Crooked Media - What A Day: Damasc-ing for trouble

Israel is bracing for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran as the two countries’ long-simmering conflict appears at increasing risk of boiling over. 

• Senior American military official Gen. Michael Kurilla arrived in Israel on Thursday amid fears that Iran might launch a strike to avenge an Israeli airstrike in Damascus that killed three senior Iranian commanders. Gen. Kurilla made the trip to coordinate on the expected retaliatory action and to discuss the war in Gaza, according to Defense Department officials who spoke to the New York Times under condition of anonymity. 

• President Biden has used slightly sharper language regarding Israel in recent weeks, and threatened to withhold American aid unless Israel does more to protect civilians after an Israeli attack on a World Central Kitchen envoy killed seven aid workers, including one American citizen, but that hasn’t resulted in substantive policy changes. On Wednesday, he emphasized that American support for Israel in the face of an Iranian threat is unconditional, saying “our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.” Senior Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were reportedly frustrated that Israel did not notify the United States before conducting the strike in Syria, according to the Washington Post.

• The Israeli airstrike in Damascus was among the most significant attacks in the “shadow war” between Israel and Iran that has been unfolding for the past year. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday that she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart, and her office released a statement stressing the importance of “avoiding further regional escalation,” and the need for “all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed uninterested in the idea of restraint on Thursday while visiting the Tel Nof Air Base, where he said: “We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them.” Well okay then!

Meanwhile, conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate. 

• In the week since President Biden issued his sternest words yet for Israel, and despite the Netanyahu government touting what they say is a record number of aid trucks being allowed into Gaza, humanitarian workers and United Nations officials say little has changed in the enclave. The volume of aid has not significantly increased, nor is it reaching the people who need it most. The Israeli government also promised to reopen a crossing in northern Gaza, bring bakeries back online, and establish clear coordination channels with aid workers, but those measures seemingly have yet to be implemented. 

• U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that conditions in Gaza are “as dire as I have seen in my career.” Ninety-five percent of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people is estimated to be experiencing crisis levels of hunger. Famine is already underway in Northern Gaza, according to the global Food and Agriculture Organization, the world’s leading body on food crises.