Background Briefing: October 18, 2023

On By gram

 

An Assessment of the Latest Intelligence on the Strike on the Gaza Hospital Parking Lot

  begin with the dust settling on what yesterday seemed like a monstrous war crime but today might have been a tragedy caused by a malfunctioning missile fired by Islamic Jihad that struck the parking lot of an Episcopalian hospital in Gaza causing casualties, but nothing on the scale of the 500 that Palestinian authorities first announced. Joining us to assess the latest available intelligence is William Arkin, a Senior Editor at Newsweek and one of America’s premier military and intelligence experts who has been a consultant to wide-ranging organizations, including the US Air Force, the United Nations Secretary General, Human Rights Watch, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The bestselling author of more than a dozen books including The Generals Have No Clothes: The Untold Story of Our Endless Wars, his latest book is On That Day: The Definitive Timeline of 9/11. We discuss his latest article at Newsweek, “Why U.S. Intel Says Israel Did Not Attack Gaza Hospital.”

 

A Local Reaction From a Journalist and Activist to Biden’s Short Visit to Israel

Then we get a local reaction to President Biden’s short visit to Israel which would have been longer had the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority not cancelled meetings with him. Joining us from Israel is Haggai Matar, an award-winning Israeli journalist and political activist. He is the executive director of +972 Magazine and he has a forthcoming article at The Guardian on Biden’s just-concluded visit to Israel.

Jordan Fails Again After Unleashing Fox News Junkyard Dogs and MAGA Threats at the House Republican Cowards’ Caucus

Then finally we look into Jim Jordan’s second vote for speaker today, which failed with the House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries getting 212 votes to Jordan’s 199 with 22 Republicans voting against the insurrectionist who mobilized MAGA threats and Fox News junkyard dogs to intimidate the wavering Republicans of the cowards caucus. Joining us is Moira Donegan, writer in residence at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University whose work has appeared in The London Review of Books, Bookforum and The Paris Review. She is a columnist at The Guardian and we will discuss her latest article, “Why are Republicans failing over and over to find a speaker of the House?”