Every day now, I sit at my computer and ask myself: What is there left to say about the two news stories I care about most? One is unfolding in my hometown, on the banks of the Mississippi River; the other on the West Bank of the Jordan and on both banks of the Wadi Gaza.
Which video should I linger on longest? The footage of Renee Good, shot in the face by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis while she was clearly trying to evacuate the scene? Or the video from Saturday of federal agents shooting Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse, after he tried to help a woman who was being pepper-sprayed? Or perhaps the video from Wednesday showing the aftermath of Israeli strikes that killed three Palestinian journalists, among others, in the Gaza Strip?
The journalists had been working for a committee providing Egyptian aid and were documenting its distribution at a displacement camp. Or perhaps the videos of Hamas executing rivals and refusing to yield, despite the fact that the war the group ignited on Oct. 7, 2023, has resulted in nothing but catastrophe for Palestinians?
These stories have much more in common than you might think. All are driven, in my view, by terrible leaders who prefer easy, violent solutions to the hard work of negotiated problem-solving. These leaders see ironfisted approaches as the best way to win their next elections: President Trump in the 2026 midterms; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, expected to call elections around the same time; and Hamas, in its desperate effort to lead the Palestinian movement in the postwar era, despite having lost the war.
Hamas and ICE also share one very visible trait that I never thought I’d see in the US: almost all of their foot soldiers wear masks. My experience as a reporter in the Middle East taught me that people wear masks because they are up to something bad and don’t want their faces captured on camera. I saw it often in Beirut and Gaza. I never expected to see it in Minneapolis.
Since when have America’s domestic policing forces, charged with defending the Constitution and the rule of law, felt the need to hide their identities?
I understand why Hamas fighters wear masks. They have both Israeli and Palestinian blood on their hands and fear retribution. But if you placed a photo of an ICE officer next to a Hamas militiaman in a news quiz, I would defy you to tell them apart.
Good and Pretti were clearly present as observers and were trying to defend others. Yet both were drawn into the chaos and shot at close range by agents who should never have pulled a trigger. Still, the Trump team insists ICE is blameless. That is not how you build legitimacy for a government effort to track down and deport immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
That same instinct for “fire, ready, aim” is one of the morally corrupting legacies of Israel’s war in Gaza. One of the Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli airstrike, Abdel Raouf Shaath, had worked for years as a cameraman for CBS News and other outlets. The others were local journalists Mohammad Salah Qishta and Anas Ghneim. They were reportedly on assignment to film aid distribution by the Egyptian Relief Committee when their vehicle was targeted.
Really? Was that the only way to handle the situation during a ceasefire? Immediately launch an airstrike and ask questions later? Israel can assassinate nuclear scientists in Iran in the dead of night from 1,200 miles away, yet it cannot distinguish a journalist from a combatant in broad daylight next door. It is shameful.
This comes only months after Israeli forces killed Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri on the stairs of Gaza’s Nasser Hospital. Netanyahu apologized for that killing. But regarding the three journalists killed last week, the Israeli military released a familiar statement saying troops identified “several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas” and “struck the suspects.” Details, it added, are under review.
That is what it always says. That is how a nation and an army lose their soul.
Here is what is really happening. Netanyahu is running for reelection. Israel currently occupies roughly 53% of the Gaza Strip, with Hamas holding the rest. Trump — working with Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — is pushing for Hamas to disarm, for its military leaders to leave, and for the organisation to become a purely political entity. In return, Trump expects Israel to begin withdrawing toward its own border.
Netanyahu knows that if he runs for election with Hamas still holding political influence in Gaza and Israeli forces pulling back, he will be savaged by the far-right extremists in his coalition. Those allies do not just want to stay in Gaza; they want to annex the West Bank. So Netanyahu wants the war to continue. He wants to provoke Hamas into fighting so withdrawal never becomes unavoidable.
Meanwhile, Hamas is clinging to its weapons to maintain control on the ground. Even if forced into a political role, it will do everything possible to hijack the technocratic Palestinian government the Trump administration is trying to install.
Back at home, Trump seems to believe the chaos in Minneapolis will work for him in November — even though polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of ICE’s tactics. He is betting on a “law and order” campaign fueled by anti-immigration sentiment.
Trump, Netanyahu and Hamas each have their eyes on the same prize: the 2026 elections. The people of Minnesota, Israel and Gaza must keep that in mind. Because if Trump maintains control of Congress, if Netanyahu wins reelection and if Hamas seizes control of the Palestinian movement, all three societies risk sliding into a darkness from which recovery will be agonizingly difficult.
The New York Times