Middle East

Pew Research -  About six months into the Israel-Hamas war, 58% of Americans say Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid, while 22% say the same about Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel. But views are more divided over how Israel is carrying out its response to the Oct. 7 attack. Americans continue to express more positive than negative views of Israelis and Palestinians, and many sympathize at least somewhat with both groups.

Bloomberg - Israel will invade the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah “even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States,” said Ron Dermer, the nation’s strategic affairs minister and a confidante of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Dermer and other Israeli officials will travel to the US to hear the Biden administration’s concerns, including what the United Nations has warned is a looming famine in northern Gaza. In the leaders’ first call in more than a month, Biden warned Netanyahu that invading Rafah, where more than a million displaced Gazans have fled, would be a mistake, leading to more civilian deaths and worsening the already dire humanitarian situation.