The Israeli war cabinet voted to approve a hostage deal with Hamas.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Disgraced former congressman/current Fox News shill Jason Chaffetz ([link removed]) doing 2023's version of "Thanks, Obama!"

Editor's note: Crooked is closed for the rest of the week for Thanksgiving break. See you right back here on Monday!

The Israeli government approved a hostage deal.

* The Israeli cabinet voted in favor of what it called the “outline” of a deal ([link removed]) to free some of the estimated 240 hostages held by Hamas on Tuesday evening. The deal reportedly features two phases. The first phase is expected to see the release of about 50 hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for about 150 Palestinian prisoners and a four-day pause in Israeli bombardment and fighting. Israel will also allow 300 food aid trucks to enter Gaza from Egypt. In a second phase, Hamas could release more women, children and elderly prisoners in exchange for an extension of the pause in fighting. The Israeli government said in a statement: ([link removed]) “Tonight, the government approved the outline for the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 abductees — women and
children — will be released for 4 days, during which there will be a lull in the fighting. The release of every 10 additional abductees will result in an additional day of respite.”


* Netanyahu had asked his war Cabinet to approve the deal. ([link removed]) “Tonight we stand before a difficult decision, but it is the right decision. All security organizations support it fully,” Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday night in televised remarks. He also vowed to resume the counteroffensive against Hamas as soon as the truce ended. He said, “We are at war, and we will continue the war…We will continue until we achieve all of our goals.”


* Despite opposition from some hard-line ministers, Netanyahu’s Cabinet approved the arrangement after five hours of discussion. The Prime Minister said that during the pause, Israeli intelligence efforts would be maintained, and that the battle would continue until “Gaza will not threaten Israel.”

The landmark deal, if fully implemented, will mark the first truce in the war since it began on October 7.

* The roughly 50 hostages set to be released by Hamas, like the 150 prisoners in Israeli prisons, will be mostly women and children. Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer reported that about 200 boys, mostly teenagers, were in Israeli detention as of this week, along with 75 women and five teenage girls ([link removed]) . Before October 7, around 150 boys and 30 women and girls were being held in Israeli prisons. These figures were compiled using Israel Prison Service data, according to Addameer.

* There are also approximately 700 people missing from Gaza who are believed to be in Israeli prisons, but their whereabouts are uncertain, and it’s unclear how many among them are women or children. The Israeli military said that it has apprehended 300 people in Gaza during the past month’s ground invasion. Addameer reports that as of this week, the total number of Palestinian political prisoners in Israel, including those from Gaza and the West Bank, is up to 7,000, an increase of 2,000 since before the October 7 Hamas attack. Of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas and other militant groups in the October 7 attack, 33 are minors, the youngest of whom is just nine months old according to the Israeli government. At least 62 are women, four of whom are members of the Israel Defense Forces.

Human rights groups have long cautioned that Palestinian detainees are regularly held without due process in Israeli prisons, and face abuse and sometimes torture. Military Court Watch, a legal nonprofit, reported last year ([link removed](2022).pdf) that of the 100 Palestinian children the group interviewed who had been detained by Israeli forces, 74 reported physical abuse, and 42 said they were put in solitary confinement. At least four Israeli hostages were killed by Hamas shortly after being taken into custody ([link removed]) following the October 7 terrorist attack.

Check out our new monthly series Inside 2024 available exclusively for Friends of the Pod subscribers. This show is a chance to hear White House alumni talk about what really goes on behind the scenes of a Presidential campaign—everything from debate prep and convention speeches, to campaign ads and botched media appearances. To get access to Inside 2024, join our community over at Friends of the Pod by signing up at Crooked.com/friends. ([link removed])
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Worrisome polls have popped up lately ([link removed]) showing President Joe Biden trailing disgraced former President Donald Trump ([link removed]) in a hypothetical general election matchup. Early polls are often off-base this far ahead of the next election—but unfortunately for Biden and the Democrats, some more troubling numbers just landed about a key issue in the next campaign: immigration.


A recent spate of polling suggests voters ([link removed]) are growing more skeptical of Democrats’ handling of the issue, in a reversal from the Trump years, when a majority trusted Democrats more than Republicans. A Sienna College Poll found ([link removed]) that 75 percent of Democrats in New York called the recent influx of migrants to that state a “somewhat serious” problem, and 47 percent called it a “very serious” problem. Meanwhile, 53 percent of Democrats agreed that “New Yorkers have already done enough for new migrants and should now work to slow the flow of migrants to New York.” Only 41 percent agreed that New York should “accept new migrants and work to assimilate them into New York.”

Okay, that’s just one state. But other numbers laid out by The Washington Post ([link removed]) on Tuesday suggest a broader national rightward tilt. Seventy percent of independents and 30 percent of Democrats disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll ([link removed]) . Even Trump’s wack-a-doo border wall seems to be enjoying a surge in popularity: Support for the wall was stuck in the 30s during Trump’s presidency, but lately the idea is winning majority ([link removed]) support in multiple polls ([link removed]) . A year is a long time in politics. And none of this proves Republicans will ride the immigration issue to a victory in November 2024. Yet it’s hardly great news for Biden. Instead,
it looks like yet another concerning headwind Biden and Democrats will have to overcome in the next 12 months to claim victory when it counts.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a decade-old Maryland law requiring fingerprinting and firearm training to acquire a handgun license ([link removed]) , which it said violates the Second Amendment.


On Monday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of disgraced former president Donald Trump ([link removed]) , as the (already extremely far-right) speaker faces criticisms from other far-right members of his caucus for having struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.


Trump’s former United Nations ambassador and scary GOP girlboss Nikki Haley is surging in the polls. That’s creating infighting in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) presidential campaign ([link removed]) so severe it threatens to blow his whole operation asunder.


At least one person has died and others are missing after a significant landslide occurred down a mountain near a remote Alaska community ([link removed]) . Three homes were in the landslide’s direct path.


Two people have died during Taylor Swift’s Era’s tour stop in Brazil ([link removed]) , and fans reported fainting due to the heat wave the country is experiencing, while others reported being mugged or caught up in police raids.

North Korea claimed it launched a military spy satellite into orbit on Tuesday ([link removed]) . The White House condemned the launch which it called “a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

Longtime former State Department official Stuart Seldowitz was caught on camera harassing a halal cart vendor in New York City ([link removed]) , making Islamophobic statements like “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” and asserting that the 4,000 Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza “wasn’t enough.” The man he’s addressing in the video repeatedly told him to leave, and that he doesn’t speak English, but Seldowitz continues, threatening to contact his “friends in immigration,” and saying, “The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one.” Seldowitz was a three-time State Department Superior Honour Award winner. Most recently, he served as foreign affairs chair for Gotham Government Relations, but on Tuesday afternoon, Gotham announced that it had cut ties with him ([link removed]
e/stuart-seldowitz-halal-cart-harassment) , and called Seldowitz’s actions “vile” and “racist.”
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Binance founder and former CEO Changpen Zhao pleaded guilty to federal money laundering on Tuesday and will be forced to pay a $4.3 billion ([link removed]) fine for his fraudulent operation of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Bad year for fake money!

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast approaching, it’s worth remembering that the internet makes it too easy to buy stuff we don’t need ([link removed]) (and sometimes stuff we don’t actually want!). The Atlantic put together a strategy to stave off holiday shopping mania.
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