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 is unfolding 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 ICE 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 Gaza? 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 an iron-fisted approach as the best way to win their next elections: President Trump in the 2026 midterms; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is 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 United States: 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 in 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. Memo to the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem: That is not a good look. What are you hiding?
Good and Pretti were both clearly present as observers — and 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. Yet the Trump team insists that ICE is blameless. That is not how you build legitimacy for a government effort to track down and deport illegal immigrants.
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 on Wednesday, 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 cease-fire? 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 can’t distinguish a journalist from a combatant in broad daylight next door? It’s shameful. This comes only months after Israeli forces killed the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri on the stairs of Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in August.
Netanyahu apologized for that earlier killing. But regarding the three journalists killed last week, the Israel Defense Forces released a boilerplate statement saying troops identified “several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas” and “struck the suspects who activated the drone.” The I.D.F. added that details are being reviewed. That is what it always says. That is how a nation and an army loses its soul.
Here is what is really happening: Netanyahu is running for re-election. Israel currently occupies approximately 53 percent of the Gaza Strip, with Hamas holding the other 47 percent. Trump — with help from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — is pushing for Hamas to disarm, for its military leaders to leave and for the organization to become a purely political entity. In return, Trump expects Israel to begin a withdrawal toward its own border.
Netanyahu knows that if he runs for election with Hamas still holding political influence in Gaza and the I.D.F. pulling back, he will be savaged by the far-right extremists in his coalition. Those allies don’t just want to stay in Gaza; they want to annex the West Bank. So Bibi wants the war to continue; he wants to provoke Hamas into fighting so he never has to withdraw.
Meanwhile, Hamas is clinging to its weapons to maintain control on the ground. Even if forced to become a political entity, it will do everything in its power 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 he can run on a “law and order” platform fueled by anti-immigration sentiment.
There is, however, another view inside the White House. Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis last week to urge local officials to cooperate with federal agents to “lower the temperature and lower the chaos.” Suddenly, the cynical Vance — of all people — was the voice of calm and reason. I suspect he was channeling the fears of Republican lawmakers who worry that ICE’s activities could lead to an electoral disaster in the midterms.
To my friends and family in Minnesota: Stay proud of the way you are documenting abuses and standing up for your neighbors — those with legal papers and those without them — who abide by the law, work hard and enrich our city. But it is vital that this campaign be accompanied by a loud commitment to immigration reform that both controls the border and creates a legal pathway to citizenship.
The winning message remains: high wall, big gate. Control the border, but increase legal immigration. Democrats must never forget that one reason Trump returned to power was the previous administration’s failure to control illegal immigration. Independent voters still care deeply about that.
Trump, Bibi and Hamas each have their eyes on the prize: the 2026 elections. The people of Minnesota, Israel and Gaza must keep that in mind. Because if Trump maintains control of Congress, if Bibi wins re-election and if Hamas seizes control of the Palestinian movement, all three societies will head into a darkness from which recovery will be agonizingly difficult.
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