US Press
Washington marks six months of an Iran war it cannot finish
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
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What the American papers and Washington's research institutions put in front of policymakers on Friday, and where Palestine sits in it.
The dominant story#
Friday was the six-month mark of the war on Iran, and the American press treated it as an accounting. The Washington Post's political desk wrote that President Trump promised a short war and now has few good options, and that the conflict has hurt him with voters while eroding the American position in the Middle East.
Politico's defence desk went further into the machinery: the Pentagon's inability to subdue Tehran, dwindling weapons stockpiles and distance from allies have left US officers questioning whether America still has the clout it assumes.
The New York Times ran three pieces on the same anniversary — on oil, gas and equity markets six months in; on American and allied oil stocks drawn down to 22 million barrels in tanks built for 90 million as the struggle over the Strait of Hormuz continues; and on Iranians losing hope in an economy the war has wrecked.
The Times also reported the Qatari prime minister travelling to Tehran as the six-month mark approached, and analysts warning that Houthi attacks on Saudi targets have brought the kingdom close to a war of its own.
Where Palestine appears#
Directly, in three places. First, the party fight over Jared Moskowitz's appointment to lead House Democrats on the Middle East subcommittee, which this paper covers separately today.
Second, the Fourth Circuit's decision vacating the $42 million Abu Ghraib verdict, which closes the Alien Tort Statute route into American courts for foreign plaintiffs. Third, a prosecution in Scotland, reported by the Times, in which activists accused of painting "Gaza is not 4 sale" on Trump's Turnberry golf course face charges connected to terrorism.
The Times also reported that a federal investigation and an internal conflict over Israel are complicating Shawn Fain's bid for re-election as president of the United Auto Workers — a reminder that the argument has moved into American institutions that are not foreign-policy institutions at all.
The administration said it will appeal a ruling against it in the case accusing Harvard of tolerating antisemitism on campus, keeping the campus-speech front open into the school year.
What is missing#
Gaza itself. On a day when Israel carried out its first West Bank airstrike in ten months, killing three men in Jenin, and when the Erez crossing opening that Israel had promised the United Nations for 1 September was blocked inside Netanyahu's own bureau, neither the Washington Post nor Politico led with either.
That absence is the reading. Six months of the Iran war have moved Palestine out of the frame in Washington's daily coverage, and the decisions still being taken about Gaza — a crossing, a plan, a board — are now being taken with less American attention on them than at any point since the ceasefire.
