The Political Scene | The New Yorker

“It’s Just an Impossible Situation”: Tragedy in Israel and Gaza

Episode Summary

Reporting from Tel Aviv, Ruth Margalit discusses Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians and Netanyahu’s siege of Gaza.

Episode Notes

On Saturday morning, Ruth Margalit, a contributor to The New Yorker who lives in Tel Aviv, awoke to air-raid sirens. It was a familiar sound, but as the day unfolded, it became apparent that Hamas’s latest attack on Israel was more severe than she had realized. “I mean, I’ve certainly never seen anything like this. My entire generation hasn’t,” Margalit says. Since then, she has been reporting on the incursion from Gaza—including a massacre of civilians at a music festival—and on its aftermath. She joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the political backdrop, both global and regional, to this catastrophe; the history of hostage negotiations in Israel; and the response that the Israeli public expects from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the coming days and weeks.

 

Share your thoughts on The Political Scene to be eligible to enter a prize drawing of up to $1,000.