The Siege
By 
This is no less terrible for having been eminently predictable:
Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of the long-blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, as its forces battled Palestinian militants in border towns for a third day and launched retaliatory strikes that hit a mosque and a marketplace in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” would be allowed into Gaza, in effect cutting off a crowded coastal territory already under a 16-year blockade and where militants are holding at least 150 Israelis hostage.
There are no good endings to this story.
My particular parochial concern at the moment is that, here in America, these developments will throw the eschatological wing of the Trumpist base into a rapture of longing for the imminent end of the world.