Secretary of State Blinken visited Tel Aviv as conditions in Gaza worsened

Friday, November 3, 2023
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA
- Disgraced former president Donald Trump ([link removed]) , who added almost $8 trillion to the national debt during his single term

Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza.

* The Israeli military struck an ambulance in Gaza City on Friday ([link removed]) . The Israel Defense Forces, acknowledging the strike, said that the ambulance was carrying Hamas militants. The Gaza health ministry said that the vehicle was part of a convoy evacuating wounded civilians from the northern part of the enclave to the south. Israeli officials had previously ordered all civilians in northern Gaza to move south in advance of a now-ongoing Israeli ground invasion. The health ministry had announced hours before the strike that a convoy of ambulances would be departing the Al-Shifa hospital ([link removed]) and said it had asked the Red Cross for an escort but had been told that Israel had not
granted the aid organization the necessary approval. The IDF has said that Hamas has underground complexes beneath the Al-Shifa hospital, which is Gaza’s largest medical facility, which Hamas has denied.

* Neither the Gaza Health Ministry nor the IDF has yet estimated how many people were killed in the strike. The IDF said it planned to release evidence showing that Gaza ambulances were being used to transport militants and weapons. Reuters said it had verified two videos taken after the strike. One depicted people lying in blood next to an ambulance as onlookers rushed to help. Another showing three ambulances in a line with about a dozen people laying nearby in pools of blood.

* Children have accounted for 2 out of every 5 civilian deaths in Gaza, according to Save the Children’s director for Palestinian territories Jason Lee. Of the 9,000 civilians who have reportedly been killed in Gaza, 3,700 of them have been children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is housing some 690,000 displaced Palestinian civilians in shelters across the Gaza Strip, but reported that the agency’s operations are crumbling due to lack of fuel, supplies, and adequate communication capabilities ([link removed]) . Seventy-two UNRWA workers in Gaza have been killed since October 7, the highest number of UN aid worker casualties ever killed in a conflict over such a short period ([link removed]) .

The continued deterioration of humanitarian conditions served as a backdrop for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Friday visit to Israel.

* After a day of meetings with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv, Blinken declared, “We need to do more to protect Palestinian civilians” and “civilians should not suffer the consequences for [Hamas’] inhumanity and brutality.” He said that he and Israeli officials had discussed “concrete steps” to better protect civilians and to allow more aid into Gaza. “We’ve been clear that as Israel conducts its campaign to defeat Hamas, how it does so matters,” he said. “It matters because it’s the right and lawful thing to do. It matters because failure to do so plays into the hands of Hamas and other terror groups. There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight.” Blinken, though, emphasized that the Biden Administration supports Israel’s “right and obligation” to defend itself after the October 7 Hamas attacks. This is Blinken’s fourth visit since the attack ([link removed]
politics/blinken-israel-gaza/index.html) and on Friday he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and the country’s war cabinet.

* Blinken also said that “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting would help in delivering aid to Gaza as well as securing the release of the 200-some hostages still thought to be held by Hamas. Netanyahu, though, continued to reject calls for a pause ([link removed]) , saying, “I have made clear that we are continuing forcefully and that Israel refuses a temporary cease-fire that does not include the release of our hostages.” He also said that he would continue to block the entry of fuel into Gaza. Fighting between the IDF and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah escalated along Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech on Friday denouncing both Israel and the United States but did not call for an expansion to the Israel-Hamas war
([link removed]) .

Blinken departed Israel for Jordan to meet with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. They will discuss plans to negotiate hostage releases and to prevent expansion of the war. The foreign ministers will also press Blinken to call for a full ceasefire. The United Nations announced on Friday that it needs $1.2 billion to fund humanitarian aid efforts for Palestinians through the year’s end ([link removed]) , more than four times the estimate made by the organization just a few weeks ago.

We're just days away from the 2023 Election, and there’s a lot going on behind the scenes here at Crooked, and on the Friends of the Pod Discord. On Election night, Tuesday November 7th from 4-9pm PT, join the Crooked team as we mainline vote count updates in our Election Night Support Group. Crooked hosts and staff will be jumping on Discord to comment on election results as they roll in and answer questions about what it all means. We’ll laugh, cry, and stream PBS.

Then on Wednesday November 8th, Crooked hosts and staff will be back on Discord for our GroupThread covering the third and blessedly final GOP Primary debate. While we won’t be streaming the debate, you can count on us to add live commentary and much needed comic relief to an otherwise unwatchable showdown of America’s most rizz-less goons. There’s never been a better time to join Friends of the Pod. To catch all this and more, head to Crooked.com/friends ([link removed]) .
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Just over a week has passed since Robert Card stormed into a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, ME and opened fire, killing 18 people in the deadliest mass shooting of the year so far. Grieving Mainers are slowly beginning to return to normal activities, but many are angry, and want real reforms ([link removed]) . Card had a history of mental health issues, even a two-week institutionalization this summer, and had already been reported to the police for threatening to “shoot up” a number of public places. He was still able to legally purchase a semiautomatic weapon. The Washington Post spoke to a number of area locals, who called for accessible mental health care, stricter gun laws, and more aggressive law enforcement action when an armed individual is exhibiting psychosis. Some spoke of the difficulties of accessing mental health resources, especially for more rural residents, as providers are overburdened with
high demand. Although Maine is a state that loves hunting, hunters have rightly pointed out that no one hunts with the sort of rifle Card used that fateful day.

Many of the state’s heartbroken residents are now pushing for an airtight red-flag law, which would allow a judge to order guns to be confiscated from anyone deemed a threat to themselves or others. President Joe Biden and the first lady traveled to Lewiston on Friday afternoon to pay respects to victims of the shooting ([link removed]) and meet with first responders. He delivered brief remarks, saying “No pain is the same, but we know what it’s like to lose a piece of our soul…and the depths of a loss is so profound.” Sen. Angus King (I-ME) said in his own remarks, “It is fitting that a President who has known the depths of personal grief has come to Maine and to Lewiston today to share the grief of our families and our state.” The president reiterated his calls on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban: “This is about common sense. Reasonable, responsible measures to protect our children, our families, our
communities, because regardless of our politics, this is about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, a restaurant, school, church, without being shot and killed.”

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear arguments and rule on whether the Trump-era ban on bump stocks ([link removed]) —gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire continuously like machine guns—violates federal law.


A forceful earthquake in northwestern Nepal has killed at least 69 people and injured dozens more ([link removed]) . It was felt in India’s New Delhi, over 500 miles away.


Justice Arthur Engoron—our favorite judge overseeing the Manhattan civil fraud trial of disgraced former president Donald Trump—handed down another gag order on Friday, this time to Trump’s lawyers ([link removed]) . The order states that all members of Trump’s legal team are prohibited from “making any public statement, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me.” Go off!!!

Speaking of the New York civil fraud trial, Trump’s son Eric took the stand on Friday and said that he didn’t verify the accuracy of financial documents the judge has ruled fraudulent because relied on accountants and lawyers to do that ([link removed]) . You’re telling me Eric Trump didn’t do work he was supposed to do at a job given to him by his dad? Now I’ve heard it all.

Law enforcement officials seized $8.5 million worth of magic mushrooms in a drug bust in rural Connecticut ([link removed]) . Two states and several U.S. cities have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms and their active ingredient, psilocybin, which has emerged as an alternative treatment for PTSD and chronic depression, along with other psychedelics.


A California jury ruled that the clothing company making American Airlines flight attendant uniforms must pay more than $1 million to four flight attendants who blamed chemicals in the fabric for a variety of ailments ([link removed]) including rashes, headaches, and respiratory issues.


All Seasons Press is suing former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for violating an agreement between Meadows and the publishing house ([link removed]) . The agreement was, in layman’s terms, that the statements he made in his book were supposed to be…true.


After hauling huge wins in its contract negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers, the United Auto Workers union is setting its sights on Tesla, Toyota, and other non-union automakers ([link removed]) .
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The U.S economy added 150,000 new jobs in October. ([link removed])


The Beatles released a new song, and a music video for it! ([link removed]) (Sort of!)

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s best-known international journalist, will get a new weekly show on the network after years of very little visibility among the company’s programming ([link removed]) . The show will focus on world events and why Americans should care about them (the Lord’s work).
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