Biden to visit Israel, Hamas releases first hostage video, and more updates to start your day

Let’s get started with the latest news, and some clarity amid the chaos…

• President Joe Biden plans to visit Israel on Wednesday. It is rare for a president to visit a country at war when U.S. troops are not involved, though this will be Biden’s second such trip this year, after traveling to Ukraine in February.
  
  
• The U.S. military selected about 2,000 troops to prepare for a potential deployment to support Israel. They would be tasked with advising and medical support, but not serve in a combat role.
  
  
• Hamas released the first sign-of-life video from the 199 Israelis taken hostage. It is not clear when the video was taken.
  
  
• The Wexner Foundation on Monday ended a program that paid for Israelis to get master’s degrees at Harvard, citing the university’s “failure” to condemn Hamas.
  
  
• A handful of Israeli government officials — but not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — took the blame for the failures that contributed to the Hamas attack. “We failed,” said Knesset minister Bezalel Smotrich. Added Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security service, “the responsibility for this falls on me.”
  
  
• Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that the Middle East is “on the brink of falling into the abyss.”
  
  
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that she will make her first-ever trip to Israel. With more than 1.8 million Jews, New York is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.
  
  
• The Republican Jewish Coalition was added as a co-host of the upcoming Republican presidential debate as the political conversation shifts to focus on international affairs following the Hamas attack and Israel’s military response.
  
  
• Former President Donald Trump pledged at a campaign rally in Iowa that, if reelected, he would reinstate his ban targeting travelers from Muslim-majority countries, and would expel immigrants that support Hamas.

A wounded IDF soldier, left, meets with volunteers and their therapy dog, Damka. (Laura Ben-David)

Previously wounded IDF soldiers are now aiding the latest victims of Hamas: At a rehab facility east of Tel Aviv, the newly injured are greeted by those who have been through this ordeal before. “Anything you need, absolutely anything, you call me. This is my cell phone,” Gal Rosenberg, who injured his back in combat years ago, told one of the wounded. “You’re never alone.” Read the story ➤

Jews ‘are not the only targets,’ Chicago Jewish leaders say in condemning murder of local Palestinian child: Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann said it’s a “tragic example of what happens when people generalize from one bad actor, in this case Hamas, to the entirety of a religion or of people.” She added: “The Jewish community weeps with the family.” Read the story ➤

Jewish actor Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride) spoke at the protest at the White House on Monday. “Jews are supposed to stand for support of the oppressed people,” he said. (Matthew Litman)

Postcard from Washington…

More than 1,000 mostly Jewish demonstrators blocked entrances to the White House Monday afternoon to protest Israeli violence in Gaza and call on President Biden to press for an immediate ceasefire in the region. At least 50 people were arrested while singing Jewish folk songs and condemning what many called the prospect of “genocide” in Gaza. “So many Jewish people in my life are grieving horrific murders of family members, loved ones,” Rabbi Miriam Grossman told the crowd. “The answer to all of this grief cannot be mass murder.”

Taylor Swift performing in Missouri this summer. (Getty)

From the music world…

• An Israeli bodyguard who has been working for Taylor Swift on her global “Eras” tour returned to Israel to fight with the IDF.
  
  
• An Israeli production company is already making a documentary about Hamas’ attack on the music rave festival using footage from concert organizers and attendees.
  
  
• Susan Tweedy posted a video to Instagram of her husband Jeff Tweedy, frontman of the rock band Wilco, strumming his guitar as his sons sing “Mi Shebeirach.”
  
  
• Hear the Israeli national anthem sung in Yiddish.

Plus…

• President Biden’s face is on billboards in Israel thanking the U.S. for its support.
  
  
• “I decided to play dead. My son is still missing”: Read a survivor’s account from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
  
  
• Here’s the story behind those now ubiquitous kidnapped posters.
  
  
• Fight or flight: Meet the Israelis, many with young children, who are fleeing the country during war.
  
  
• In secular Tel Aviv, some restaurants become kosher so they can send food to soldiers on the warfront. 

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Keren Shem, the mother of Mia Shem, held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza, speaks to the press in Tel Aviv earlier today. (Getty)

Go deeper…

Opinion | Netanyahu has turned his back on Israel’s hostages, and abandoned Israel in its darkest moment: The prime minister and his government have shown a lack of care for the 199 hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas, argues our deputy opinion editor, Nora Berman. Netanyahu has ignored the press and ignored the hostages’ families, leaving them to create ad-hoc war rooms to find their loved ones. The hostages “are now trapped in Gaza,” she writes, “as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers bomb it to bits, with an explicit lack of care as to whether those same hostages are injured or killed.” Read her essay ➤

Opinion | Can we please stop arguing about whether Hamas gunmen are ‘militants’ or ‘terrorists’? This debate, writes our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren, “is a distraction from the much, much more serious issues confronting us right now.” She adds: “We have work to do, and it doesn’t involve the dictionary.” Read her essay ➤

From the pulpit: “There are no words,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl told her congregation. And yet. “Words bolster nations, build bridges, and bring healing. But words can also become barriers, curses and weapons.” She explained that words can be “very potent,” and that “we also know how silence — the absence of words — can enable evil and chaos.” Read her sermon ➤

Stay informed: You can follow our partners at Haaretz for live updates throughout the day. And we’ve taken down our paywall for coverage of Israel’s war with Gaza. Read all of our stories here.

ON THE CALENDAR

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Our Jodi Rudoren along with Arielle Angel, the editor of Jewish Currents, and Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, the CEO of J: The Jewish News of Northern California, spoke to a packed house at Stanford University about the war and the essential role Jewish journalism plays in helping the world understand it.

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Thanks to Nora Berman, Jacob Kornbluh, Arno Rosenfeld, Jodi Rudoren and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].