S3 E25. Gaza Special: Food Aid. Clans, Criminals, Terrorists, Hostages. And West Bank Vigilantism.

In recent days Hamas has shifted all of its attention to controlling the food supply for civilians in the Gaza Strip. They continue to hoard aid meant for the needy and then resell it at extortionate prices. The last two weeks have been especially chaotic as the food supply diminishes, and people are living meal to meal. Concerns regarding famine are real and the involvement of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is intended to address the food scarcity. But the rollout of this new initiative has been a mess. Shootings. Chaos. People walking 20k to arrive at one of the few distribution centers to find that there is no food left. State of Tel Aviv regular guest, Ya’akov Katz, joins us to get into the detail of what is going on in the Gaza Strip and why everything seems to be going so wrong. We discuss Hamas, criminal clans, hostages and more. Before wrapping we touch on the surge of Jewish vigilantism in the West Bank and why this seems to continue, uninterrupted.

And you will probably be relieved to know we don’t even mention Greta. I’ll leave that to Piers Morgan.

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Podcast Notes

Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.

He is the author of three books: “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards—How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War.”

Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.

In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.

Find Yaakov Katz on X @yaakovkatz

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