Check out these recent articles from around the web on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as rising antisemitism and Islamophobia:

What Hamas Wants by Yair Rosenberg: “Many got Hamas wrong. But they shouldn’t have. Again and again, people say they intend to murder Jews. And yet, century after century, the world produces new, tortuous justifications for why anti-Jewish bigots don’t really mean what they say—even though they do.”

Death and trauma stalk Palestinian children by Mithil Aggarwal: “The death of the Hamdan sisters illustrates the heavy toll the war is taking on Gaza’s overwhelmingly young population. Children make up about half of Gaza’s nearly 2.3 million people — many of whom were born during Israel’s strict 16-year blockade of Gaza and are now watching bombs destroy their neighborhoods.”

A month into devastating Gaza war, Israel’s endgame is no clearer by William Booth and Hazem Balousha: “The Strip is becoming a toxic waste pit of armaments and debris, experts warn. More than 1 million people are displaced. Tens of thousands cower in hospital courtyards and shuttered United Nations schools. Entire city blocks have been destroyed. However this ends, it will be one of the biggest reconstruction projects ever undertaken. Yet Israel and its allies have offered no consistent vision for who will administer the enclave after the war.”

Feds, local officials on high alert as reports of antisemitism, Islamophobia surge Christopher Cann: “Such incidents appearing to target Jewish and Muslim people have surged across the nation since the start of the Israel-Hamas war just over a month ago, putting all levels of law enforcement agencies on high alert and instilling fear into the lives of those being targeted and attacked.”

This War Shows Just How Broken Social Media Has Become by Charlie Warzel: “Social media, especially Twitter, has sometimes been an incredible news-gathering tool; it has also been terrible and inefficient, a game of do your own research that involves batting away bullshit and parsing half truths, hyperbole, outright lies, and invaluable context from experts on the fly. Social media’s greatest strength is thus its original sin: These sites are excellent at making you feel connected and informed, frequently at the expense of actually being informed. That’s to say nothing of the psychological toll that comes from staring at the raw feed. I’ve personally witnessed beheadings and war crimes through my screen—an experience no person should endure merely to stay informed about the world.”

The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False by Simon Sebag Montefiore: “Israel has done many harsh and bad things. Netanyahu’s government, the worst ever in Israeli history, as inept as it is immoral, promotes a maximalist ultranationalism that is both unacceptable and unwise. Everyone has the right to protest against Israel’s policies and actions but not to promote terror sects, the killing of civilians, and the spreading of menacing anti-Semitism.”

Fights in bread lines, despair in shelters: War threatens to unravel Gaza’s close-knit society by the AP: “Over half a million displaced people have crammed into hospitals and U.N. schools-turned-shelters in the south. The schools — overcrowded, strewn with trash, swarmed by flies — have become a breeding ground for infectious diseases.”

Gaza is plagued by poverty, but Hamas has no shortage of cash. Where does it come from? by Dan De Luce and Lisa Cavazuti: “The unemployment rate in Gaza is 47% and more than 80% of its population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations. Hamas, however, has funded an armed force of thousands equipped with rockets and drones and built a vast web of tunnels under Gaza. Estimates of its annual military budget range from $100 million to $350 million, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.”

Your Moral Equation Must Have Human Beings on Both Sides by Jonathan Chait: “Whatever calculation you make must begin with the premise that the deaths of innocent people are evil. I simply don’t know what the answer is. What I do know is that any ideology that is not bounded by a recognition of universal humanity is too dangerous to be let loose upon the world.”

A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed by Eric Levitz: “Either one upholds the equal worth of all human lives, opposes war crimes, and despises far-right ethno-nationalist political projects or one doesn’t. What’s more, cheering (or publicly announcing your refusal to condemn) the murder of children isn’t just morally grotesque but also politically self-defeating.”

Democrats urge Biden to grant protected status to Palestinians in US amid war by Ted Hesson: “In a letter to Biden, more than 100 Democrats led by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin called on Biden to grant residents of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories deportation relief and access to work permits through U.S. programs for people whose homelands are affected by conflicts, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances….Last week, Republican Representative Ryan Zinke and 10 other Republicans introduced a bill to expel Palestinians from the U.S. on security grounds and bar entry of people holding passports issued by the Palestinian Authority, a governing body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords 30 years ago.”

Rising antisemitism requires a clear Catholic response by America: “The reasons for Jew-hatred throughout history have been chameleon-like: Jews are too rich, too poor, too powerful or too weak; they are stubborn monotheists or godless communists. This adaptability also makes antisemitism resilient and is why we must always be attentive to its resurgence in our midst. When some of the chants coming from protests on campuses and streets echo the hatred of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, we cannot answer them with silence.”