Jay In The Boondocks

Lawmakers in Washington are quietly moving to integrate the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways, according to a clause in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released earlier this week. Section 224 of the NDAA, entitled “United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” proposes bilateral defense research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and other US-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. If implemented, the initiative would “arguably do more to intertwine the US military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the US since its founding in 1948,” Responsible Statecraft (RS) wrote. It is “the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows” and “would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together,” RS added. Section 224 of the NDAA calls for expanded US–Israeli coordination in the areas of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, and biotech. It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion,” which would allow Israel to access the US military's data. If implemented, the measures would give the Israeli government expanded influence over the US political system. “By expanding or starting new co-production facilities like it already has in Mississippi and Arkansas, the Israeli government could boast of providing jobs on US soil, thereby securing allies among members of Congress who represent the districts where those jobs lie,” RS concluded. The move would also make US aid to Israel more difficult to monitor by making it part of the “opaque machinery of defense acquisition,” where oversight is limited and political accountability is minimal. The move comes at a time when support for Israel in the US is falling and when many believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for dragging the US into a war with Iran that is deeply unpopular. According to a New York Times/Sienna poll from mid-May, only 30 percent of respondents believe Trump made “the right decision” to go to war with Iran, while 64 percent said it was wrong. A recent Institute for Global Affairs poll found that only 16 percent of respondents said the US should keep supplying Israel with weapons without new restrictions, while 38 percent want the US to stop supplying weapons to Israel entirely. Israel's standing in the US and across the world has fallen drastically in recent years, in particular in response to Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza starting in October 2023. If passed, the $1.14 trillion NDAA will increase the Pentagon's budget to historic levels. An extra $350 billion in defense spending has been proposed from a separate party-line budget reconciliation bill. In response, federal budget watchdog organizations are urging US lawmakers to rein in military spending, particularly since the Pentagon is the only federal agency to have never passed an audit. “There is little doubt that the United States has immense defense and national security needs. But having allocated $4.6 trillion over the past five years to defense, there should also be little doubt that there is substantial waste, fraud, abuse, and errors within the defense budget,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) argued in a statement released Wednesday. thecradle.co/articles/us-la…

Rank-and-file workers at the Nexteer Automotive plant in Saginaw, Michigan, defeated a third pro-company contract pushed by the United Auto Workers International and Local 699 bureaucracy in voting that ended Friday morning. Workers voted down the deal by 55–45 percent, with production workers rejecting it by 59 percent, according to UAW Local 699. The courageous and determined resistance by Nexteer workers has thrown the bureaucracy into crisis. In a letter posted to members reporting the results, the discredited bargaining committee wrote: The membership has spoken, and we recognize the significance of this vote. We understand that this decision reflects important concerns and priorities across our workforce. But the UAW apparatus, from UAW President Shawn Fain down to the Local 699 officials, will not respond to the rebuke by addressing workers’ demands to overturn decades of UAW concessions. On the contrary, the UAW bureaucracy will double down on its efforts to wear down resistance of the rank and file and impose another pro-company contract, no matter how many attempts it takes. The membership has already spoken when it comes to striking the company, with 86 percent voting on May 24 to authorize a walkout. But like the three contract rejections, the bureaucracy is defying the will of the members. The letter states that the bargaining committee has extended the contract again without any consultation, let alone vote by the rank and file, and that workers must stay on the job. We understand there is discussion and speculation regarding a potential strike. Any decision regarding a strike or work stoppage can only come through official union authorization. Until such direction is issued, all members are expected to continue working as scheduled. The UAW bureaucracy has no intention of sanctioning a real fight. Tied by a million threads to the corporations and the two corporate-controlled parties, Fain & Co. function not as the “representatives” of workers but as their enemies. That is why the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees urges workers to expand and strengthen the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee to lead a fight independently of the corporate tools in the UAW bureaucracy. Outside the union hall on Thursday, opponents of the deal distributed a flyer calling for a “no” vote. They pointed out that the $27 an hour wage workers will get in 2030 is the same workers at the former General Motors Saginaw Steering Plant made in 2005—even though the cost of living has risen by more than 70 percent over the last two decades. Adjusted for inflation, the 2005 wage would be worth over $45 today. A statement from the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee was also circulated calling for a rejection of the deal. Following the contract’s defeat, the committee urges workers to demand an emergency membership meeting to set an immediate strike date, throw out the discredited bargaining committee, and elect a rank-and-file committee to outline workers’ non-negotiable demands, and a strategy to mobilize all auto and auto parts workers to behind a walkout. This includes demanding a $1,000 a week in strike benefits. The 1,300 workers at the plant have already rejected two UAW-backed tentative agreements by overwhelming margins—the first by 96.2 percent on April 2, the second by 73 percent on May 15—and voted by 86 percent to authorize a strike. But rather than honor that mandate, UAW International and Local 699 officials have done everything in their power to prevent a walkout. They have extended the contract behind workers’ backs without a vote, lied to workers that a strike would be “illegal,” and brought back a third agreement almost identical to the last one in all fundamentals. Workers going to vote at the union hall Thursday told the WSWS in no uncertain terms what they thought of the deal. “Hopefully, this goes down to defeat,” said a veteran worker who had spent the day handing out flyers to defeat the sellout. “They tried to get the lower seniority workers to vote for this with the small pay bump. But I told them, if you ever dreamed about owning a house, it’s not going to be the kind that you grew up with ... because our wages are falling so far behind the cost of living. Whether this passes or fails, we have to get rid of the people who brought this garbage back to us.” After the second tentative agreement failed, the UAW and the company front-loaded a $2.50 an hour pay bump for workers currently earning $21.50 an hour. The cynical strategy is to use economic insecurity caused by twenty years of concessions to pressure workers into voting yes. The union has simultaneously made clear to Nexteer management that it will do nothing to prevent the layoffs of those very workers after ratification. A pay raise without job security, as the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee noted in its statement, “is a promise written on water.” The contract also raises out-of-pocket healthcare costs for workers hired after 2021, with premiums rising 3 percent each year. And it lowers the attendance points threshold for automatic discharge from 18 to 12, meaning workers can be terminated more swiftly. A worker with 20 years at the plant was direct: “We can do better than this. We have to make up for everything that we’ve lost over the last two decades. I’m tired of all these concessions.” Another worker with 10 years at the plant cut through the bureaucracy’s presentation of the deal: “All they did was move the same money around and front-loaded some of the raises. We didn’t get anything. I’m not falling for this. The Big Three guys have gone through this too. Fain’s ‘Stand Up strike’ [a partial strike at the Big 3 automakers in 2023 that was followed by mass layoffs] was stage managed. The UAW International is controlled by Ford, GM and Stellantis.” “I’m voting no,” a worker with 20 years said. “We’ve been losing ever since we got hired here. It’s time for us to get something back.” Informed that Dana workers, American Axle workers, Magna and Bridgewater Interiors workers all face contract expirations at the same moment, he responded, “Well, we all have to stand together then.” Another worker reflected on what two decades at Nexteer have cost him. “I’ve been there 20 years, and it’s like they don’t want to give us anything. We’re still working for the Big Three, if you ask me. But they just don’t want to give us anything. A strike would be good because then that way they would know that the people are not going to take this anymore. We’re the ones that they’re standing on. I’ve hurt my back all these years and my knee, you know what I’m saying? So, I’m on the downside of it. It’s too long, 20 years of that. I came in at $14.50 an hour. We got to stand for something.” Another veteran worker said, “It’s important for the Big Three workers to support us because we’re doing this line work and we’re out there on the floor like they are. We are all making cars, but we’re only getting so much money. I’m hoping that we get better. We build [cars] but we can’t afford them because they’re pretty expensive. The trucks are like $60,000 to $80,000, depending what you get. They need to be paying more money, so maybe you can afford a newer car and to fill up your gas tank.” A worker spoke with the accumulated anger of 20 years of abuse and betrayals by the UAW bureaucracy: “It’s time now that we need to stand and use our power. All of us put a car together, but we are the wheels. And if a car doesn’t have wheels, then it can’t move. So at the end of the day, we’re tired of the lies. We’re tired of you all getting bonuses but we’re getting nothing. People have to work all these hours to bring home decent wages. After 20 years, it hurts.” She went directly to the question of tiers, the mechanism through which the UAW bureaucracy has systematically divided the workforce. “When you keep taking from the low man to give to the higher people that’s making $300,000 and more, the executives—take it from the high up with the money, not the low man. We came in here in 2006 at half of the wages—14 dollars—of the ones that worked here before. The people that trained us, they were getting $28 an hour. We were doing the same job.” “No more tiers,” she said. “Like baby shampoo. No more tiers. This job used to be able to support a family. When I came here, I had a pension. The pension was taken. We had COLA. That’s gone. You name it, seniority don’t mean anything these days.” She was incensed over Local 699 bargaining chairman Carl McKee bringing back one pro-company deal after another. “Carl, our bargaining chairman, is doing the same thing. In a meeting, he says, ‘Well this is a good contract, and I just want you all to know I’m voting yes to this.’ That’s what he said in our meeting. You saying yes to this, so what’s your kickback?” Her message to workers across the tier and seniority divide was equally sharp. “I’d say to the young workers they need to stand with those who have been here because we all need to stand and fight. You just can’t look at, ‘Well I’m skilled trades, I’m new hire, I’m temp, I’m legacy.’ Why is it split? They have been playing each other against each other. They only flood the temps in to get the yes votes—and then they get rid of them. They have done that since we’ve been here.” On the threat of plant closures and offshoring that management and union officials have both used to browbeat workers into accepting concessions, the worker said: “We can’t be afraid to strike. We can’t fall for the lie they’re telling us that they’re going to send the jobs off. They told us that 15 years ago. They want to use scare tactics. But I know if I fight now, if I’m going to hurt, then the company is going to hurt. If I’m out of a job, the company is going to be out of a job. Enough is enough.” Her final words addressed the broader convergence of contract fights now unfolding across the auto parts industry, where approximately 4,000 Dana workers in four states face an expired contract tonight, 1,300 American Axle workers in Three Rivers, Michigan face contract expiration this Sunday, and Magna International and Bridgewater Interiors workers are also at critical junctures. “It’s time to unify,” she said, “because that’s what they do, they wait to see what this one is going to do, what that one is going to do. But far as our bargaining, the UAW doesn’t back you. After today, if we’re waiting on them to call a strike, it isn’t going to happen. We have to do just like our great-grandfathers did. I don’t have any more years to be working for free. I had enough. And I’m going to fight. I need mine. If I’m going to work for you, then you are going to pay me for what I’m worth.” wsws.org/en/articles/20…

#PalestinianSource Meta-owned platform Instagram abruptly suspended the official account of The Palestine Chronicle on Saturday, cutting off the independent media outlet from its global audience before quietly restoring access hours later, following an immediate appeal. The suspension occurred without prior warning or notification of any policy violation. Furthermore, Meta provided no explanation for why the account was taken down, nor did the company issue a statement, apology, or clarification upon reinstating it. “The account was turned off, our access was completely blocked, and then, following our swift appeal, it was suddenly turned back on,” said Ramzy Baroud, editor-in-chief of The Palestine Chronicle. “At no point in this process did Meta communicate with us to explain what rules we supposedly violated or why the decision was reversed. This arbitrary move disrupts vital journalism at a critical time,” Baroud added. A Pattern of Lack of Transparency The brief deplatforming of The Palestine Chronicle highlights ongoing concerns regarding how major tech companies police journalism and documentation coming out of Palestine. While the immediate resolution allowed the outlet to regain access to its archive and followers, the lack of transparency is a structural issue rather than a technical glitch. When platforms enforce suspensions using automated algorithms or opaque review processes, news organizations are left vulnerable to sudden censorship. By the time an appeal is processed, hours or days of critical news distribution can be lost, creating a chilling effect on independent media. This is not the first time the publication has faced such arbitrary measures. The Palestine Chronicle has been repeatedly targeted across virtually all major social media platforms—including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok—experiencing ongoing restrictions, shadowbanning, and abrupt suspensions that disrupt its daily journalistic operations. Meta’s Deletion of Saleh al-Jafarawi’s Instagram Account is Digital Settler Colonialism in Action The targeting has not been limited to the publication itself. Over the years, the personal social media accounts of Ramzy Baroud, editor-in-chief of The Palestine Chronicle, have also faced repeated restrictions, suspensions, and unexplained moderation actions across multiple platforms. Palestinian Content Censorship Digital rights advocates and researchers argue that the silencing of Palestinian or pro-Palestine platforms is part of a systemic, documented phenomenon of anti-Palestinian bias within Meta’s moderation infrastructure. According to 7amleh (The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media), tech platforms consistently over-enforce automated moderation systems against Palestinian voices. 7amleh’s extensive monitoring shows that Palestinian journalists, activists, and news agencies routinely face disproportionate account suspensions, shadowbanning, and content removals for simply reporting on-the-ground realities. The organization has repeatedly called out Meta for treating standard journalistic terminology regarding Palestine as inherently violative, while failing to adequately police systematic hate speech directed against Palestinians. Scholars have noted that this digital enforcement has deeper political implications. Palestinian American writer and researcher Omar Zahzah has argued that digital censorship of this nature acts as an extension of colonial violence, working to isolate Palestinians and suppress their narratives on the global stage. Zahzah observes that by routinely flagging, restricting, or deleting Palestinian content under the guise of “Community Guidelines,” corporate tech giants effectively gatekeep the digital public square and disrupt international solidarity networks. E-Racing Palestine: A Particular Form of Anti-Palestinian Racism Demanding Accountability The fact that the account was restored upon appeal confirms that The Palestine Chronicle was not in violation of legitimate safety guidelines, raising questions about why the suspension was triggered in the first place. The editorial team emphasizes that a silent reinstatement is not a resolution to the underlying problem. The Palestine Chronicle is calling on Meta to provide full transparency regarding its content moderation algorithms, issue clear and specific explanations when accounts are flagged, and implement robust protections to ensure independent news outlets are not arbitrarily silenced. palestinechronicle.com/censorship-una…

Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s runoff election for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent four-term Senator John Cornyn in a contest largely decided by a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump. The impact of the endorsement was expressed more in the collapse of Cornyn’s vote compared to the primary election in April than in any gains for Paxton. Cornyn led narrowly in the first vote, 42 to 40 percent, with each candidate receiving about 900,000 votes. A third ultra-right candidate, Representative Wesley Hunt, received nearly 300,000 votes. In the runoff, with Hunt eliminated, Cornyn’s total fell to barely 500,000 votes, while Paxton declined only slightly to 886,000 votes. Cornyn, 74, and first elected in 2002, had overwhelming support from the Republican Party establishment and big business. He massively outspent Paxton in what became the most expensive state primary contest in American history, costing an estimated $128 million. Cornyn’s own campaign spent just under $7 million, but Republican-aligned political action committees pumped in a staggering $85 million, bringing the pro-Cornyn total to nearly three times that spent on behalf of Paxton. Paxton was viewed as a problematic candidate by Senate Republicans and their corporate backers. He was the subject of a long-running corruption investigation and was actually impeached by the Republican-controlled state assembly. He survived only because the state Senate failed to reach the two-thirds vote required to convict him. What endeared him to Trump was his leading role in the Republican campaign to steal the 2020 election. Paxton was one of a handful of Republican elected officials who joined Trump in addressing the January 6, 2021, rally outside the White House, which preceded the attack by a fascist mob on the US Capitol. Paxton spearheaded the effort by Republican state attorneys general to have the electoral votes of “battleground” states like Pennsylvania handed over to Trump. He was the lead plaintiff in a suit that was tossed out by the Supreme Court on a 9-0 vote, without a single justice, including the three appointed by Trump, agreeing that Texas could interfere in the elections conducted by another state. The Texas attorney general is also notorious for his leading role in the bullying of abortion providers and women seeking abortions and his open demonization of Muslims and other minorities. He also sought to take over election administration in Houston, peddling Trump’s baseless and racist claims of widespread voter fraud in heavily minority areas. The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial: “Mr. Trump apparently could never forgive Mr. Cornyn’s 2023 electoral analysis that ‘President Trump’s time has passed him by.’” Cornyn did not initially support Trump’s campaign for reelection, although he was a loyal handraiser for Trump’s nominees and policies in both his first and second terms. Paxton’s campaign against Cornyn made little mention of current political issues. A Washington Post columnist noted: “Absent from Paxton’s stump speech was any mention of the Iran war or Americans’ growing dissatisfaction with the economy. As he listed legal challenges against the Democrats he has brought as attorney general, Paxton seemed to suggest that the country’s biggest problems were culture wars and hangovers from the Biden and Obama administrations.” Paxton will now face the Democratic nominee, state legislator James Talarico, in November in what is certain to be the most expensive Senate campaign in US history. Talarico raised $27 million in the first quarter alone, allowing him to swamp his primary rival, Representative Jasmine Crockett. Polling on the general election, still five months away, suggests a close contest. Talarico has emphasized his religious background as a former seminarian who is comfortable appealing to Christian fundamentalists and other right-wing supporters of Trump and the Republican Party. There were other fascistic candidates nominated to statewide office (three-term Governor Greg Abbott won the Republican nomination last month and did not face a runoff). Particular note should be taken of the outcome of the statewide vote for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which contrary to its name is actually responsible for regulating oil pipelines and the drilling of oil wells. Incumbent Republican Jim Wright was defeated by Bo French, chairman of the Tarrant County (Fort Worth) Republican Party. French had the backing of Paxton and hosted vigilante gunman Kyle Rittenhouse at a campaign rally, while Wright had the support of both Governor Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, an even more right-wing figure. French campaigned as the representative of smaller, independent oil drillers whose interests diverge from the large global oil giants. But his main focus was a vitriolic anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant campaign that amounted to incitement of genocide. He called for deporting 100 million people from the United States—nearly a third of the entire population. He vilified the incumbent as “Jihadi Jim,” claiming that Wright had supported a Saudi company, which was responsible for the water pollution crisis in Corpus Christi that forced residents to use bottled water for weeks. Last year, French posted a poll asking Fort Worth Republicans to weigh in on whether Jews or Muslims posed a “bigger threat” to the United States. He also described Texas mosques as “training centers” for people “to rape your wife and daughter.” This gutter Nazi will now be the favorite to win a six-year seat on the panel that regulates the oil industry in the largest oil-producing state. wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Israel’s brutal treatment of over 80 humanitarian activists, including eleven Australians, has prompted substantial anger and has, again, exposed the Australian Labor government’s complicity in the crimes of the Zionist regime, as part of its broader support for US-led wars across the Middle East and globally. As it has done repeatedly, Israel on Monday intercepted vessels from the Global Samud Flotilla, as they were en route to break the blockade of Gaza and deliver aid to its residents. The Flotilla vessels were captured in international waters, in an act of piracy, and the activists aboard were taken to Israel in what amounted to state kidnapping. Footage and photos of the abuses suffered by the activists in Israel have gone viral. They were bound with zip wire ties and forced to kneel forward on the ground, in images that recall the US torture camp on Guantánamo Bay. Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir berated and taunted the activists, as he has previously. Amid international anger, the activists were released Thursday, after three days in Israeli imprisonment. Once in Türkiye, Zack Schofield, an Australian climate activist, stated the cohort had been “treated really poorly” by Israeli authorities, including being forced to remain in hot areas without water. Schofield said: “I have friends that were shocked with tasers, stun guns for extended periods of time just on entry to prison, were beaten, but it is nothing compared to what happens to Palestinians in the occupied territories every single day,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The activists stated that one member of the flotilla group, who was of Arabic appearance, had been taken away from the others and tortured, with his screams audible. Women had been degraded and sexually assaulted. The response of the Labor government was yet another exercise in cynicism and hypocrisy. Foreign Minister Penny Wong stated “We condemn the actions of Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir—who Australia has sanctioned—and the degrading actions of Israeli authorities towards those detained.” Australia had made representations to the Israeli embassy along those lines, Wong claimed. But Labor only issued those condemnations under conditions where the Israeli government itself had condemned Ben-Gvir. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the butcher of Gaza, who continues to evade an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, improbably described Ben-Gvir’s actions as being contrary to Israel’s “values.” Speaking on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “7:30” program, Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman declared that “The actions of Ben-Gvir himself have been condemned from wall-to-wall,” within Israel including by its government. Newman, however, defended the illegal interception of the flotilla and blithely denied reports of widespread abuse of the activists. The various comments have the character of a charade. Ben-Gvir is a notorious fascist, who has been in a central leadership position in the Israeli regime throughout the genocide in Gaza, precisely because his bloodcurdling hostility to the Palestinians and anyone who defends them is the position of the Netanyahu government. And Wong’s statements of condemnation did not go beyond those of Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and were every bit as worthless. The public relations exercise recalls the response of the Labor government when Australian citizen Zomi Frankcom and five of her World Central Kitchen colleagues were murdered in an Israeli drone strike while they were providing food to Palestinians in Gaza in April, 2024. Wong and other Labor leaders expressed shock and anger, as though such criminal bombardments were not the continuous modus operandi of Israel’s brutal war. Those statements did not alter Australia’s fullthroated support for the genocide one iota, and Frankcom is now never mentioned. The real attitude of the Labor government to the flotilla activists was demonstrated by an incident in Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, that has scarcely been reported by the media. In a statement, Justice for Palestine Magan-djin (Brisbane) recounted that on Thursday morning, the mother of one of the detained activists Sam Watson, and supporters, had attended the office of federal Labor MP Julie Ann Campbell. They were seeking to speak to Campbell about the steps being taken by the government, if any, to secure Watson’s release from Israeli detention where he then remained. “Staff at MP Campbell’s office ignored us for over an hour and called the police for ‘protesters,’” the statement reported. Only when the supporters refused to be intimidated did the staff reluctantly agree that Campbell would call Watson’s mother, a call that the group waited over two hours to eventuate. That is not simply the response of a local parliamentarian and her office, but is fully in line with the program of the Labor government itself. Labor has carried out massive attacks on democratic rights, targeting popular opposition to the genocide and anti-war sentiment more broadly. That included passing earlier this year far-reaching “hate speech” laws that potentially criminalise strident condemnations of Zionism and Israeli war crimes, and a bill providing unprecedented powers for the illegalisation of entire organisations and even political parties on the same vague and anti-democratic grounds. In the states, particularly New South Wales, Labor administrations have led the charge against the pro-Palestinian movement, including with laws to restrict or even ban protests altogether. Those measures have been matched by the conservative government in Queensland, which passed laws criminalising pro-Palestinian chants, including “From the river, to the sea,” and is prosecuting activists under the legislation, threatening them with imprisonment of two years. The issue is not simply a defence of the genocide. Labor’s support for that historic crime, politically, diplomatically and materially, is one plank of its participation in the broader eruption of global war. The Labor government was among the first in the world to support the utterly criminal US assault on Iran. While they feign shock at the deranged and fascistic actions of Ben-Gvir, the Labor leaders have said nothing to oppose Trump’s threats to “annihilate” Iran and to return it to “the stone ages.” The continued genocide being unleashed on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and the people of Lebanon is quite literally never referred to by Wong, Albanese or any other member of the Labor government. Meanwhile, Labor has committed historic levels of funding to the military at the expense of government programs which are being gutted, in preparation for an imperialist war against China. This militarist program is incompatible with democratic rights. wsws.org/en/articles/20…

On average, 11 children are killed or wounded every day in Lebanon, UN says haaretz.com/middle-east-ne…

“It’s illegal, it’s not moral and it’s wrong.” A former Israeli infantryman believes that hostages and innocent Palestinians died because “we didn’t get any rules of engagement” in Gaza economist.com/interactive/18…