Today's Liberal News

A Book That Was Like Putting on ‘a New Set of Glasses’

This is an edition of the revamped Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.The literary internet is full of lists that suggest books that will inform you about one subject or another—we just published one last week in this very newsletter (on what to read to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). But recently, we decided to go a bit deeper and asked Atlantic writers and editors for books that changed how they think.

Don’t Equate Anti-Zionism With Anti-Semitism

On October 7, the Islamist militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. Israel responded with military operations that have killed several times that number of Palestinians in Gaza, a territory described by Human Rights Watch as an “open-air prison” as a result of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade. In both cases, most of the casualties are civilians.

State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza

We speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned last month to protest continued arms sales to Israel amid its bombardment of Gaza, writing in a viral letter that one-sided U.S. support for Israel is “shortsighted,” “destructive” and “contradictory.” Media reports say many others inside the State Department are equally frustrated with the U.S. role in the conflict.

Another Nakba? Israeli Intel Ministry Proposes Expelling Every Palestinian in Gaza to Egypt

A leaked document from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry dated less than one week after the October 7 Hamas attack proposes the permanent transfer of Gaza’s residents to Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the document’s authenticity but dismissed it as a mere “concept paper,” while Egypt and much of the Arab world has publicly opposed the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians.

“Text-Book Case of Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza

A former top United Nations official in New York joins us for an in-depth interview about why he has resigned after publicly accusing the U.N. of failing to address what he calls a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Craig Mokhiber is a longtime international human rights lawyer who served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. His resignation letter (embedded below) has gone viral.

“Horrific”: Resident of Jabaliya Refugee Camp Speaks Out After Israeli Airstrikes Kill Over 50

We get an update on Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabaliya, which was hit by a massive Israeli airstrike Tuesday that destroyed housing blocks in the densely populated settlement and killed at least 50 Palestinians and wounded over 150 others. Israel claims it was targeting a Hamas commander accused of helping to orchestrate the militant group’s October 7 attack inside Israel.

Jungkook of BTS Is Chasing His Pop-Star Dream

When my video call with Jungkook begins, he has the look of someone roused too early from a good sleep. On camera, the youngest member of the South Korean pop group BTS is wearing a black zip-up, hood pulled over his head in a way that suggests he’d enjoy a nap—a little surprising, given his reputation among fans as an indefatigable “energizer bunny.

Silicon Valley May Never Learn Its Lesson

Over and over during Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, lawyers showed pictures of the FTX founder living his best life. There he was at the Super Bowl flanked by Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom. There he was on a private jet, sleeping with his hands folded. There he was onstage, in shorts and a T-shirt, with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. The very traits that made him a cause célèbre in Silicon Valley—his intellect, his obsession with scale, his story—turned into liabilities.

WeWork’s Perfect Storm

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.WeWork, once the most valuable start-up in the country, is crumbling. Maybe it shouldn’t have gotten so big to begin with.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
What the 2024 election is really about for Trump supporters
New York is too expensive to even visit.

The Man Working to Keep the Water On in Gaza

Numbers are one way to make the destruction of war legible: number of hostages, number of children killed, number of buildings destroyed, number of aid trucks that made it across the Egyptian border. For Marwan Bardawil, who lives in Gaza, the unit of peril he tracks is cubic meters per hour. Bardawil is a water engineer with the Palestinian Water Authority overseeing Gaza.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Speaks Out Against Israel’s “Segregationist Apartheid Regime” After West Bank Visit

As pressure builds for a ceasefire after 27 days of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates joins us in a broadcast exclusive interview to discuss his journey to Palestine and Israel and learning about the connection between the struggle of African Americans and Palestinians. “The most shocking thing about my time over there was how uncomplicated it actually is,” says Coates, who calls segregation in Palestine and Israel “evil.

“This Is Your Money”: Palestinian Father Pleads with Americans to Stop Funding Israeli Assault on Gaza

As the overall death toll from Israel’s 27-day bombardment tops 9,000, we speak with Just Vision’s Fadi Abu Shammalah in Gaza about his family’s experiences on the ground as the besieged territory runs out of water, food and fuel. “We have only one thing: that we are being killed,” says Shammalah, who calls for Americans to “keep going” in demonstrations for Palestinian rights. “We are being killed by your taxes.