Israel’s war on Gaza has never been solely about “defeating” Hamas. This week’s reporting makes that clearer than ever. If you read just one article this week, Tareq Hajjaj documents how Israel is engineering chaos in Gaza’s aid system, shooting at desperate civilians, and allowing looters to operate freely so that food does not reach starving people. Qassam Muaddi reports on leaked Israeli cabinet minutes that confirm they deliberately chose starvation as a weapon of war, rejecting a ceasefire in favor of forcing Gaza’s surrender through hunger.
This policy is not hidden. It was discussed from the very beginning, nearly two years ago, and is still openly embraced by senior Israeli figures and the majority of the Israeli population. That brazenness is finally eroding Israel’s legitimacy around the world. The International Sociological Association’s suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society is the latest sign of an expanding academic boycott. In United States politics, Bernie Sanders’s recent resolutions to block weapons sales did not pass, but they showed something important: Palestine is becoming a litmus test inside the Democratic Party, and electeds are starting to respond to the shift in the party’s base on these issues.
At the same time, the rot inside Israel’s political culture is on full display. A new poll shows that seventy-nine percent of Jewish Israelis are not troubled by the famine in Gaza. This normalization of atrocity makes it easier for Israeli leaders to escalate the suffering of the Palestinians there. Netanyahu is now ordering the army to expand the war and reoccupy the entire Strip. There are few defences of this genocidal behavior available to the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian crowd.
Governments and institutions desperate to protect Israel’s impunity are cracking down even harder on dissent. In the United States, Columbia University’s mass suspensions of Palestine activists and PEN America’s firing of Kori Davis show how institutions are bending to political pressure. Trump’s looming overhaul of the federal workforce threatens to hardwire this repression into the government itself. These are not separate battles. They are part of the same effort to shield Israel and complicit institutions from accountability.
We are witnessing the tipping point that the movement for Palestinian liberation has labored on for decades. Israel’s legitimacy is being contested in more places and by more voices than ever. But breaking its genocide, apartheid, and occupation will depend on escalating the movement across civil society around the world.
In addition to my Weekly Briefing email, I encourage you to subscribe to both of Michael Arria’s newsletters. The Shift tracks United States politics around Palestine, and Power & Pushback covers the Palestine movement and the growing efforts to suppress it. These are essential resources for understanding how the political ground is changing and how you can help shift it further.
– Dave Reed, Publisher
Must Read: Israel claims it’s allowing aid into Gaza, but its ‘engineering of chaos’ ensures the aid doesn’t reach starving Palestinians
Tareq Hajjaj: As limited aid trickles into Gaza, Israel’s strategy of ‘engineering chaos’ by shooting at aid-seekers and permitting looters to steal aid ensures that food doesn’t get to starving Palestinians.
Genocide in Gaza
🇮🇱 Qassam Muaddi: Netanyahu chose to blow up the ceasefire and starve Gaza’s population in order to force a surrender from Hamas, while top military and security officials favored moving to the second phase of a ceasefire, leaked cabinet meeting minutes reveal.
📗 Sonia Boulos: B’Tselem’s report on the Gaza genocide missed an opportunity to advance a clear and unequivocal legal argument that Israel’s actions constitute a textbook case of genocide.
🪖 Qassam Muaddi: Israeli media is reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli army to expand its offensive in Gaza and reoccupy the entire Strip.
📈 Jonathan Ofir: A new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute shows that 4 out of 5 Jewish Israelis – 79% – are not troubled by reports of Palestinian famine and suffering in Gaza.
Catch-up
🇮🇱 Mohammad Hesham Huraini: Awdah Hathaleen was killed by Israeli settler Yinon Levy in broad daylight. The perpetrator walks free, while Awdah’s body has been held hostage by the Israeli army. The village of Umm al-Khair is going on a hunger strike to recover his body.
🎓 Tamara Turki: Columbia University’s recent suspension and expulsion of more than 70 students for a Palestine demonstration is the latest sign that the school’s crackdown on activism is not simply about campus conduct, but appeasing political pressure from Washington.
🫏 Michael Arria: Bernie Sanders’s recent resolutions blocking weapons to Israel failed, but analysts say they suggest that Palestine will serve as a litmus test in the Democratic Party going forward.
🇺🇸 Jennifer Ruth: By September 30, the White House plans to reclassify 50,000 federal workers and assign allies to key roles. This widespread expansion of Trump’s de facto political army will have brutal effects on the crackdown against Palestine in higher education.
🌐 Global Sociologists for Palestine: The suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society by the International Sociological Association marks a significant milestone in the international academic boycott of Israel.
✒️ Kori Davis: The free speech organization PEN America fired me three days after I published an article about how they investigated me for sharing an article critical of Zionism. My termination is a sad reflection of PEN’s censorious approach to Palestine.
“A new poll shows that seventy-nine percent of Jewish Israelis are not troubled by the famine in Gaza.”
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As I recall, about the same percent who say they are suspicious about the Palestinian intention to co-exist, and would kill them…. as paranoid or unrealistic as that may be. Apparently the Netanyahu propaganda narrative has been effective.