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Driving the news? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-17  

I watched/listened to/read a good bit of news yesterday. I would say that at least half of what I read/heard/saw was about the Israel-Hamas War. Imagine my surprise, then, when Kos’s Front Page summary entitled Driving the News didn’t contain one single article on the war.

Did you know, for instance, that Joe Biden is going to Israel tomorrow? Did you know that Hamas has said it will allow non-Israeli hostages (with some caveats) to leave when “field conditions are right”? Did you know that Israel may allow Egypt to start delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinians trapped in Gaza without food, water, electricity, or medical supplies? Did you know Biden’s also going to Jordan to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi?

All of that was all over the news yesterday, but not one article in Driving the News. That surprised me… until I thought about it. I didn’t see many diaries written yesterday on the war, either, even though there is no question that what is happening in Israel and the middle east in light of the brutal slaughter by Hamas on Israelis and the decades-long oppression of Palestinians living in Gaza greatly impacts American politics every bit as much as what’s happening in Ukraine does. So Kos correctly summarized what is driving the news on this site.

Why is that? Why is this site not talking about what’s driving the news in the rest of the world? Could it be, at least partially, that it’s because we, as a community, haven’t learned to discuss it without berating people who see it differently than we do? Could it be that THIS is the topic that we insist upon circling our wagons and reverting to black-and-white thinking like we’ve seen so much of in the Republican party and which has led to the chaos for them that they’re now experiencing? I sure hope not.

We have to learn to talk about it. It’s hard. It’s painful. It’s extremely complex, but there are a few things we can keep in mind that I believe the readers of this site agree on. 1) The slaughter of innocents is bad. There is nothing justifiable about what Hamas did and measures must be taken to neutralize them so that they can’t do it again, even extreme measures. 2) Shutting off food, water, and electricity to millions of people after forcing them to leave their homes but giving them nowhere safe to go is bad. Greater minds than mine have deemed that behavior to be war crimes, and it must stop.

I get it that people are mad. I’m mad as hell. My friend, Zee, is in agony worrying about his parents who fled their home in Gaza while their neighborhood was being bombed a week ago. They are running short on fuel and water, are trying like hell to figure out how to get out of Gaza, and the home they spent much of their life savings to build has been destroyed. The shelter they fled to is in the North and they received the notification to leave, but felt that it might not be a wise thing to do and then subsequently witnessed a group of over 50 who were leaving get bombed as they tried to get out. Meanwhile, my daughter still doesn’t know if a couple of her good friends who live in Israel are still alive, but hope dwindles with each passing day.

It’s a terrible situation and extremely complex and contentious, but it’s definitely driving the news outside of DK and I hope we can find a way of talking about it without demonizing each other. Biden’s out there looking for solutions. May the universe protect and empower him and may all the decision makers in this brutal conflict somehow find the path to real and lasting peace.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/17/2199880/-Driving-the-news?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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