Global Eyes

Part I: The Middle East and Russia's information war

I decided to split this up because it was just far too long. So you’re getting the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia, and Europe sections today, and the other parts of the world tomorrow. (This way you can concentrate more on the details of Russia’s influence operations, which really should be getting more attention.)

If you just want to be happy, skip to the end right now.

Protest in Tel Aviv, September 1. Photo by Amir Terkel via Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي.

MIDDLE EAST

The news from Israel and Gaza is dreadful. There’s a good reason I’d rather play with the kittens.

You may have heard that last week, a recording of the deliberations of the Israeli security cabinet was leaked to the media. From this, we learned that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant fought bitterly over whether Israel should agree, in a ceasefire deal, to withdraw the IDF from the Philadelphi corridor. The cabinet voted to back Netanyahu in his insistence that Israel must do so under no circumstances. Gallant argued this was tantamount to killing the hostages. But he lost the argument.

Right after this, the news broke that Hamas had executed six hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the American whose mother spoke at the DNC and who had become, perhaps, the best known of all the captives.