Middle East update: On Friday, over one million people were told by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to flee northern Gaza so that Hamas could be attacked while minimizing civilian casualties. Over the weekend, about 500,000 heeded the call, and the IDF kept pushing back the evacuation deadline, seemingly attempting to hold off until more people had moved south.
They've gotten little credit for this: "Israel is executing the largest expulsion of Palestinians since 1948 as it bombs Gazans without discrimination," reads a letter penned by prominent writers and academics published in The New York Review over the weekend. But going to great lengths to warn civilians, so that Hamas targets can be specifically attacked, does not strike me as indiscriminate.
