolen election” conspiracy; and his role as a mouthpiece for a lawless administration. The last two, in particular, are why it’s so galling that Ezra Klein cast him as a paragon of democracy just a week after warning that we must stop treating Trump’s march toward authoritarianism as “normal.” Kirk, after all, was one of Trump’s most devoted disciples.
What’s also alarming is how Kirk’s peers on the far right have claimed the “Left” is celebrating his death and used it as a pretext to declare war—hopefully just a rhetorical one. In reality, outside of the anonymous trolls and loud idiots who say outrageous things about everything, the response from leaders on the Left—which, to them, includes anyone left of Reagan—has been overwhelmingly respectful. (As it happens, I have the unfortunate habit of engaging my detractors on X, which makes me acutely aware of how often those on the “Right” openly fantasize about murdering those of us on the “Left.”) As details about the shooter emerged—a whitebread kid from a conservative Utah family—the Right wasted no time in twisting them to fit their fantasy of Marxist-Trans-Antifa indoctrination.
It wasn’t long ago that a prominent Israel supporter argued on this platform that journalists engaged in “information warfare”—a category that certainly included me—should be treated as enemy combatants, stripped of civilian protections. It was this same slippery-slope logic that made it a very easy call for me to condemn the killing of two Israeli embassy employees in DC, even though they served as functionaries for a death machine. The moment you empower vigilante “justice,” especially in a country awash in guns, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.
As many have noted, we are surrounded by political violence—from the routine school shootings enabled by Republicans’ refusal to consider gun safety laws, to the genocide in Palestine backed by US politicians across the aisle, to Trump’s personal military brutalizing immigrants and protesters in the streets. Still, this moment feels unique: a singular collision of political polarization, celebrity, and perhaps the most shocking, grisly spectacle of bloodshed in the social media age—emphasis on shocking given the daily gore from Gaza we have shamefully come to expect.
Against that numbed outrage, another American sniper entered the news this week with far less fanfare.
In 2019, at the University of Illinois, a residence hall diversity training included a student-led presentation titled “Palestine & Great Return March: Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror.” The Daily Illini quoted a sophomore, Daniel Raab, describing what he was forced to endure:
“It’s a narrative of demonization of Israel and its citizens and Jewish students,” Raab said. “When you are demonizing the state of Israel strictly without context of other nations, you are singling out the Jewish state, you are singling out 7 million Jews who live in Israel out of the whole world and the whole world’s problems: that’s anti-Semitism.”
Two years later, in 2021, Daniel Raab—by then the president of Students Supporting Israel—appeared in the school paper again, this time describing direct experiences of harassment. He said that a mezuzah was ripped off his door, and then, after hanging an Israeli flag, he became the target of late-night banging on his door accompanied by antisemitic slurs. He also recounted being spit on and called a “murderer” and “Zionist” while tabling for a pro-Israel student group, and later nearly being run over by someone shouting “free Palestine.” Raab argued that the university’s threshold for what counts as antisemitism was far too low, and that groups like Students for Justice in Palestine were fueling a hostile climate for Jewish students.
After he graduated from college, Daniel Raab joined the Israeli military. On October 9, 2023—as reported by Sami Vanderlip in Drop Site—Raab’s mother posted to Facebook asking for donations for her son’s sniper unit. She listed gear like helmets, vests, silencers, barrels, sniper stands, and camouflage. The nonprofit she and Raab’s father registered in Illinois—Friends of Paratrooper Sniper Unit 202—raised more than $300,000 in its first year, with Daniel himself later thanking donors for transforming the unit’s battlefield capabilities.
Last week, The Guardian ran a story prominently featuring Raab—The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich—a follow-up to an investigative film by Vanderlip and Younis Tirawi. Here are a few highlights:
Daniel Raab shows no hesitation as he watches footage of 19-year-old Salem Doghmosh crumpling to the ground beside his brother in a street in northern Gaza.
“That was my first elimination,” he says... The Palestinian teenager appears to be unarmed when he is shot in the head.
Raab, a former varsity basketball player from a Chicago suburb who became an Israeli sniper, concedes he knew that. He says he shot Salem simply because he tried to retrieve the body of his beloved older brother Mohammed.
“It’s hard for me to understand why he [did that] and it also doesn’t really interest me… I mean, what was so important about that corpse?”
[Note: Footage of this killing can be found in Vanderlip’s Drop Site article.]
…“They’re thinking: ‘Oh I don’t think [I’ll get shot] because I’m wearing civilian clothes and I am not carrying a weapon and all that, but they were wrong,” said Raab, who majored in biology at the University of Illinois before joining the Israel Defense Forces. “That’s what you have snipers for.”
After Salem was shot, his father, Montasser, 51, rushed to the site, and tried to collect his sons’ bodies for burial… “My boys,” was all he could say when he saw them lying dead in the street. He tried to approach them and was shot.
“They just kept on coming to try and take these bodies,” Raab said.
When asked how his squad decided whether to shoot unarmed Palestinians, Raab said: “It’s a question of distance. There is a line that we define. They don’t know where this line is, but we do.”
…Raab says Israeli snipers shot eight people in two days near the Barcelona Garden park. Six of them were most likely from the Doghmosh family… In total, Raab says his “team” had killed 105 people by the time his deployment in Gaza ended. “That’s really impressive,” he said of the toll.
Unlike Kirk’s killer—whose ideology, to the extent it exists, seems like a tangle of internet detritus and gaming references—Raab laid his out in plain terms:
In the Hebrew Bible, Amalek refers to an ancient people cast as the Israelites’ eternal enemy, remembered for launching an unprovoked attack during the Exodus and viewed in modern Jewish tradition as a representation of the ultimate evil. Netanyahu and countless other Israeli leaders have drawn the same comparison.
The biblical narrative culminates in this divine command:
Remember what Amalek did to you… when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you… you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget… Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
These revelations cast Raab’s earlier claims of antisemitism in a new light. Perhaps they were sincere, and having endured his time on campus with “enemies all around,” he now sees this as his moment to strike back. Even in that most generous reading, what he carried out in Gaza amounts to straightforward collective punishment.
But it’s difficult to accept Raab, an unrepentant serial killer, as a hapless victim singled out simply for being Jewish. Even if we grant him the benefit of the doubt, it’s clear much of what he labeled antisemitism was simply harsh criticism of Israel or solidarity with Palestinians—and that his complaint about the university’s “low threshold” for antisemitism stemmed from the same instinct to demonize and dehumanize the people he would later brag about indiscriminately killing.
A similar logic played out with fellow American IDF veteran Miles Rubin, who, while at Columbia, sued the university for allegedly tolerating “severe and pervasive” antisemitism. “Please help me, I cannot continue to bear witness to all of this,” he wrote to administrators, begging to attend class remotely because a pro-Palestine rally was scheduled for the next day.
After the Guardian story gained momentum on X, another article featuring Raab’s claims of antisemitism at the University of Illinois—a 2021 piece titled Chicago Israel Rally Turns Violent—was quietly taken down by Aish, a site that bills itself as offering “a singular focus of imparting timeless Jewish wisdom.” It now redirects to an unrelated article about “antisemitism” in Chicago, with no reference to Raab.
One has to wonder how many of these accounts of antisemitism would collapse—or even invert—if all the facts came out. Consider, for example, Jerry Seinfeld, who last week took the stage at Duke and declared that those chanting “Free Palestine” are worse than the Ku Klux Klan, who at least “come right out and say… ‘we don’t like Jews.’” Seinfeld’s wife helped bankroll the violent pro-Israel group behind the brutal mob attack on UCLA’s Gaza solidarity encampment—an assault in which no attacker was ever prosecuted—and he once brought his whole family to an “anti-terror” fantasy camp in an illegal West Bank settlement, where tourists, including children, fire at cutouts of Palestinians in staged “terror attack” drills.
Three weeks after October 7, prominent pro-Israel influencer Hillel Fuld posted a photo of Raab, in military fatigues, embracing his sister. Fuld wrote that Raab’s unit had “fought like lions to save as many innocent lives as possible and exterminate the barbaric terrorists,” hailing it as a reflection of the “supernatural heroism of the Jewish people.”
Despite the reporting on Raab’s actions in Gaza, that post remains up. And Raab, of course, is hardly unique: his story mirrors those of thousands of Israeli soldiers who have taken part in the mass slaughter in Gaza. For many—including the majority of US politicians who rushed to pay tribute to Kirk—the 105 Palestinians killed by Raab’s unit have been folded into the faceless mass of “barbaric terrorists” exterminated in Gaza. There will be no meaningful push to hold Raab accountable; he and his fellow soldiers will instead be hailed as heroes by much of the mainstream establishment.
This is what celebrating murder actually looks like, but we’re so used to it that it barely registers. Call it what it is, and you might get branded an antisemite—like I was by countless pro-Israel accounts on X after posting Raab’s own comments and calling him a serial killer.
In his final months, Charlie Kirk began to doubt the wisdom of unwavering US support for Israel—an inconvenient detail erased by those now casting him as a martyr for free speech while fighting to silence criticism of Israel. If our leaders want to pay real tribute, they might ask some of the same questions.
Before the news roundup, here’s a very nice endorsement of my work from Sam Seder:
If you find my writing valuable, I ask two things:
Gaza
Ceasefire Talks
Drop Site obtained the roughly 100-word ceasefire plan Trump sent to Hamas last weekend: all hostages in Gaza, living and dead, would be freed within 48 hours, alongside Palestinian prisoners serving life terms and detainees from Gaza; a 60-day ceasefire—or one lasting until talks concluded—would begin immediately, with Trump guaranteeing good-faith negotiations; the agenda included defining Hamas and disarmament, forming a new government, the withdrawal of Israeli forces once that government was in place or talks were complete, and amnesty for Hamas members; and aid would flow openly into Gaza once the deal took effect.
Netanyahu ally Amit Segal quipped that the proposal was really an Israeli plan disguised as American—“like iPhones made in China but stamped ‘Made in the USA.’” A senior Hamas official told Drop Site that the deal would “de-legitimize the Palestinian resistance, to deal with it like the Nazis, while the Israelis enjoy [the appearance of] moral superiority.” (Drop Site)
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel accepted the terms, saying the war could end “tomorrow” if Hamas disarms and frees all 48 hostages. (Ynet)
Just Kidding
As Hamas’s negotiators reviewed the proposal in their Doha, Qatar headquarters—in a residential compound in a diplomatic district with embassies, schools, and a daycare center—Israel bombed them. Qatar had long hosted Hamas with the explicit backing of both Washington and Jerusalem to serve as mediator. The operation was called “Summit of Fire,” a reflection of Israel’s thoughts on the peace process. (Ynet)
Hamas said five of its members were killed, including the son and chief of staff of lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, but said its negotiating team—the target of the strikes—survived the assassination attempt; Qatari officials confirmed one of their own internal security officers was also killed. Qatar condemned the assault as a “cowardly” and “flagrant violation” of sovereignty, briefly suspended its role as mediator, and launched an investigation. (BBC, Haaretz)
“On this day, as in previous days, Israel acted wholly independently,” Netanyahu said. “This action can open the door to an end of the war. If President Trump’s proposal is accepted,” he added—referring to the very people he had just tried to assassinate—“the war can end immediately.” (TOI)
Defense Minister Katz reiterated Israel’s policy of disregarding sovereign borders, declaring, “Israel’s security policy is clear—Israel’s long arm will act against its enemies anywhere.” (X)
The Washington Post reported that Netanyahu ordered the Qatar strike after Mossad refused to execute its own ground plan out of concern it would destroy vital ties to their key ceasefire mediator. (WaPo)
Trump’s response was a mix of apology, deflection, and spin. He insisted the strike was Netanyahu’s decision, “not a decision made by me,” while the White House said the US military spotted the strike too late, and although Trump instructed envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar, the bombs were already falling. He called Emir Tamim of Qatar to assure him that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil,” stressing that Qatar is a “strong ally” and that he “feels very badly” about the location of the attack. At the same time, he declared that while striking inside a sovereign ally “does not advance Israel’s or America’s goals,” “eliminating Hamas” remained a “worthy goal,” and the strike may actually be an “opportunity for peace.” (Axios, TOI)
On Wednesday, while continuing to push the Hamas negotiators to accept the proposal, Netanyahu issued an ultimatum to Qatar: “Either you expel them or put them on trial—if you don’t, we will.” (Ynet)
Hamas said on Thursday that the strike was an “assassination of the entire negotiation process.” Trump concurred, with a source inside the White House saying, “Every time they’re making progress, it seems like [Netanyahu] bombs someone.” (TOI, Ynet)
Nearly 50 Arab and Islamic leaders are gathering in Doha today for an “emergency summit” to plot a course of action. (AJ)
Collaborators
The history of quiet coordination between Israel and Hamas resurfaced in another revelation last week: leaked recordings from a closed conference in June 2022 show former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen privately praising Qatari cash transfers to Hamas as a “blessing” that preserved stability in Gaza. (Hayom)
War on Gaza City
On Monday, Drop Site reported that Israel leveled 50 high-rises and hundreds of tents in Gaza City in just two days, part of an operation Netanyahu called the “prelude” to a full ground invasion; families displaced from earlier strikes described running with children as towers fell, sleeping on rubble with no clothes, food, or water. Civil Defense said residents were often bombed without warning, with bodies trapped under collapsed buildings, while among the dozens killed was photojournalist Osama Balousha, the 250th journalist slain in Gaza. (Drop Site)
On Tuesday, Israel ordered the total evacuation of Gaza City, dropping leaflets and issuing Arabic-language warnings as Defense Minister Katz threatened Gaza would be “razed” unless Hamas surrendered. (NYT)
Haaretz reported that Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir ordered the evacuation despite the army’s top lawyer warning it was legally indefensible, with military leaders presenting “a scenario that doesn’t exist” about southern Gaza’s capacity. (Haaretz)
Aid officials agreed, warning there is no space left for more tents in the south, and even new supplies are scarce; an Israeli security official admitted only 3,000 tents had entered Gaza so far, though the “hope” was for 100,000 in the coming weeks. Tents that once cost $60 are now priced at $1,200. Demonstrators in Gaza City held signs declaring “We will not leave,” fearing exile would be permanent like their grandparents’ in 1948. One man described zigzagging under trees to avoid drones and snipers, while others said they would rather die at home than be forced into Israel’s so-called “safe zones,” which have already been bombed. (+972)
The World Food Programme warned that many Palestinians are now “too weak, sick, or starving to move at all.” (MEE)
The Israeli military claims 280,000 Gaza City residents have fled, though Gaza’s Civil Defense puts the number at just 68,000, as Israel escalates strikes on homes, schools, and shelters. Families say they were given only 30 minutes to flee before towers were leveled, carrying paralyzed parents down stairwells while grabbing screaming toddlers and neighbors’ children. (TOI, AJ)
Annihilation
The Gaza Health Ministry reports the confirmed death toll is 64,803, up from 64,368 last week, including at least 19,424 children. Another 163,503 have been injured. (AJ)
Ex-Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi concurred, admitting that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in Gaza, despite Israel and the US routinely dismissing the “Hamas Health Ministry” reports as propaganda. He also said “not once” did legal advice constrain Israel’s military decisions, describing the war as one where “we took the gloves off from the first minute.” (Guardian)
International doctors who worked across Gaza say they repeatedly treated children 15 and under with single gunshot wounds to the head or chest—at least 114 cases by their most conservative count. (De Volkskrant)
At least 420 people have died from Israel’s imposed starvation, including 145 children. (AJ)
Nearly 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza are stranded without care as 94% of hospitals, including its only cancer-specialized facility, lie in ruins; 2,900 await evacuation while at least 338 have died waiting for Israeli approval, doctors report early-stage cancers turning fatal due to delays, and patients lose biopsy results when bombed hospitals shut down. (New Arab)
A student in Gaza explained why he insists on continuing his education when the chances of using his lessons are slim: “We study not because we have the privilege to dream, but because it’s the only way we can scream that we deserve life.” (Nation)
Reuters documented Gaza’s child amputees beginning treatment in Lebanon, including six-year-old Omar Abu Kuwaik, who believes his missing hand will grow back by his next birthday. (Reuters)
Gaza Humanitarian Crusaders
A BBC investigation found that UG Solutions, the private contractor guarding GHF aid sites, has hired at least 40 members of the anti-Muslim Infidels Motorcycle Club to run armed security, with contractors paid up to $1,580 a day. Members have been photographed in Gaza holding “Make Gaza Great Again” signs. The group’s leader, who has “1095” (the year of the First Crusade) tattooed across his chest, once threw a pig roast “in defiance of Ramadan” and used Facebook to recruit anyone who could “still shoot, move and communicate.” Another of the men sells T-shirts declaring “Embrace Violence” and “Gaza Summer 25: Surf All Day, Rockets All Night.” (BBC)
Ethnic Cleansing
US Senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen released a report after visiting Israel and the West Bank that accused Netanyahu’s government of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza by destroying civilian infrastructure, blocking aid, and weaponizing food. “The United States is complicit,” they concluded, adding that “The world has a moral and legal obligation to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing.” Van Hollen elaborated on the findings in an interview with Tommy Vietor. (Van Hollen)
Netanyahu reportedly discussed the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in a meeting with senior defense officials and cabinet ministers. (TOI)
This Guy Again
Jared Kushner, who is paid tens of millions by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf governments through his private equity fund, has re-emerged as Trump’s point man on Gaza—joining envoy Steve Witkoff and Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer in Miami to work on a deal to conditionally end the war. He and Tony Blair, whose institute has been tied to the “Trump Riviera” redevelopment scheme, are also pitching post-war plans. (Axios)
The Israelis
Israel staged a hero’s welcome for 350 Diaspora Jews who arrived in Tel Aviv to join the military, part of a 40% surge in international recruits since Oct. 7. (Haaretz)
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza on Monday when a three-man Palestinian cell opened fire on their tank near Sheikh Radwan and hurled an explosive device inside. (JPost)
Flotilla
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said a drone struck their Portuguese-flagged aid ship off Tunisia on Tuesday, sparking a fire; a day later, the flotilla reported a second drone attack, saying an incendiary device ignited the deck of its British-flagged boat Alma in a Tunisian port. No injuries were reported in either incident. (Guardian)
Also on Wednesday, Israel’s Diaspora and Antisemitism Ministry accused the flotilla of being a Hamas- and Muslim Brotherhood–coordinated cover operation, calling it a propaganda campaign designed to grant international legitimacy to terrorism under the guise of human rights. In other words, Israel is now officially labeling the flotilla as Hamas—a red alert, if history is any guide, for possible military action. (Ynet)
West Bank
Catastrophe
On Wednesday, I joined Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland on The Majority Report for a conversation that started with West Bank annexation but spiraled into a broader discussion of the state of the “conflict.” The clip below, from the end, gives a good sense of the vibe:
The rest of the conversation was plenty substantive—I promise you’ll come away with something new. I join at 48:30 of the YouTube video and 45:50 of the podcast version.
Shooting in Jerusalem
As I wrote last week, Israel’s Channel 14 reported that the army was preparing for an “extreme scenario” that could lead to all-out war in the West Bank, calling September a “sensitive month” due to the UN assembly and “political developments”:
“The subtext isn’t hard to parse: with UN recognition of a Palestinian state on the table and annexation pressures mounting, the military is preparing for Palestinian resistance—promising to freeze Gaza operations, shift forces east, and wage “a war that will end decisively.” That choice of words echoes Smotrich’s 2017 Decisive Plan—his blueprint for annexation and for solving the Palestinian question once and for all. Settlers and right-wing extremists who now control Israel’s government have long been itching for a confrontation—a Third Intifada—as the pretext to make it a reality.”
It didn’t take long for Israel to get its pretext. On Monday morning, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a crowded bus stop in northern Jerusalem, killing six and wounding dozens, before a soldier and an armed civilian shot them dead. On Tuesday, Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack. (Reuters)
The Response
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas immediately condemned the shooting, saying he “disavows all forms of violence and terrorism, regardless of their source.”
Despite this, Smotrich said, “The Palestinian Authority must disappear from the map, and the villages from which the terrorists came should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun.” Netanyahu declared, “A mighty war against terror is taking place on all fronts.” Defense Minister Israel Katz promised “severe and far-reaching consequences,” citing the destruction of Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps as precedent. (Haaretz, AJ)
But justifying their imminent assault on the West Bank wasn’t enough. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir blamed the shooting on the High Court’s ruling a day earlier that Israel’s prison system had to stop starving its prisoners—more on that later—claiming the judges had sent “a message to terrorists” and vowing that nothing would change. Netanyahu echoed that line, faulting the courts for going “easy on our enemies.”
After bombing Hamas’s negotiators in Qatar the following day, Netanyahu claimed it was retaliation for the shooting, even though Hamas had only claimed responsibility hours earlier. The strike had clearly been long in the works, and Netanyahu’s statement was another bid to fold West Bank operations into the war on Gaza and justify further military action there.
Other far-right figures demanded expulsions, executions, and settlement expansion, with Zvi Sukkot and Yitzhak Kroizer invoking vengeance and likening Palestinians to Nazis to be “destroyed and eliminated.” (TOI)
West Bank Raids
Within hours of Monday’s shooting, Israeli forces launched sweeping raids across the West Bank. Soldiers invaded Qatanna and Al-Qubeibah, the towns near Ramallah where the attackers were from, sealing them off, raiding homes, arresting relatives of the shooters, and imposing new movement restrictions on some 70,000 Palestinians. Nearly 100 miles away in Jenin, troops killed two 14-year-old boys and seriously wounded two others near their homes, claiming they “posed a threat” without providing evidence.
By Tuesday, Israel’s leaders grew more specific in their calls for collective punishment. Netanyahu ordered the ethnic cleansing and destruction of “terror nests” in the West Bank, as they did the refugee camps in the north. Defense Minister Katz followed by ordering civil sanctions on the relatives and residents of the attackers’ villages, the revocation of 750 work and entry permits, and the demolition of all “illegal structures” in those villages. (JNS, JPost)
On Wednesday, Israeli forces detonated the Beit Awwa home of a detainee connected to an unrelated incident, leaving his wife, parents, and three children homeless. Settlers escalated attacks near Nablus, torching a nursery, cutting down olive trees, vandalizing cars, and assaulting homes, while the army closed key roads and set up new checkpoints. (AJ, MEE)
By early Thursday, Israeli forces had detained dozens of Palestinians in overnight raids across six provinces—including the mayor of Silat ad-Dhahr and senior Fatah officials in Salfit—while settlers torched vehicles in Bethlehem and Ramallah and scrawled racist slogans on others. Near Deir Jarir by Ramallah, 21-year-old Mohammad Issa Ahmad Alawi was shot dead during a clash with soldier-backed settlers. Troops shot and wounded a young laborer near Jerusalem, bulldozed farmland in Jenin, and issued demolition orders for five homes and a school in Masafer Yatta. (Anadolu, YNet, MEM, Haaretz)
An Israeli armored vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb near the Tulkarm crossing, lightly wounding two soldiers. In response, the Israeli military locked down the city and detained and marched roughly one thousand Palestinians through the streets. (JPost)
On Saturday, Israeli raids and settler assaults left a 16-year-old shot in Qalandiya, a 60-year-old wounded in Tulkarem, a 58-year-old beaten in Khirbet Ibziq, and a woman injured in Masafer Yatta, alongside six arrests in Tulkarm and widespread attacks on homes, farmland, and livestock across the West Bank. (MEM)
On Sunday, Israeli forces stormed an elementary school in al-Khader, Bethlehem, threatening to shut down all seven schools in town and assaulting the mayor and other officials as children were leaving. (MEE)
Having said all that, Israel’s response to Monday’s shooting in Jerusalem has so far been more restrained than I expected. My sense is that it’s partly a manpower issue—Israel is already in the midst of a reservist refusal crisis—and it does not appear likely that the military will follow through on Katz’s threat to pause its military operations in Gaza to move them east.
“Look, It’s The Oscar Winner.”
Israeli forces raided the Masafer Yatta home of Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning co-director of No Other Land, just hours after settlers attacked his village and beat his brother—settlers reportedly singled him out, sneering, “Look, it’s the Oscar winner.” Soldiers ransacked his house, interrogated his wife while their infant daughter was home, and sealed off the village so Adra couldn’t return. “Even if you are just filming the settlers,” Adra said, “the army comes and chases you, searches your house. The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.” (AP)
Israeli Tourism
Israeli soldiers seized Palestinian businessman Nasser Faratawi’s luxury home and party shop in Tulkarm for three and a half months, trashed the property with lewd graffiti, tore up Qurans, left rotting food, then allegedly set it ablaze—causing $700,000 in losses—before returning the ruined building to him. (BBC)
Israel’s Education Ministry will now fully fund school trips to West Bank sites under its “Tours on the Bible Trails” program. (Haaretz)
On Wednesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry held its first-ever staff outing beyond the Green Line, staging a Rosh Hashanah celebration deep in the E1 corridor, with dancing, music performances, food, wine, and spa treatments. (Haaretz)
Economic Strangulation
The Palestinian Authority is facing its worst-ever financial crisis after Israel froze nearly NIS 10 billion in tax transfers, slashed Palestinian work permits, and capped currency conversions, leaving school delayed for 600,000 children and 90,000 employees unpaid or underpaid. Israeli and US officials warn that the PA’s collapse could trigger West Bank unrest. (TOI)
In Ruins
Israel’s Civil Administration declared 60 new archaeological sites in the northern West Bank last month, an unprecedented wave of designations extending into Area B, in violation of Oslo. The declarations hand Israeli authorities power to halt construction, demolish homes, and block Palestinian access to their own land under the guise of safeguarding heritage. For more, read my story from last year, In Ruins: Archaeological Warfare in the West Bank. (Emek Shaveh)
Annexation
Ynet reported on Tuesday that political observers believe that Netanyahu will wait to see how developments unfold at the UN before deciding on annexation. (Ynet)
But Israel is more focused on cementing facts on the ground to erase the possibility of a Palestinian state than on questions of formal recognition: On Thursday, Netanyahu signed a deal to fast-track the E1 expansion—20,000 settlers within 10–15 years, severing Palestinian contiguity—declaring, “There will be no Palestinian state; this place belongs to us.” (TOI)
Israel
Greater Israel
Israel attacked six countries in 72 hours:
Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa killed at least 46 people and wounded 165 others, leveling homes, a military HQ, and a fuel station, and damaging the National Museum. Drop Site reported that air strikes on two newspaper offices killed 26 reporters. (Haaretz)
PLO factions in Lebanon handed over eight truckloads of weapons to the army under Beirut’s disarmament push, greenlit by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and PA President Mahmoud Abbas. (TOI)
State of Starvation
Israel’s Supreme Court, which rarely challenges the country’s conduct in war, ruled that the government is failing to provide Palestinian prisoners with enough food to ensure a “basic level of existence.” Put simply, Israel’s own judiciary has confirmed what human rights groups have long alleged: the state is starving its 11,000-plus Palestinian prisoners, about a third of whom haven’t even been charged. The ruling came 18 months after NGOs first petitioned, by which time at least 73 detainees had died—including a 17-year-old boy who succumbed to malnutrition and scurvy. Ben Gvir, who has openly bragged about cutting rations, called the judges a disgrace and vowed to change nothing. (TOI)
Knifings in the Knesset
Netanyahu’s rivals—Eisenkot, Lapid, Bennett, Liberman, Gantz, and Golan—are tightening ranks in an effort to forge a united front to defeat him. (TOI)
Very Funny Jokes
American Martyr
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, many Israelis rushed to canonize him—renaming streets, painting murals, even scrawling tank shells with tributes. Before the shooter was caught, Netanyahu went on television to blame “radical Islamists and their union with the ultra-progressives.” (TOI)
Casualties
Hannibal
A Hebrew-only story in Ynet revealed that on October 8, 2023, as Israeli soldiers combed Kibbutz Kissufim for Hamas fighters and survivors, they heard a young girl speaking Hebrew from inside a safe room and, believing it was a hostage situation, opened fire through the door, killing her father, Tom Godo. For 562 days, his widow Limor was told he had died protecting them from Hamas militants, until the army finally admitted it was Israeli gunfire that killed him. (Ynet)
US (and World)
Free Speech Warriors
Jewish activists protested a Palestinian flag hanging in a Brooklyn high school hallway, but the DOE defended it as one of 20 flags representing students’ nationalities, and said no complaints had come from parents, students, or staff. (NY Post)
Leaked emails show David Ellison—the new owner of CBS and Paramount chief—coordinating in 2015 with then–Israeli military commander Benny Gantz on a “Counter-BDS Initiative” to raise millions for cyber sabotage and spying on activists. (All-Source Intelligence)
House Republicans tucked a measure into the Pentagon budget to bar contractors engaged in “politically motivated” boycotts of Israel. Another bill would hand Secretary of State Marco Rubio sweeping power to revoke or deny US passports for alleged vaguely defined “material support” to designated groups. (Intercept, Intercept)
Tech worker dissent over Gaza is bubbling up in Silicon Valley: Amazon suspended a Palestinian engineer after he urged the company to cut ties with Israel, Microsoft had police arrest protesting staff after its president admitted Azure may have been used to surveil Palestinians, and Google employees pushed back against a $45 million Israeli ad buy. (WaPo)
Visa Ban Exception
The US quietly hosted Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majed Faraj for meetings discussing “terrorism” in the West Bank with the CIA in New York, days after announcing visa bans on Mahmoud Abbas and ~80 PA officials. (TOI)
Study Abroad
More than a dozen New York police chiefs traveled to Israel for counterterrorism training run by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs—dubbed “Birthright for American police chiefs”—where they studied “security threats,” antisemitism, and “counter-terror initiatives.” (JNS)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has touched down in Israel for meetings with Netanyahu. (NYT)
Zohran Mamdani pledged that if elected, he would order the NYPD to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu on the ICC’s warrant if the Israeli prime minister set foot in the city. (NYT)
The UN
The UN General Assembly voted 142-10 to endorse the “New York Declaration,” a two-state plan envisioning the Palestinian Authority governing all Palestinian territory with a transitional committee; the vote sets the stage for a September 22 gathering where Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium are expected to formally recognize Palestine. (AP)
Europe
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez unveiled nine measures to halt what he called the genocide in Gaza, including a weapons and fuel ban, prompting Israel to accuse his government of “overt antisemitism.” (Haaretz)
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc will propose sanctions on extremist Israeli ministers and violent settlers, along with a partial suspension of its trade agreement with Israel. (Haaretz)
The BBC ignored an internal directive to correct a false report that Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif—killed in an Israeli strike on August 10 alongside five colleagues—had worked with Hamas, despite a leaked email labeling it an “essential amendment and correction.” (Novara)
A secret U.K. intelligence report revealed that most of Palestine Action’s protests and property damage “would not be classified as terrorism” (duh!), undercutting the government’s ban that has led to over 1,400 arrests. (NYT)
Thanks for reading. As always, I welcome your thoughts, questions, etc. in the comments.
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Thank you for your moral consistency - I fear we are all becoming numb to insane violence. I abhorred Charlie Kirk, and the political machine for which he worked. He did not deserve to be killed. I also really wish I had not seen is execution on Wednesday. That said, it is scary how desensitized I have become to violence. I fear the last 2 years of a live-streamed genocide has made me far too indifferent the importance of all human life. Mr. Kirk said “Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, its an initiation...What age should you start to see public executions?” I am middle-aged and I was far too young to witness his assassination. If we are not careful, not unlike the Israelis, we will become the people we hate.
Many of us had never heard of Charlie Kirk. He was exercising his right to free speech when he was killed, but I do not believe he should be honored with flags at half staff. I actually made it all the way through today's post, which may prove that I'm becoming desensitized. Too much violence, so I'm returning to the new tales of Stephen King's The Stand: The End Of The World As We Know It.