EXPLORE

Last week, I boarded a flight to Israel. About halfway through the trip, I woke up to a text from a friend: “Israel just attacked Iran’s nuclear facility. The country is in a state of emergency, and we’re waiting for Iran’s retaliation.” Still half-asleep, I didn’t grasp the weight of what she was saying. She added, “This is big. This time is different.” But in my mind, it was just a hiccup. A minor setback. Something I could figure out once I landed. Surely Iran’s response won’t be right away. Then the pilot made the announcement: the Israeli airspace had been closed. We were turning around. That’s when reality hit. The disappointment was sharp. I’d been looking forward to this trip for months. It felt like the ground

1. Israel’s Operations in Gaza: From Swords of Iron to Gideon’s Chariots Israel’s response to the October 7th attacks unfolded in two phases. The first, Operation Swords of Iron, launched on October 7, 2023, was a swift, forceful effort to neutralize Hamas as an immediate threat. The second, Operation Gideon’s Chariots, began on May 16, 2025, marking a shift from immediate retaliation to a long-term strategy to dismantle Hamas’s grip on Gaza. Israel’s objectives remain the same: rescue the hostages, establish operational control, and defeat Hamas so it can never again carry out such atrocities. Gideon’s Chariots focuses on preventing Hamas from using international aid to sustain its terror infrastructure. 2. Humanitarian Aid: Complications and Hamas’s Exploitation Humanitarian aid to Gaza has been a consistent

Today has been a hard day. I woke up to the news of a shooting in Washington, D.C., that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers. Having worked with the embassy on different projects, my mind began to race with possibilities. When I saw the picture of the young couple, my heart sank. Though I didn’t immediately recognize their names, the young man’s face seemed to recall a memory. I racked my brain, trying to pinpoint where I had seen him before and trying figure out if we had had any previous interactions. After receiving a text from a colleague, I suddenly realized where I had seen his face––the Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. I broke and began to weep. In February