It's the Brian Lairt Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. I want to begin just by acknowledging

that it seems like wherever anybody was in our area this weekend, people were talking

about the situation in the Middle East, whether out to entertainment, out to dinner, whatever

that may have been unrelated and lighter. This is just one of those intense situations that

even people who don't have direct connections to Israelis or Palestinians just can't help

but have haunt them. So acknowledging that. And we'll begin today with a Washington

take on the evolving crisis in the Middle East and the simultaneous political crisis in

the House of Representatives. The context, of course, is the horrors of the last week with

the press reporting 1300 Israelis killed in the Hamas terror attack. Still so hard to get

next to that number, 1300 killed in one period of terrorism, 2700 Palestinians, 2700 killed

by now from Israeli air strikes as the evacuation and preparation for a ground invasion continue.

Here from yesterday's NPR Weekend Edition Sunday is Dr. Jamal Abu Halaal, an orthopedic

surgeon at the European Gaza Hospital in southern Gaza, half of Gaza's population is

under 18.

Children, children, children, many, many, many children injured, many children injured,

many children lost their family, father, mother, sisters, without families. This is extremely

difficult. And Dr. Halaal made this plea to NPR's Ari Daniel, hoping for Israeli restraint.

We are, we are people. We are respectable people. We are not animals. We are people like

other people's. We respect. We love, hopefully, that Western people, they believe that we are

human. And it's being reported that the Biden administration, while speaking repeatedly about

unqualified support for Israel, is also working behind the scenes. We're not sure to what degree.

Four is really restrained to at least give civilians more time to get out of their homes

...