They’re celebrating the Olympics in Paris, but the war in the Middle East feels close at hand. Visiting Paris in the waning days of the Summer Olympics, Aviya Kushner recalls the pleasure of less fraught moments spent in the French capital, remembering “the delicious matzos made with orange liqueur that I bought here years ago when I studied at the Sorbonne.” But as fears of attacks related to the Israel-Hamas war have increased around Europe, expressions of Jewish identity in the city can feel actively dangerous — particularly if they involve any affiliation with Israel. “Each morning in my hotel, I carefully put anything with Hebrew on it — like contact-lens solution I had purchased in Israel — in my suitcase, and then zip it up,” Aviya writes. Read her essay ➤
Latest on the war… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for Oct. 7 in a new interview with Time, his first conversation with a major American outlet since the war began. And he repeated a line that he’s often deployed in the months since the Hamas attack, saying that an investigation into the Israeli government failures involved in the catastrophe should wait until the war is won and done.
The European Union and United Nations condemned remarks by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, that seemed to suggest the mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza “might be just and moral.”
The Biden administration joined with Egypt and Qatar in calling on Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire deal according to terms Biden laid out in late May. Israel said negotiators would participate in further talks next week, while some Middle Eastern leaders expressed the hope that Iran would hold off on an anticipated retaliation against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’ political leader in return for progress on ceasefire talks.
The Israeli military embarked on its third offensive of the war in Khan Younis, ordering another mass evacuation of the Gazan city. | 