Ceasefire extension? Final week, Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day ceasefire and a deal by which Hamas would launch 50 of the hostages taked October 7 in alternate for 150 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.
Since then, 39 of these 50 hostages have been freed, and 117 Palestinian prisoners—all girls or folks 18 and beneath—have been returned to Gaza.
Separate negotiations have yielded the discharge of 19 further Hamas hostages, together with 17 Thais, one Filipino, and one Russian-Israeli. That brings the entire depend of freed October 7 hostages to 58.
The final spherical of releases was purported to occur at present, however Qatari negotiators say it’s prone to be held up. A not-insignificant variety of hostages are apparently being held by separate terrorist teams, making it onerous for Hamas to find the rest of the captives.
Along with Hamas’ struggles with finding these prisoners, different issues are holding up the ultimate launch and casting doubt on the concept an extension is feasible. “Israel and Hamas each signaled a willingness over the weekend to prolong their truce if it allowed for more hostages and Palestinian detainees to be freed,” reviews The New York Occasions. “But both sides have taken issue with the names presented by the other for the final day of exchanges under the deal.”
Prisoners held by Israel: When the phrases of the deal have been first launched final week, many observers within the West reacted with some shock at the concept Israel was holding a whole bunch of Palestinian girl and youngsters in prisons. Now, there is a media criticism story taking part in out concurrently, with Israel supporters accusing some publications of sugarcoating the crimes of a number of the Palestinian prisoners.
Take, for instance, Israa Jaabees, who The New York Occasions describes as a “disfigured woman whose case has become well known” who was “accused of attempted murder” after “her car exploded at a checkpoint near Jerusalem in the West Bank.” Notice the passive voice, and the “accused” (with no point out of a conviction).
Israeli authorities say that she detonated a automotive bomb in an act of terrorism at a checkpoint close to Israeli police, completely disabling one officer. Her lawyer says this was a case of tried suicide-by-cop, not terrorism, although Israeli authorities additionally declare that she had expressed help for “martyrs” and yelled “Allahu Akbar” as this was all occurring. She was convicted in court docket and spent the following eight years in Israeli jail, petitioning the Israeli authorities to pay for her facial reconstruction surgical procedure, which they rejected. (The gall!)
This seeming incapacity to inform the total story has led to a number of criticism of the media.
There are certainly instances the place the offense was nowhere close to as dangerous as this, or the place overly broad crackdowns on incitement ended up imprisoning Palestinians for mere acts of speech. Nonetheless, reporters do themselves no favors after they neglect to say probably the most damning components of Jaabees’ file. Equally, the “children” held in Israeli prisons usually are not 4-year-olds—the age of a number of the hostages that Hamas took—however 16- and 17-year-olds, lots of them convicted of violent terrorist actions.
Scenes from New York:
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, shut down the Manhattan Bridge for a number of hours yesterday, blocking cars from getting throughout on the Manhattan facet.
It is unclear to me how these avenue shutdowns truly obtain the specified objective.
QUICK HITS
- “Should people have the right to say awful things without facing legal consequences?” asks Jay Caspian Kang in The New Yorker. (Sure. Subsequent query.)
- Derek Chauvin, the previous Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd, was stabbed in jail on Friday.
- Chinese language state propaganda refers to working girls above the age of 27, who’re single and would not have youngsters, as “leftover women.” Here’s a fascinating examine how they’re charting their very own paths, and the way the state is struggling to reverse its child bust.
- Three Palestinian-American males have been shot in Vermont over the weekend in what’s being investigated as a hate crime.
- Come out to tonight’s screening of (Motive producer and my Livestream co-host) Zach Weissmueller’s new bitcoin mining documentary.
- Absolutely a distinguished Democrat like Kamala Harris hasn’t been caught redhanded with a bootleg gasoline range:
Is {that a} gasoline range? ???? https://t.co/ElwpYe8kql
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) November 24, 2023
- Certainly not does the FTC have to be investigating whether or not a shitty-sandwich-shop monopoly is being created:
We do not want one other non-public fairness deal that would result in larger meals costs for customers. The @FTC is correct to analyze whether or not the acquisition of @SUBWAY by the identical agency that owns @jimmyjohns and @McAlistersDeli creates a sandwich store monopoly. https://t.co/mAFuuFYA5A
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 26, 2023
- A “61 year old US-born doctor has his citizenship revoked after trying to renew his passport,” writes Alex Nowrasteh on Twitter/X. “Why? His dad worked at the embassy when he was born, but he was still granted citizenship. There should be a statute of limitations for revoking citizenship in these cases.”
- This:
The trick to being an excellent “transit Twitter” particular person is tweeting a diagram of an unrealizable $80 trillion mega challenge with a caption like “not having this is a policy choice”
— Christian Britschgi (@christianbrits) November 26, 2023