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Sarah Gibson Tuttle
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Russell
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Lisa
Hey listeners, meet Russell.
John
Hey.
Lisa
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Sweat is pouring and so are the installs.
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Isaac Saul
From executive producer Isaac Saul.
Sarah Gibson Tuttle
This is Tangle.
Isaac Stahl
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum. Some independent thinking and a little bit of my take. I'm your host Isaac Stahl, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the latest in the Israel, Gaza aid situation. I'm going to break down exactly what's going on. We're going to share some, we're going to share some opinions from the left, the right, and of course from Israel and Gaza, and then a little bit of my take. So it's a tough one today. I'll be honest. This is typical with this war. It's not easy stuff to write or talk about, but we're going to do our best to kind of filter out the noise and then, of course, you know, engage on a human level about what's happening right now and what we can take away from it. Before we jump into that, I do want to give you a quick heads up that I did something last week I have never done in Tangle before. I publish an entire podcast about the things that I've gotten right instead of the things I've gotten wrong. Because you know what, we do a lot of self criticism around here. We do a lot of accountability journalism. Well, accountability journalism against ourselves, I guess. And you know, I got some pushback from both my readers and my editors. Like, hey, you're hard on yourself. You should talk about things you get right sometimes. So that's my effort to do that on Friday. And if you want to go listen to that podcast, it's up on our podcast feed right now. All right, with that out of the way, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main story and I'll be back for my take.
John
Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It's a new week and Monday is a great day to put thought into action. So whatever plans you've been thinking about, if there's people you've been wanting to reach out to or ways that you've been thinking about helping, now's a great time to start. So let's remember to bring the best of ourselves to this world and make the most positive impact that we can. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, the United States and the European Union reached a trade agreement that will put a 15% tariff on most EU exports. The EU will also invest approximately $600 billion in the United States and increased purchases of US energy and military equipment. Number two, the Justice Department granted convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell limited immunity during meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The Justice Department has not disclosed who or what Maxwell and Blanche discussed. Number three, 11 people were stabbed in an attack at a Walmart near Traverse City, Michigan. A suspect was arrested but has not been identified. Number four, the Department of Education released over $5 billion in frozen education funds that had been withheld since the beginning of July. And number five, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a ceasefire ending five days of fighting linked to a long standing border dispute.
Isaac Saul
A pivotal moment for lives and the conflict in the Middle east as deaths from hunger rise in Gaza today, the Israeli military announced it will begin airdrops of aid and will open more humanitarian corridors to bring in food. But the UN and aid groups have criticized airdrops as inadequate and dangerous. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that in the last day five people died of malnutrition and starvation, including a baby girl. She's one of 85 children to die of malnutrition over the last three weeks, the ministry said.
John
On Sunday, the Israeli military temporarily paused operations in three parts of Gaza to allow aid groups into the enclave amid rising concerns over a hunger crisis. Separately, Israel airdropped humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time since the start of its war with Hamas, one of several measures that government officials said were aimed at combating false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza. Israel said that the technical pause in operations would take effect in the cities of Gaza City, Deir al Bala and Mouasi beginning every day at 10am local time and continuing until further notice. Aid trucks departed to Gaza from Egypt and Jordan on news of the policy change and the first trucks have arrived from Egypt. For context, Israel barred entry of all aid into Gaza in March in an effort to increase pressure on Hamas to release hostages, then restarted limited aid deliveries in May using foreign contractors outside the United nations aid system. Israel has blamed Hamas for conditions in the Strip, saying the food scarcity is a man made crisis. Conversely, Hamas has accused Israel of using food access as a military tactic. On Monday, July 21, 31 countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan and several European nations issued a joint statement criticizing Israel's aid delivery mechanisms, saying it is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. The US and Israel each rejected the letter's claims, though on Monday, President Donald Trump said there is real starvation in Gaza. You can't fake that. The Israel backed food distribution system, led by the US registered Gazan Humanitarian foundation, has struggled to safely and reliably distribute food in Gaza, where demand for aid has outpaced supply. Furthermore, the GHF system uses the Israeli military to protect aid workers, but soldiers have killed scores of Gazans in incidents during aid distribution. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says that over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid, primarily near the GHF's food collection sites. In recent weeks, aid groups have increasingly raised concerns about an impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement saying that the scale of human suffering and the stripping of human dignity have long exceeded every acceptable standard, both legal and moral. On Sunday, the World Food program claimed some 470,000 people are enduring famine like conditions, adding it has enough food to feed all of Gaza for three months. Some Israeli experts have also suggested that the government's decision to loosen aid restrictions is a response to the crisis's mounting urgency. 147 people in Gaza have died of starvation since the start of the war, according to the Hamas run Gaza Ministry of Health. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that Israel is deliberately starving Gazans, saying on Sunday that Israel will have to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies. We have done this until now. While many Israeli officials have long accused Hamas of stealing aid before it could reach Gazans, multiple senior military officials recently said that they had not found proof of systemic aid seizures by Hamas. The U.S. agency for International Development reportedly reached the same conclusion in its review. Today we'll cover the latest on the aid situation in Gaza with views from the left, right and Reuters in the Middle east, and then Isaac's take.
Isaac Stahl
We'll be right back after this quick break.
Sarah Gibson Tuttle
Hi. Who here loves when their nails are perfectly done?
Isaac Stahl
Me.
Sarah Gibson Tuttle
I'm Sarah Gibson Tuttle and I started Olive in June because let's be real, we all deserve to have gorgeous nails. But who wants to spend a fortune or half their day at the salon? And that's why I created the Mani system. So you can have that salon perfect manicure right at home. And guess what? The best part? Each mani only costs $2. Yup, you heard me. $2. No more. 30, 40, $50 salon trips that eat up your day. Now you can paint your nails whenever you want, wherever you want. And trust me, you're going to be obsessed with your nails and everyone is going to ask you where did you get your nails done? And here's a little something extra. Head over to OliveAndJune.com and get 20% off your first mani system with code perfectmanny20@olivenjun.com perfectmanny20 that's code perfectmanny20 for 20% off@o June.com perfectmanny20. You're all set for a nail glow up. Let's get those nails looking fabulous, shall we?
Lisa
Hello listeners, Meet Lisa.
Mia
Hey there.
Lisa
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Mia
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Mia
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Lisa
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John
All right, first up, let's start with what the Left is saying. The left is disturbed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and many call on the United States to facilitate more aid. Others say Israel is misleading the world about the cause of the crisis. In msnbc, Sarah Bashi wrote, israel is starving Gaza and the US Is complicit. The Israeli government denies famine or aid obstruction and blames the United nations and Hamas for any shortages. Israeli officials accuse aid agencies of distributing lies saying restrictions are needed to prevent diversion by Hamas and argue that because tons of UN Aid is still on the Gaza side of crossings waiting to be distributed, there's no need to allow more in. Bashi said official Israeli misinformation is not particularly sophisticated, but it is repetitive, relentless, and reliant on Western dehumanization of Palestinians. Only racism, the belief that some people's lives are worth less than others, and that some people's statements are inherently unreliable can explain American susceptibility to Israel's denial of starvation in Gaza. There are two things the United States government should urgently do to end US Complicity in the mass starvation. First, the US Must tell the Israeli military to open all crossings into Gaza, end on Earth's bureaucratic restrictions, and allow aid groups to flood the strip with food. On average, since March 2, just 28 international aid trucks have entered Gaza daily, compared with 500 total trucks per day before the war, bashi wrote. Second, the US Must end support for dangerous, militarized distribution schemes like the GHF and instruct the Israeli military to resume cooperation with the United nations and other principled, impartial aid groups. In the Guardian, Peter Beaumont argued, Israel is trying to deflect blame for widespread starvation in Gaza. David Mentzer, an Israeli government spokesperson, told Sky News this week there is no famine in Gaza There is a famine of the truth, beaumont said. Israel's attempts to deflect blame, however, are undermined by its single overarching responsibility that as an occupying power in a conflict, it is legally obligated to ensure the provision of means of life for those under occupation. And while Israel has consistently tried to blame Hamas for intercepting food aid, that claim has been undermined BY A leaked U.S. assessment seen by Reuters, which found no evidence of systemic theft by the Palestinian militant group of U S funded humanitarian supplies. Israel has also recently intensified efforts to blame the UN for the problems with aid distribution, citing a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organizations. Israel's claims are contradicted by clear evidence of its efforts to undermine aid distribution, beaumont wrote. Instead, Israel, backed by the US has relied on the private, inexperienced and controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Its sites have been the focus of numerous mass killings of desperate Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Alright, that is it for what the left is saying. Which brings us to what the right is saying. Many on the right refuse that Israel is to blame for the lack of food in Gaza, saying Hamas is responsible. Some argue Israel should do more to facilitate aid distribution or risk its global standing. In Commentary magazine, Seth Mandel wrote about the enablers of Hamas's starvation strategy. For the first time since the war began, there are credible concerns of hunger in Gaza. The main indicator, as expressed by both Gazans and economists, is the price of food in the enclave, a variable that can at least be used to calculate supply and demand and therefore offers a general picture of the overall trend. And that trend suggests that a future hunger crisis might be on the horizon if nothing changes, mandel said. The caveat, and it's a big one, is that there is enough food in Gaza. Hamas is intentionally starving the rest of Gaza. Additionally, nearly a thousand UN aid trucks have passed through the Israeli inspection points and sit in Gaza with their goods undistributed. Trey Yingst, a fairly harsh critic of the Israeli counteroffensive, reports that the IDF offered the UN five different routes to distribute the aid. As of yet, the UN does not appear to have accepted any of the distribution offers, mandel wrote. Hamas will hoard the aid and resell some for astronomical markup. In other words, Hamas strategy is to keep the people of Gaza perpetually close to a hunger crisis because that triggers international pressure on Israel to let Hamas restock its own shelves and refill its own coffers, the Wall Street Journal editorial board said. Gaza's aid crisis helps only Hamas Gazans have suffered for what the US official calls the my way or the highway approach of the traditional aid groups. Israeli military stubbornness has also been to blame, including an unwillingness to divert assets that would help expand aid efforts, the board wrote. It's notable that shutting down the Gaza Humanitarian foundation, the new US and Israel backed aid group, was the number two item on Hamas list of demands in ceasefire negotiations on Thursday. Whatever its flaws, the new aid group usually provides some 2 million meals a day directly to Gazans free of charge. That's a threat to Hamas, which fired a rocket at a GHF site on Thursday. Aid also needs to get to the weak, not only the strong, which is difficult when aid sites are rushed and trucks are looted. Opening an aid site to women only, as the GHF did Thursday, is one promising idea, the board said. Israel is running out of time to ensure more aid gets through to Gazans. Blaming the un, though fair, doesn't suffice. In a good sign on Friday, Israel allowed Arab states to resume aid airdrops. Jerusalem will also have to prove to its allies that the GHF can work and scale up operations or risk losing their support. Alright, that is it for what the left and the right are saying. Which brings us to what writers in the Middle east are saying. Gazan writers report that suffering runs rampant amid ongoing food shortages. Some writers in Israel worry that the government has no strategy to end the war or avert a humanitarian disaster in the Middle east eye, Ahmed Aziz wrote. Starving Palestinian families face the unthinkable Famine in Gaza has become a daily reality. It is no longer merely a sensation of deprivation. It manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly. No one is spared. We have witnessed with our own eyes bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver, Aziz said. The price of a kilogram of flour has surpassed $30, while a kilogram of sugar now costs over $130. Most foods are either entirely unavailable or so scarce as to seem imaginary. The tragedy is not just in the prices, but in the absence of essential goods. People are not simply refusing to buy. There is nothing left to buy. Children now cry out daily, we want bread, we want to eat, but no one feeds them. My young cousins, only five years old, wake up at dawn begging their father to bring them a loaf of bread, but he cannot afford one. A single loaf has become a luxury, aziz wrote. Some fathers have begun to flee their tents, unable to bear the look of disappointment in their children's eyes. I saw a mother praying for her children to die simply because she could no longer feed them. Some mothers sit at the entrances of their tents, tears falling, whispering broken prayers. Oh God, please take them, relieve them of this suffering. In the times of Israel, David Horovitz explored how Israel made itself responsible for Gaza The Israel Defense Forces today says it controls some 75% of the Gaza Strip, meaning that by its own declaration, Israel is responsible for most of Gaza, Horovitz said. Israel has found itself responsible for securing access to GHF sites and for overseeing other aid distribution mechanisms, yet it is not trained or equipped to do so. Israel simply cannot have its soldiers believing themselves in genuine danger and lacking non lethal means of protection, killing numerous Gazan civilians almost daily. It undermines the war effort. It is immoral and indefensible. Yet that is what is continuing to happen. A war that began because of the absolute imperative to destroy Hamas military machine and get back the hostages has metastasized into an Israeli military takeover of most of Gaza, horovitz wrote. The Gaza terror state built by Hamas in its ongoing declared goal of destroying Israel is largely in ruins, largely uninhabitable, and the Gazans that Hamas most deliberately placed in harm's way are indeed suffering terrible harm. But with Israel, not Hamas, now having chosen to make itself responsible, Israel is rapidly alienating most of its closest allies. While internally fragmented, the vast majority of the public is desperate to end the war in exchange for the release of all the hostages. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
Isaac Stahl
All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying. Which brings us to my take. Where should I start? That's all I could think of actually, when I sat down to start today's my take section. Starvation or occupation or terrorism or entrenched warfare. Generations of bloody conflict. The history weighs heavy, the cursor blinks at me tauntingly, and I feel stuck. Maybe I should begin by rerouting people to all my previous writing on this topic and just let it be. I could revisit the way my opinion on this war has evolved, or my warnings that we'd get here, or my worst nightmares coming true. Or I could disassociate emotionally and start by neutrally describing the horrors of war, how suffering becomes inevitable when two people lock in a battle to try and destroy one another. I could start with Hamas and how their refusal to surrender is leading to Gaza's ruin. Or with Israel and their refusal to accept an all for all deal to get the hostages home and leave Gaza. Maybe I should do the opposite. I could lean into the human side of this war, sharing images of Gazans climbing over each other at aid sites, skinny and desperate, reaching out for food. I could try to describe the immensity of the strife that follows, legitimate attempts at empathy, of having an image of an emaciated baby on my screen While my healthy 6 month old son is happily rolling around on the floor at my feet on a beautiful Sunday evening in Philadelphia. Where should I start? I really don't know. After nearly two years of fighting, the situation in Gaza has somehow worsened. Weeks into this war, when aid groups said Israel was starving Gaza and activists in the west almost immediately described the nascent conflict as a genocide, I describe my concern about overstating the horror, the risk of removing the meaning from words that should be reserved for particular definable actions. Now, after years of crying wolf, the wolf is in Gaza. As Israeli journalist Aviv Radegur put it, we are very close to real, actual desperate hunger in Gaza. It is hard to convince Israelis of that because literally everything said to them for 22 months on this topic has been a fiction. We need to wake them up. What changed? Gur's assessment was not the images of hunger, those dead from starvation, the hospitals full of malnourished children, or the reports from journalists or aid groups of the destroyed streets and homes and markets, but the brute economic fact of the price of flour. His assessment is accurate, and his criticisms of early, exaggerated claims about mass starvation are fair. But his realization is also months late. The hunger did not start in July. It's been here for most of this year. Describing the economics of war unnecessarily common complicates our understanding of responsibility. It was Israel's decision to impose a full blockade from March until May that got us here. Even after the blockade ended, Israel totally reset the way Gazans access their food, and it has not gone well. Its reforms diminished the nearly 400 aid sites the UN ran across the Gaza Strip to four, all run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Those sites were placed in Israeli controlled areas, forcing Palestinians to cross military lines to get food. Just hours before those sites were to begin distributions, Jake Wood, the organization's public face, resigned suddenly, saying the plan could clearly not be implemented while also adhering to humanitarian principles. He was right. Israel has said repeatedly their blockade and new system were necessary to stop Hamas from stealing food and supplies. They framed their decision as a gift to Gazans, a response to an organized effort by the terrorist group to deprive its own people of food and ransack international aid groups. And yes, Hamas has stolen aid from international groups before, and it has a track record of controlling resources coming into Gaza as a means of power and repression. Yet when pressed on this actual framing, Israeli military officials have admitted that the United nations aid operation was actually pretty reliable and that Hamas was stealing primarily from smaller and less coordinated aid groups. Indeed, an analysis conducted by usaid, which then leaked to Reuters, found no evidence of systemic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of US Funded humanitarian supplies. The threat to aid workers from both Israeli strikes and Hamas is extreme. That threat has been constant. Now the threat to Gazans trying to get the food appears to be equally real. Since May, hundreds of Gazans have been killed at the new aid sites, where Israeli soldiers have repeatedly opened fire at perceived threats. Shootings have happened at UN run aid sites as well, but not nearly as often. Some soldiers have sounded the alarm that they are being told to fire at unarmed civilians. Hunger has become so pervasive that in the few hospitals that remain functioning in Gaza, nurses and doctors are beginning to faint from hunger and dehydration while treating starving children and infants. Allowing aid into Gaza should not be justified as a means to accomplish war aims, but as a moral imperative. As most of you know by now, the population of Gaza was roughly 2 million when the war started, half of whom were under the age of 18. The current number is unknown, as most civilians have been displaced while trying to follow Israel's directives. They are constantly being evacuated, relocated, bombed, evacuated, relocated, and then bombed again. Their homes, schools, hospitals and markets are destroyed. Their entire existence has been reduced to figuring out 1 how to avoid getting killed in an Israeli strike, 2 how to avoid being killed by Hamas and 3 how to find food to eat or water to drink. Even putting aside basic human rights, ensuring civilians in Gaza don't starve would be a wise political move for Israel, given that its international support has completely collapsed. Only one government in the world continues to vote against UN censures and supply Israel with military support. The Trump administration has thus far been steadfast in its support of Israel. Trump is encouraging Israel to further escalate the war, though it's hard for me to imagine there is somewhere further to go from here. Although the president has at times projected frustration with the prime minister, he has repeatedly greenlit Netanyahu's most draconian instincts. This approach is confusing and disjointed, and I have no idea what, if anything, Trump will do or say next. For now, the working presumption should be that Netanyahu can do as he pleases and continue to receive U.S. support. As I wrote a few weeks ago, it is stories like this, the images, the reports, the reality that have been so destructive to my love and faith in Israel. My spirit is inconsolable and I have begun to question my very association with Zionism. How can a Jewish state reconcile itself with such inhumanity? How can we not have a better means of extricating a group like Hamas than this? How can our tolerance for the suffering of Gazans be so high? My critics will say this is a weak need thinking that allows Hamas to win a war of attrition. I say it is the very basic human instinct that we can only repress for so long before we end up becoming the very evil we loathe. We'll be right back after this quick break.
Lisa
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Isaac Stahl
All right, that is it for my take today, which brings us to your questions answered. This one is from George in Gunnison, Colorado. George said, how is the Social Security Fairness act fair? The way I read it, employees who paid into a pension but not Social Security are now entitled to Social Security benefits. Okay, so George, you're mostly right, but with one significant amendment. So during a lame duck session in January, Congress passed the Social Security Fairness act, also called ssfa. In short, it repealed an aspect of the Social Security benefit calculation called the windfall elimination provision, or wep. That provision reduced the Social Security payment owed to beneficiaries who did not have portions of their salaries paid into the Social Security trust fund, but instead contributed to a pension plan. In theory, since people who were owed pensions after their employment had not paid into Social Security, it would not be fair to send them double benefits when they only paid into pension. However, there are a few reasons why the WEP wasn't as fair as it seemed, and why the SSFA might not be unfair. First, as we've written many times in Tango before, Social Security is different from pension plans or a personal savings account. Beneficiaries do not receive their own money that they pay into Social Security. Today's contributors support today's beneficiaries. So this law is less about people taking money that isn't theirs and more about giving support to the population. Social Security was created to help. Second, the fairness of the WEP looked very different in theory than in practice, where it served to reduce the benefit given to public servants like teachers, firefighters, and police officers. As a result, those pension recipients ended up receiving less in combined retirement benefits than those who had not paid in. Thus, Congress passed the SSFA to try to amend that difference. All right, that is it for today's listener question. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace.
John
Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under the Radar story for today, folks. In 2024, a solar geoengineering experiment on the San Francisco Bay was quickly halted by Alameda city officials who said they had not been notified of the test. However, the experiment was just a prequel, as the team reportedly planned a much larger initiative to evaluate saltwater spraying equipment that could potentially be used to dim the sun's rays. According to a trove of documents newly obtained by POLITICO's E&E News, the University of Washington led team was attempting to use the Alameda test as a proof of concept to solicit funds for a 3,900 square mile cloud creation test off the west coast of North America, Chile or South Central Africa. Scientists are studying this technology as a potential means of combating climate change by reflecting sunlight away from the earth, but it is largely unproven and unregulated. Furthermore, the documents revealed that the team eschewed steps to notify the public of their research, potentially undermining trust in the experiment. Politico has this story and there's a link in today's episode Description alright, next up is our numbers section. The percentage of Gazans classified as being in Phase one food insecurity, meaning no or minimal food insecurity from April to May of 2025 is 0%. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the percentage of Gazans classified as being in phase two or stressed food insecurity is 7%. The percentage of Gazans classified as being in phase three or crisis food insecurity is 37%. The percentage of Gazans classified AS being in phase four or emergency food insecurity is 44%. The percentage of Gazans classified As being in phase five catastrophic or famine food insecurity is 12%. The estimated number of children in Gaza under the age of five who are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months if the current situation persists, is 71,000, according to the IPC. The average number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza per day since May is 70, according to the Israeli military. And the estimated number of aid trucks of aid needed per day to cover basic human needs in Gaza is 120, according to the United Nations. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. In the 1980s, South Korea's adoption program was rife with fraud and abuse, and private agencies put over 200,000 children up for adoption under a previous military government that wanted to reduce resource demand and curry favor among Western nations. This March, South Korea took a significant step to regulate the system by ratifying a treaty that establishes international conventions for adoption. Going forward, inter country adoptions will be permitted only when no suitable family can be found in his or her state of origin, and only if deemed to serve the child's best interests through deliberation by the Adoption Policy Committee under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a joint government statement read. The Associated Press has this story and there's a link in today's episode description all right everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, Please go to readtangle.com where you can sign up for a newsletter builder membership, podcast membership or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y'. All. Peace.
Isaac Stahl
Our Executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our Executive producer is John Law. Today's episode was edited and engineered by John Law. Our editorial staff is led by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, with Senior Editor Will K. Back and Associate editors Audrey Moorhead. Bailey Saw Lindsay Knuth and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75 and John Law and to learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website@readtangle.com.
John
Ra.
Podcast Summary: Tangle - "Starvation in Gaza"
Release Date: July 28, 2025
Host: Isaac Saul
In the July 28, 2025 episode of Tangle, host Isaac Saul delves into the harrowing humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. The episode, titled "Starvation in Gaza," provides a comprehensive analysis of the current situation, incorporating perspectives from across the political spectrum, insights from Middle Eastern writers, and Saul’s personal reflections.
Isaac Saul opens the discussion by highlighting the severe impact of the ongoing conflict on the civilian population in Gaza. He notes the Israeli military's recent announcement to commence airdrops of aid and the opening of more humanitarian corridors to alleviate the rising hunger crisis.
Isaac Saul [02:26]: "Deaths from hunger rise in Gaza today, the Israeli military announced it will begin airdrops of aid and will open more humanitarian corridors to bring in food."
Despite these measures, the United Nations and various aid organizations have criticized the efforts as insufficient and perilous, emphasizing that the airdrops alone cannot meet the dire needs of the Gazan population.
The left-leaning commentators express deep concern over the humanitarian situation, condemning Israel's blockade and its repercussions on Gaza.
Sarah Bashi (MSNBC): Criticizes the U.S. and Israel for perpetuating the starvation crisis, arguing that systemic racism underpins the denial of aid to Palestinians. She urges the U.S. to press Israel to open all crossings to Gaza and dismantle militarized aid distribution systems.
Sarah Bashi [05:54]: "Only racism, the belief that some people's lives are worth less than others, and that some people's statements are inherently unreliable can explain American susceptibility to Israel's denial of starvation in Gaza."
Peter Beaumont (The Guardian): Accuses Israel of deflecting blame for the starvation, emphasizing Israel’s legal obligations as an occupying power to ensure the provision of life-sustaining resources.
Peter Beaumont [06:11]: "While Israel has consistently tried to blame Hamas for intercepting food aid, that claim has been undermined by a leaked U.S. assessment which found no evidence of systemic theft by Hamas."
Conservative voices often place the responsibility on Hamas, arguing that the militant group manipulates aid distribution to perpetuate the crisis and maintain pressure on Israel.
Seth Mandel (Commentary Magazine): Suggests that Hamas is intentionally causing food scarcity to create international pressure on Israel.
Seth Mandel [07:38]: "Hamas strategy is to keep the people of Gaza perpetually close to a hunger crisis because that triggers international pressure on Israel to let Hamas restock its own shelves and refill its own coffers."
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: Highlights the inefficiencies and dangers of the current aid distribution methods, blaming both Hamas and Israeli military inflexibility for the ongoing shortages.
WSJ Editorial Board [07:55]: "Gaza's aid crisis helps only Hamas. Israeli military stubbornness has also been to blame, including an unwillingness to divert assets that would help expand aid efforts."
Local voices from Gaza and Israel provide a ground-level view of the crisis, emphasizing the human toll and systemic failures.
Ahmed Aziz (Middle East Eye): Paints a grim picture of daily life in Gaza, where basic necessities are becoming luxuries. He recounts harrowing accounts of families and children facing imminent starvation.
Ahmed Aziz [09:22]: "Starving Palestinian families face the unthinkable Famine in Gaza has become a daily reality. It is no longer merely a sensation of deprivation."
David Horovitz (Times of Israel): Critiques Israel's military strategies and highlights the moral and political quandaries faced by Israeli officials as they navigate their responsibilities over Gaza.
David Horovitz [09:40]: "Israel cannot have its soldiers believing themselves in genuine danger and lacking non-lethal means of protection, killing numerous Gazan civilians almost daily. It undermines the war effort. It is immoral and indefensible."
Isaac Saul offers a deeply personal and contemplative perspective on the crisis, grappling with the moral complexities and emotional weight of the situation.
Isaac Saul [21:20]: "How can a Jewish state reconcile itself with such inhumanity? How can we not have a better means of extricating a group like Hamas than this? How can our tolerance for the suffering of Gazans be so high?"
Saul reflects on the historical and political factors that have led to the current humanitarian disaster, criticizing both Israeli policies and Hamas's actions. He underscores the failure of international mechanisms and the urgent need for a humane and effective resolution to prevent further loss of innocent lives.
Towards the end of the episode, John Law provides a series of alarming statistics that illustrate the severity of the crisis:
Food Insecurity:
Child Malnutrition: An estimated 71,000 children under five are expected to be acutely malnourished within the next 11 months if current conditions persist.
Aid Truck Statistics:
The "Starvation in Gaza" episode of Tangle provides a nuanced and multifaceted examination of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Through diverse viewpoints and compelling personal narratives, Isaac Saul and his guests shed light on the complexities and urgent realities faced by the people of Gaza. The episode calls for immediate and compassionate action to address the dire needs and prevent further suffering.
Notable Quotes:
This summary encapsulates the critical discussions and insights presented in the "Starvation in Gaza" episode, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding even if they haven't tuned in.