Israel

 The Nation -  As the news of starvation in Gaza gets more grim—and mainstream news organizations cover it more readily under the Trump administration—a tide seems to be turning in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. “In the summer of 2024, Democratic Party leaders refused to let even a single Palestinian American speaker address their presidential convention about Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza,” John Nichols reminds us. But a year later, “a majority of Democratic members of the US Senate has voted to block arms shipments to Israel,” while France, Canada, and the UK say they plan to recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in September.

 It obviously should not have taken this long for the establishment to realize Israel is abusing Palestinians, but apparently it takes the mass starvation of mothers and their babies for people to stop averting their eyes.

 

As Katrina vanden Heuvel writes this week, we know “the cause of this desperation isn’t shortages per se.” The aid trucks are there and waiting. The problem is “Israel’s monthslong blockade of aid, which over 100 humanitarian organizations have stated is causing ‘chaos, starvation, and death.’”

 

The crisis has not improved. But maybe, just maybe, the way Western countries view it will.