The Conversation - Deep context of Israel-Hamas war

I’ve long wanted to steal the unofficial motto of the news publication edited by my brother in Europe: “We give you the background of the news, not the foreground.” That’s what we do at The Conversation, too, and that’s how we have covered the war in Israel-Gaza that started almost two weeks ago.

You can tune into CNN or read The New York Times or AP’s websites for up-to-the-minute reporting. You can read our coverage to understand why those things are happening.

This newsletter is a showcase of our coverage since the beginning of the war. Here are some notable recent stories:

• Deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust spurs a crisis of confidence in the idea of Israel – and its possible renewal
• Gaza depends on UN and other global aid groups for food, medicine and basic services – Israel-Hamas war means nothing is getting in
• Saudi plans to ‘de-risk’ region has taken a hit with Gaza violence − but hitting pause on normalization with Israel will buy kingdom time
• A reflexive act of military revenge burdened the US − and may do the same for Israel
• Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system works well – here’s how Hamas got around it

Last week in this newsletter, I said we would keep covering this war, which was nowhere near over. We commit to the same thing today: To cover the context, history and ramifications of this tragic event via the expertise of scholars who know the subject at the deepest level. Like I said, the background, not the foreground.

We are sending you this special edition of our Politics Weekly newsletter to provide the latest analysis on the Israel-Hamas war. If you’d like to get the Politics Weekly newsletter every Thursday, you can sign up here. We also have a weekly newsletter on religion and the world of faith published in conjunction with The Associated Press and the Religion News Service. Sign up here