Good Evening,
It's Monday, October 16th. |
Gaza Border Opening Stalls
A push by the U.S. and Egypt to open Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt stalled Monday, undermining the evacuation of Americans and other foreigners stranded by the Israeli military’s siege and the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, as the WSJ reports. |
Hezbollah Destroys Israeli Surveillance Cameras, Tension Mounts
Hezbollah said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as the AP reports. |
Biden Weighs Visit to Israel
President Biden on Monday weighed an extraordinary invitation to visit Israel—a grieving nation on the brink of invading Gaza, as the NYT reports. |
Executive Education
Beyond the Battlefield: Global Implications of Russia's War in Ukraine breaks down how the February 2022 invasion and concomitant sanctions have been altering national and regional security in Russia, on the European continent, and the United States. Registration closes October 18th at 11:59pm. |
Audio Briefs
CSIS experts give short, spoken-word summaries on the biggest takeaways from their latest reports, white papers, and commentaries—in their own words.
Listen here: "Can the United States Equip Israel while Simultaneously Equipping Ukraine and Taiwan?" with CSIS's Mark F. Cancian. |
In That Number
199
On Monday, the number of publicly known hostages taken by Hamas increased to almost 199, up from the 150 that has been cited since Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Source: NYT |
Critical Quote
“I don’t know anything, and I believe nobody in the country knows specifically what they want except the smashing of the state of Israel.”
—Ory Slonim, hostage negotiator who is helping advise the Israeli government. |
iDeas Lab
Last month, CSIS brought together Ukrainian leaders from the private sector and government to discuss Ukrainian business and trade opportunities with the U.S. and G-7 allies as part of the “Doing Business in Ukraine” conference. Watch the conference ReCap here.
The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia.![]() ![]() ![]() |
Optics
(Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images.) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media before boarding his plane in Cairo en route to Jordan on October 15, 2023. |
Recommended Reading
“What Israel Will Face in Gaza” by CSIS’s Daniel Byman and Seth G. Jones in Foreign Affairs. |
This Town Tomorrow
At 2:30 p.m., the CSIS International Security Program holds a conversation on what role the U.S. Coast Guard may take in the emerging great power competition in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.
Then, at 3:00 p.m., the CSIS International Security Program welcomes the UK’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, for a discussion on the modern issues facing the Royal Navy.
Earlier, at 12:30 p.m., the Hudson Institute hosts a reception to promote Georgia’s democratic journey and its aspirations for European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization integration. |
Video
This morning, the CSIS Africa Program and the EU Delegation to the U.S. discussed insecurity and instability in the Sahel as part of a new chapter to the Sahel-Transatlantic Dialogues. Watch the full video here. |
Podcasts
CSIS’s Jon Alterman joins the podcast to discuss the brutal aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel and its implications in the short and medium term.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. |
Smiles
“And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it.”
This week, I’m going to post clips from my favorite songwriters. Bob Dylan, the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," leads off. |
| I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz |
