Good morning. President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak both visited Israel yesterday, bringing firm support and pleas for humanitarian aid in Gaza with them. And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul landed in Israel today — to news that her father had died overnight. |
President Biden speaks with IDF Capt. Maor Farid while meeting Israelis affected by the war in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) |
As Biden brokered an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and said the U.S. would send $100 million in humanitarian funds to Palestinians, the top U.S. general, Michael Kurilla, made an unannounced trip to Egypt in an effort to advocate for greater aid to the strip. Biden will deliver an Oval Office address about the war this evening, a form of presidential communication historically reserved for major moments of crisis. Here’s what you need to know this morning. • Biden and top congressional leaders expressed confidence that Israel was not responsible for a Tuesday blast that reportedly killed close to 500 at a Gaza hospital. Israel has traded accusations of blame with the militant group Islamic Jihad for the strike; while neither side’s argument has been independently verified, congressional leaders briefed by national intelligence officials said current evidence appears to point away from Israeli involvement. • 500 demonstrators were arrested at a protest against the war led by Jewish groups at a Capitol building. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican who has downplayed the Jan. 6 riots, called the event an “insurrection.” • At least 100 Israelis have been arrested because of social media posts expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, with 70 remaining in detention. Arab Israelis say their position in the country feels particularly tenuous after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. • The American and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires were hit with bomb threats, with one reading “Jews we are going to kill you all.” • A historic synagogue in Tunisia was destroyed during riots over the Gaza blast. The synagogue was not a site of active worship; video shows hundreds of people setting fire to the structure and chipping away at its walls. • Five Palestinians were reportedly killed in clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; 69 have reportedly been killed there since the start of the war. • American Jewish groups have seen an unprecedented flood of donations since Hamas’ attack, with the Jewish Federations of North America announcing it had already raised $388 million. • A State Department official who helped oversee weapon transfers resigned over the U.S. government’s plans to send arms to Israel, citing “blind support for one side” as “shortsighted, destructive, unjust.”
• In a snapshot of the broad reach of the Hamas attacks, one New Jersey school said four student families were mourning relatives killed in the massacres.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday. (Shlomi Amsalem) |
Views from the ground… On New York governor’s first day in Israel, her father dies in Florida. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 92-year-old father, who died suddenly Wednesday of a brain hemorrhage, always encouraged her to visit Israel, she told our reporter Jacob Kornbluh last year. As Hochul finally made that trip, she mourned her father’s unexpected passing, including by putting a note in the Western Wall that referenced his death. Read the story ➤
Amid divisions, Jews on the left find unity mourning victims and warning against Gaza ‘genocide.’ In the immediate wake of Hamas’ attack, Jews on the political left found themselves at odds: “You started hearing, ‘Resistance is justified when people are occupied,’” one Palestinian solidarity activist told the Forward’s Arno Rosenfeld. But with concerns over the toll of Israel’s response in Gaza mounting, and high-profile Jewish-led protests at the White House and on Capitol Hill, progressive Jewish activists have rallied together — while still navigating their own complicated emotional responses to the attack. Read the story ➤
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Demonstrators attended a pro-Palestine rally in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) |
On college campuses… Universities have come under particular scrutiny since the Hamas attack, with student groups across the U.S. appearing to initially celebrate the violence, and some administrations coming under fire. Here, two perspectives from UC Berkeley, which has been a particular hotspot: Opinion | Why won’t UC Berkeley condemn the hate speech of people who celebrate a pogrom?The current crisis over on-campus responses to the war has its roots in a decade-old push to alienate Israeli academics, according to Mark Brilliant, an associate professor of history at Berkeley. “For years, resolutions demanding academic boycotts and university divestment from Israel attracted attention,” Brilliant writes, allowing advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to find supporters on campuses “in part because of their insistence that their anti-Zionism was not antisemitism” — a distinction that’s now in question. Read the essay ➤ Opinion | We are faculty at UC Berkeley, and are grievously disappointed by some student organizations’ support of Hamas, more than 300 signatories have written in an open letter: “It was shocking to realize that literally while Hamas terrorists were going house-to-house seeking to murder as many Jews as they could, some pro-Palestinian organizations on our own campus were gathering petition signatures for statements that celebrated these Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters, and rejected any critique of their actions.” Read the letter ➤ Plus: • World Jewish Congress head Ron Lauder threatens to pull University of Pennsylvania funding, citing antisemitism
• ‘Kidnapped’ posters calling attention to Israeli hostages keep getting torn down
Join the conversation: Our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren will lead an in-person conversation tonight at the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and its resonances with the current conflict. Register here ➤ Stay informed: You can follow our partners at Haaretz for live updates throughout the day. And we’ve taken down our paywall for coverage of Israel’s war with Gaza. Read all of our stories here. |
Visit Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark Visit this exhibition about the Danish Rescue, a civics lesson on courage, moral decision-making, and community. For ages 9+. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Fans of the soccer team Dinamo Zagreb during a match on September 21 in Zagreb, Croatia. (Goran Stanzl/Pixsell/MB Media/Getty Images) |
⚖️ A Croatian court sentenced eight soccer fans to jail over pro-Nazi songs. The Croatian Football Federation has repeatedly condemned pro-Nazi demonstrations at national team games, and been fined over fans’ behavior several times. (Barron’s) 🇮🇹 Italy’s government approved plans to build Rome’s first Holocaust Museum, 80 years to the day after a Nazi raid in the city led to the deportation of 1,000 Roman Jews. (JTA) 😨 France evacuated three airports and the palace of Versailles over security threats suspected to be related to the Israel-Gaza war after an alleged Islamic extremist killed a teacher last Friday. (Associated Press) 👀 In a hearing, Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel told senators he would “ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.” Jack Lew’s hearings have moved with new rapidity following the onset of war. (Associated Press) 😥 The British newspaper The Guardian fired a longtime editorial cartoonist over his alleged use of antisemitic imagery in a new depiction of Netanyahu. The artist has faced several accusations of antisemitism for years. (Associated Press) 😔 New York’s famed 2nd Avenue Deli was defaced with a swastika — the first time the storied institution has ever been vandalized with the Nazi symbol. (Eater NY)
What else we’re reading ➤ “The long, complicated history of Black solidarity with Palestinians and Jews” … Why “a nuance in Jewish law and culture is being tragically misused and misunderstood” in Israel’s war … “Why Egypt and other Arab countries are unwilling to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza.”
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In case you missed it: Actor and activist Mandy Patinkin joined the Forward’s news director, Benyamin Cohen, to talk about how Albert Einstein inspired generations of people to rescue refugees, with editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren moderating the conversation. --- Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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