Day 530 - US offers full support but no comment from Trump

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing.

As Israel continued to bombard parts of the Gaza Strip for the second night in a row, Magid discusses the full-throttled support for Israel from the US. He comments that the Trump administration believes that Hamas is at fault, and the terror organization could have released hostages but refused and chose war instead. Magid comments on the shift from the Biden administration and the fact that US President Donald Trump hasn't yet commented on the military pressure.

Magid looks at the latest with hostage envoy Adam Boehler after his unsuccessful attempts to negotiate directly with Hamas, a move that angered Israel. It appears that Steve Witkoff is back in charge of the US negotiating efforts for Israel. Boehler spent the week in Montana, says Jacob, hosting a summit at his home with participants from several countries, part of a collaboration to ensure that the act of hostage-taking around the world is eradicated.

Magid also discusses the latest in the US funding of Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, as PA President Mahmoud Abbas canceled legislation that conditioned welfare payments to Palestinian security prisoners on the length of their sentences in Israeli jails. Instead, the PA will be basing payments to all Palestinians strictly on financial need.

Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Israel resumes Gaza strikes, says Hamas collapsed truce by refusing to free hostages

US envoy to UN says blame for renewed Gaza fighting ‘lies solely with Hamas’

Embattled US hostage envoy hosts summit for global counterparts in Big Sky, Montana

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IMAGE: Israelis marching for hostages and efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try and fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, on Road 1 outside Jerusalem, March 18, 2025. (Photo by Yonatan SIndel/Flash90)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily briefing. It is Wednesday, March 19th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg.
0:09.5	I'm speaking today with U.S. Bureau Chief Jacob Magid. Hi, Jacob.
0:13.3	Hey, Jessica. Good to be with here again. Hi, Jacob. It's good to have you here. It is day 530 of the war.
0:20.0	More strikes have been reported in Gaza for the second night running with an overnight
0:24.2	bombardment that was reported in several areas of the Gaza Strip.
0:28.6	The IDF hasn't yet commented as of early Wednesday morning, hasn't commented or confirmed
0:33.6	the strikes.
0:35.3	The U.Ribbles launched a ballistic missile at Israel from Yemen on Tuesday
0:39.6	evening, the first again in two months. It was intercepted by the IDF's long-range arrow system
0:45.9	over Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night
0:51.5	that hostage talks would only be held, quote, under fire,
0:56.2	and thousands in response protested across the country, some 40,000 in Tel Aviv alone,
1:03.1	including recently freed hostages, all of them pressing the government to return to the
1:08.2	negotiating table, and the freed hostages related the kinds of
1:12.5	fears and terrors that hostages experienced during IDF bombardments. The protests were also about
1:19.1	the prime minister's move to fire Shinbetchi for Anambar, which has not taken place yet.
1:25.0	We'll talk about the U.S. response to the Israeli resumption of the war,
1:29.0	as well as the latest with the embattled U.S. hostage envoy and Ebola and the U.S.,
1:34.6	the United States, tone toward the Palestinian Authority. Stay with us.
2:01.6	It's rare, almost unheard of, to hear a real, honest conversation between a Jewish Zionist and a Palestinian from Gaza, where both are unapologetically themselves while also listening and learning from each other. But that's exactly what's happening in a special two-part series on unpacking Israeli history this month.
2:09.6	Host Noam Weissman sits down with Palestinian-American writer and activist Ahmed Fawad al-Katib, who was born and raised in Gaza, for a candid,
2:20.3	eye-opening conversation about the past, present, and future of the region.
	...

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