WHAT DOES US INTELLIGENCE KNOW ABOUT THE HOSTAGES?

Notes from the annals of American surveillance in the Mediterranean

The families of hostages and their supporters participate in the 'United for the Release the Hostages' rally after a four-day march on Saturday in Jerusalem. / Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images.

I abhor the word “dystopia,” commonly defined as an imaginary realm plagued by injustice, strife, and disaster. But we in the United States are living through an all too real dystopia, and not only in terms of the bleak presidential race that is leaving so many Americans saying, in essence: “Is this all we got?”

The other reality is the increasingly clear prospect, horrifying as it may be, that there will be no relenting in Israel’s destruction of Gaza and its recasting of the West Bank as an Israeli-dominated suburb of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The best America can offer, alongside our bombs and other weapons still flowing to Israel, are air-dropped military MREs (meals ready-to-eat); a president who babbles about an imminent ceasefire without applying sufficient pressure to make one happen; and a vice-president who is sent out publicly to urge Hamas—not Israel—to agree to a six-week ceasefire in Gaza. Fat chance.