Your Thursday Briefing: Israel’s West Bank Raid Ends
07/06/2023
Israel ends its West Bank operation
Israel’s military said yesterday that it had withdrawn from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin after a large-scale incursion that killed at least 12 Palestinians, left one Israeli soldier dead and sent thousands fleeing from their homes over the past two days.
Palestinians in Jenin joined a mass funeral yesterday, broadcast live on local television, which honored those killed. Scores of residents returned to the refugee camp in Jenin to find damaged cars and homes, as well as roads torn up by Israeli bulldozers.
Even though the operation has ended, it has almost certainly not quashed the unrest in Jenin, which had been at the center of escalating tensions and violence in the year leading up to the incursion. Both Israelis and Palestinians said that the armed groups, which were targeted in the raid, would quickly rebuild and that Israeli soldiers would probably be back soon.
Outcome: The Israeli military declared the raid a success, saying soldiers dismantled laboratories for manufacturing explosives and removed weapons.But analysts said the operation lacked any deeper strategy and could incite more violence.
Palestinian perspective: Palestinian analysts said that public sentiment was heavily on the side of the armed groups in Jenin and that the Israeli operation was likely to spur more revenge attacks rather than bring calm.
The underlying sources of Palestinian anger also endure, including the West Bank occupation, the continued encroachment by Jewish settlements and a lack of economic opportunity.
For more: Young Palestinians drawn into the struggle against Israel are writing farewell messages to their families. “Don’t cry,” one 14-year-old wrote to his mother before he was killed. “And forgive me for every mistake I made.”
Floods in China, Japan and Cambodia
China and several other Asia-Pacific countries are reeling from floods during the monsoon season and high temperatures, and rescuers are scrambling to cope with the onslaught of extreme weather conditions.
In China, floods have already displaced more than 20,000 people, according to forecasts and local news reports. State media reported that floods killed 15 people in the southwestern city of Chongqing. And news footage showed rescuers in the central province of Henan freeing people from a car that had been caught in a rushing river.
In southwestern Japan, heavy rain over the weekend inundated homes and left at least one person dead. And officials in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, said that heavy rainfall there on Monday was the most that the city had received in three years.
What’s next: More bad weather may be on the way. The World Meteorological Organization said this week that El Niño, a cyclical climate pattern that warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, had formed for the first time in seven years.
The agency said El Niño would likely combine with human-caused warming to fuel more heat waves and disruptive weather worldwide this year.
A hidden life of dissent in China?
It wasn’t as if Bei Zhenying didn’t know that her husband had secrets. He was brilliant, proudly nonconformist and intensely private.
But after the police stormed into the couple’s apartment and took him away, what she learned over the following months was more than a personal secret. She now believes her husband, Ruan Xiaohuan, may have been the anonymous dissident behind Program Think, one of the most mysterious blogs on the Chinese internet, which was critical of the government and evaded the surveillance state for 12 years, a seemingly unthinkable feat.
But on May 9, 2021, the blog went silent. The next day, Ruan was taken away.
Analysis: Whether Ruan was Program Think is virtually impossible to confirm. Either way, their fates are part of the same story, about the drastic degrees of subterfuge Chinese citizens must take to offer dissenting opinions under Xi Jinping, China’s president. They ultimately may also point to the near impossibility of doing so in an ever-expanding surveillance state.
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A man detonated an explosive device inside a courthouse in Kyiv. He then died in a standoff with officers.
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He told my colleagues — in a rare conversation with a prisoner of war — that he was just told to dig trenches, working on meager rations. “We thought we were going to be sent to work,” he said, “but they just sent us to die.”
ARTS AND IDEAS
A Wham! documentary
Remember Wham!? In 1984, the group released the infectious pop anthem “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” The music video, sung by the band’s heartthrob frontmen, was an instant hit.
Those frontmen — George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — are now the subject of a documentary on Netflix. The film, “Wham!,” is directed like a power-pop video and it charts the band’s short career in the 1980s. (Unlike bands that split acrimoniously, Wham! didn’t have a rise and fall, the film’s director said: “It was just a rise and they called it a day.”)
The film, which incorporates archival footage and pictures from scrapbooks kept by Ridgeley’s mother, also explores a groundbreaking moment in pop history: the band’s 1985 premiere in China, when Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in the country. Read our review.
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
Roast chicken thighs with blueberries pack a bright, puckery punch.
What to Read
“The Exhibitionist” follows a woman who is married to a monster in the art world.
What to Listen to
Explore standouts of avant-garde jazz.
What to Watch
Our critics picked the six best films of 2023 so far.
Now Time to Play
Play the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Running joke (three letters).
Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow! — Amelia
P.S. My colleague Emma Goldbergappeared on “CBS News” to discuss how employers are incentivizing employees to return to the office.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Your Thursday Briefing: Israel’s West Bank Raid Ends
Your Thursday Briefing: Israel’s West Bank Raid Ends
Israel ends its West Bank operation
Israel’s military said yesterday that it had withdrawn from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin after a large-scale incursion that killed at least 12 Palestinians, left one Israeli soldier dead and sent thousands fleeing from their homes over the past two days.
Palestinians in Jenin joined a mass funeral yesterday, broadcast live on local television, which honored those killed. Scores of residents returned to the refugee camp in Jenin to find damaged cars and homes, as well as roads torn up by Israeli bulldozers.
Even though the operation has ended, it has almost certainly not quashed the unrest in Jenin, which had been at the center of escalating tensions and violence in the year leading up to the incursion. Both Israelis and Palestinians said that the armed groups, which were targeted in the raid, would quickly rebuild and that Israeli soldiers would probably be back soon.
Outcome: The Israeli military declared the raid a success, saying soldiers dismantled laboratories for manufacturing explosives and removed weapons. But analysts said the operation lacked any deeper strategy and could incite more violence.
Palestinian perspective: Palestinian analysts said that public sentiment was heavily on the side of the armed groups in Jenin and that the Israeli operation was likely to spur more revenge attacks rather than bring calm.
The underlying sources of Palestinian anger also endure, including the West Bank occupation, the continued encroachment by Jewish settlements and a lack of economic opportunity.
For more: Young Palestinians drawn into the struggle against Israel are writing farewell messages to their families. “Don’t cry,” one 14-year-old wrote to his mother before he was killed. “And forgive me for every mistake I made.”
Floods in China, Japan and Cambodia
China and several other Asia-Pacific countries are reeling from floods during the monsoon season and high temperatures, and rescuers are scrambling to cope with the onslaught of extreme weather conditions.
In China, floods have already displaced more than 20,000 people, according to forecasts and local news reports. State media reported that floods killed 15 people in the southwestern city of Chongqing. And news footage showed rescuers in the central province of Henan freeing people from a car that had been caught in a rushing river.
In southwestern Japan, heavy rain over the weekend inundated homes and left at least one person dead. And officials in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, said that heavy rainfall there on Monday was the most that the city had received in three years.
What’s next: More bad weather may be on the way. The World Meteorological Organization said this week that El Niño, a cyclical climate pattern that warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, had formed for the first time in seven years.
The agency said El Niño would likely combine with human-caused warming to fuel more heat waves and disruptive weather worldwide this year.
A hidden life of dissent in China?
It wasn’t as if Bei Zhenying didn’t know that her husband had secrets. He was brilliant, proudly nonconformist and intensely private.
But after the police stormed into the couple’s apartment and took him away, what she learned over the following months was more than a personal secret. She now believes her husband, Ruan Xiaohuan, may have been the anonymous dissident behind Program Think, one of the most mysterious blogs on the Chinese internet, which was critical of the government and evaded the surveillance state for 12 years, a seemingly unthinkable feat.
But on May 9, 2021, the blog went silent. The next day, Ruan was taken away.
Analysis: Whether Ruan was Program Think is virtually impossible to confirm. Either way, their fates are part of the same story, about the drastic degrees of subterfuge Chinese citizens must take to offer dissenting opinions under Xi Jinping, China’s president. They ultimately may also point to the near impossibility of doing so in an ever-expanding surveillance state.
THE LATEST NEWS
Around the World
President Biden met with Sweden’s prime minister to discuss the country’s bid to join NATO, ahead of the group’s summit next week in Lithuania.
South Korea concluded that the North’s satellite technology was so rudimentary that it could never serve as a functioning spy satellite.
Four countries are taking Iran to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet and the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew.
The War in Ukraine
A man detonated an explosive device inside a courthouse in Kyiv. He then died in a standoff with officers.
Ukraine and Russia accused each other of plotting attacks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, but analysts said that the immediate risks to the plant were low.
Other Big Stories
The Paris St.-Germain soccer team said that Kylian Mbappé had to sign a new deal this summer — or leave.
The tourist who defaced the Colosseum with a love note last month apologized in an open letter, saying he had no idea the monument in Rome was so ancient.
A Morning Read
The Russian soldier was captured only days after arriving on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. He was an inmate before he joined the fight, which he saw as a way to make money and restart his life.
He told my colleagues — in a rare conversation with a prisoner of war — that he was just told to dig trenches, working on meager rations. “We thought we were going to be sent to work,” he said, “but they just sent us to die.”
ARTS AND IDEAS
A Wham! documentary
Remember Wham!? In 1984, the group released the infectious pop anthem “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” The music video, sung by the band’s heartthrob frontmen, was an instant hit.
Those frontmen — George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — are now the subject of a documentary on Netflix. The film, “Wham!,” is directed like a power-pop video and it charts the band’s short career in the 1980s. (Unlike bands that split acrimoniously, Wham! didn’t have a rise and fall, the film’s director said: “It was just a rise and they called it a day.”)
The film, which incorporates archival footage and pictures from scrapbooks kept by Ridgeley’s mother, also explores a groundbreaking moment in pop history: the band’s 1985 premiere in China, when Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in the country. Read our review.
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
Roast chicken thighs with blueberries pack a bright, puckery punch.
What to Read
“The Exhibitionist” follows a woman who is married to a monster in the art world.
What to Listen to
Explore standouts of avant-garde jazz.
What to Watch
Our critics picked the six best films of 2023 so far.
Now Time to Play
Play the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Running joke (three letters).
Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow! — Amelia
P.S. My colleague Emma Goldberg appeared on “CBS News” to discuss how employers are incentivizing employees to return to the office.
“The Daily” is on MrBeast, the YouTube star.
Please share your thoughts with us at [email protected].
Amelia Nierenberg writes the Asia Pacific Morning Briefing for The Times. More about Amelia Nierenberg
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