What A Day: Dems Take on the West Bank
Exclusive: Dems pressure Netanyahu to restrain settlers, and let West Bank kids go to school.
THE STRUGGLE ISRAEL
House Democrats picked a new fight with Benjamin Netanyahu over the West Bank, in a sign of how the party’s relationship with Israel is shifting, What A Day has exclusively learned.
Democrats and Israel have been increasingly at odds ever since the nation launched its military campaign that killed tens of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in response to the terror attack of October 7, 2023. Now, House Democrats are pushing Israel to make humanitarian changes in another contentious area: the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlers have rapidly expanded their control over the West Bank, which sits only 25 miles from Gaza. The United Nations human rights office recently warned that violence by Israeli settlers in the territory has reached an “all time high.” Settlers have stoned and chased journalists. They’ve burned mosques, farm land, and cars, Palestinian officials say. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed there over the past three years by Israeli security forces and settlers, according to the U.N.
A majority of House Democrats are now pushing for change, one small step at a time.
In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, 115 House Democrats urged him to order Israeli soldiers to tear down a razor wire fence in the West Bank that has blocked children near the village of Umm Al-Kheir from attending school. The letter also “vigorously” condemns “settler violence and intimidation.” Israeli soldiers’ exposed over two dozen children to tear gas, lawmakers write, “raising serious questions about how the Israeli military is abetting extremist violence against Umm Al-Kheir.”
“Continuing down the path of settler extremism will further degrade Israel’s international standing and relationship with the United States,” the letter reads. “We urge you to respect the basic premise that every child deserves to learn in peace.”
Israel’s military has suggested an alternative route for the children, lawmakers say, but it would double the time it takes for them to get to school and result in more confrontations with settlers. Meanwhile, Palestinian children have been protesting outside the wire fence, with signs reading “let me learn” and “we want school.” As one 11-year-old Palestinian girl told CNN: “They don’t want me to learn like other children around the world.”
This collective push by Democrats could convince Netanyahu to take action, said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led the letter with Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sean Casten (D-IL), and Sara Jacobs (D-CA). “It’s not remotely the worst of things happening in the West Bank,” Raskin said. “But it’s something I think that we could get broad support … to turn things around.”
The letter arrives at a moment of potential breakthrough in Israel’s conflict in Gaza with Hamas, which led the October 2023 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. Hamas said today it has agreed to disarm, provided Israel stops all attacks, withdraws from the territory, and increases the amount of aid allowed inside. Israeli officials, however, said that a full disarmament by Hamas must precede any Israeli withdrawal.
Dems are expected to take back the House after the midterms. The forceful pushback to Israel could ramp up once they gain power.
The sheer number of Democrats signed onto this letter underscores the tension between the United States and Israel. It’s also the latest in a pattern of growing pushback in Congress: More than 100 House Dems recently voted to cut $3.3 billion in military funding to Israel, and a similar push gained historic support among Senate Democrats.
Israel has already played an outsized role in the midterms. A slate of Democratic candidates who are vocally critical of Israel won their primaries in New York. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson has said that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. And Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed currently has a wide lead over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who recently received $30 million from AIPAC. (Stevens did not sign onto the letter about the razor wire fence.)
“The struggle is not between different countries or different peoples,” Raskin said. “The struggle is between everybody who wants to stand up for democratic freedom versus the people who want government to be an instrument of corruption and authoritarian violence.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly denounced American lawmakers who have stood up against his policies. Why would he care about this letter? “I trust that he will want to respond to about half of the Democratic caucus,” Raskin said.
WHAT ELSE? 👀
American oil companies have made billions of dollars since the Iran war started, according to financial disclosures. Exxon Mobil, for instance, doubled its second quarter profits to more than $14 billion. Chevron’s profits nearly quadrupled to $12 billion. So just remember the next time you’re filling up your tank: All this bad news is really fantastic news, if you happen to be an oil company!
The Pentagon may restore as many as half of the jobs focused on avoiding civilian casualties during wartime that were slashed earlier in Trump’s term, following the strike on an Iranian school that killed scores of children in February, The Atlantic reports. The reversal awaits Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s signature — which would effectively be an admission that he was wrong to cut so many critical jobs.
July is on track to become the hottest month on record for the entire United States, with average temps up 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It could also break the record for highest overnight temperatures and highest humidity. I really wish climate change were a hoax, but here we are!
Three Federal Reserve officials support raising interest rates to fight inflation — a move Trump would hate, because it could temporarily reduce economic and stock market growth. That puts Fed Chair Kevin Warsh in a bind. “Without any policy restraint, inflation will likely continue to trend above target until there’s an unanticipated shock,” Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said in a statement today. Jerome Powell, save us!
Donald Trump bashed the two GOP senators who are holding up Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, while defending his “anti-weaponization fund” to pay off his buddies. The fund “will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on social media. Care to comment on that provision that bars you from ever being audited again, Mr. President?
Some 50,000 migrants stormed the shores of a tiny Spanish enclave, home to only 83,000 people, from Morocco late Thursday and early Friday. About half of them have been returned to Morocco. The White House is using this crisis to push its own agenda: “Thank God @POTUS was elected and our country’s border no longer looks like this,” Vice President JD Vance tweeted.
LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️
Former President Barack Obama dropped a new video of himself playing basketball this week, in a video endorsing Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek. In this week’s episode of Pod Save America: OnlyFriends, Tommy and Lovett react: “It’s awesome,” Lovett said. “You know that Barack Obama is serious about getting Josh Turek over the finish line, because this is a video in which Josh just hits shot after shot. And Barack Obama, he’s just whiffing!” Subscribe here!
The co-founder of an AI startup apologized after his company hosted a networking party, which included guaranteed job interviews… if you got a tattoo of his logo. “I messed up,” he wrote on LinkedIn, naturally. “I should have understood the pressure and power dynamic created by connecting tattoos to hiring.” The company wanted to meet people who are “just as crazy as we are,” he wrote. I’m sure it worked!
A Washington man spotted an injured turkey on the side of the road, pulled over, put him in the passenger seat, and brought him home. They quickly grew to love the 38-pound bird, named Chester, and made him their pet. “He seems really happy,” the man’s wife said.
Taco Bell lovers are still ordering from the chain, even after news that lettuce from its items were linked to the cyclospora outbreak. “I eat here almost every day, and I’ve never gotten sick,” one regular told the Washington Post. What a brave soul.
Monkeys sometimes have pets, similar to how humans do, according to new research. Some tufted langurs were observed petting squirrels, while snub-nosed monkeys play with domesticated pigs. “They may represent some of the evolutionary building blocks from which human-animal companionship eventually emerged,” one researcher said.
Meet Penny, a 3-year-old Cavalier King Charles — recently adopted by me and my girlfriend!
“Penny was rescued by Lucky Dogs last month, along with three other disheveled cavs in need of some love. In just a few weeks, she has turned from a very anxious and shy pup into the friendliest, happiest, and most affectionate dog we’ve ever known.
She loves playing with toys that are as big as she is, eating cheese while being potty-trained, and sprinting down the hallway of our apartment at the speed of light.”
— Matt & Adrienne
Whiskey Pete, our "warrior ethos" Sec. of Defense, wearing his too-tight suit, will never admit to incompetence. Republicans never admit incompetence, they simply demonstrate it day in and day out.
Penny is very sweet with a great smile! What a lucky girl she is.
Lots of pets and treats for the adorable penny!