IT’S WAR: Hamas militants in Gaza have threatened to kill a hostage every time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans “in their homes without warning.” The militants took about 150 civilian hostages in their incursion in Israel on Saturday, including small children.

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in turn, promised a counterstrike and siege against Hamas militants that would “reverberate with them for generations.” The Israeli military said that its airstrikes against the densely populated coastal strip of Gaza would be “bigger than before and more severe.”  

  Yesterday, an Israeli strike killed dozens in a northern Gaza marketplace. Israel has been hitting Gaza hard since Saturday, but this might be only the preliminaries. Israel has called up 360,000 reservists. Troops and armor are moving toward Gaza to stage for an attack. All of Israel is outraged. About 900 people have been killed in the country and nearly 2,400 wounded. At least 697 Palestinians are reported to have been killed as well. The Israeli military says they have killed 1,500 militants.

  Horrific stories about the initial attack are hitting the news. One 30-year-old Israeli couple hid their 10—month-old twins in a shelter before being killed. Searchers later found the babies alive. One man told reporters his wife and daughters, ages 3 and 5, were taken hostage. CNN’s Nick Robertson walked into a bomb shelter where Israelis hiding from falling rockets were slaughtered by gunmen.

  The White House said it confirmed the deaths of nine Americans and that other Americans remain unaccounted for. Other foreign nationals also are dead or missing. President Biden said the United States stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Israel and promised more help. There’s always politics, though. The White House is reported to be considering attaching more help for Ukraine to a bill to aid Israel. Ukraine was cut out of the recently passed 45 day spending bill.

SPEAKERLESS: In the midst of his party’s turmoil, ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is acting like he’d like to have the job back. Speaking yesterday from a podium in the Capitol’s Rayburn room, a place where the speaker usually holds sway, McCarthy said of the Israel situation, “Now is the time for action, we must be there for our friend Israel.”

  Congressional Republicans are expected to meet today to talk about who will succeed McCarthy. “Let’s be honest about our conference,” McCarthy told reporters. “Is our conference just going to elect somebody to throw them out in another 35 days?”

  He was a little shifty on whether he’s actually a candidate or would accept the job again. “I’ll allow the conference to make any decision,” he said.

PARTY OUTSIDER: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scion of what was once a revered Democratic political family, announced yesterday that he’s switching his run for president from Democrat to Independent. 

  Running against an incumbent Democratic president, the 69-year old Kennedy has become critical of the party, accusing it of “hijacking the party machinery” to stifle his challenge to President Biden.

  Kennedy is the son of assassinated US Sen. Robert Kennedy, and the nephew of John F. Kennedy.

  It’s not so much the party machinery as what Kennedy stands for. He has alienated both family members and Democrats by espousing conspiracy theories and spouting pseudo-science to denounce vaccination. His family thinks he’s crazy.

  Kennedy will have a hard time getting on state ballots as an independent, but he has complained that the Democrats refuse to set up a debate between him and Joe Biden. He wrote to the Democratic National Committee last month, “It should be a party’s voters who choose a candidate, not party insiders who anoint one.” 

THE SPIN RACK: Robert Hur, the special counsel investigating how classified material ended up untended at the home and office of President Biden, met with the president over the past two days. — Former Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd dropped his quest for the presidency and endorsed Nikki Haley. He said, “If the Republican party nominates Donald Trump or the various personalities jockeying to imitate his divisive, crass behavior, we will lose.” — A state board that oversees charter schools in Oklahoma has approved the establishment of a virtual Catholic charter school, which would make it the first publicly funded religious charter school in the country,. The state attorney general is opposed and there’s a lawsuit that seeks to stop the school from opening next fall. — Former Arizona news anchor Kari Lake, an ally of Donald Trump and proponent of the Big Lie, is expected to announce today that she’s running for the Senate. She lost her bid for governor last year. — Instead of installing new and stronger power lines to avoid outages, Green Mountain Power in Vermont is proposing to give customers batteries for their homes to carry them through when the lights go out. They say it will be cheaper than building up the grid. — The Powerball jackpot is up to $1.73 billion.

BELOW THE FOLD: There’s a certain irony in this one. The Nobel Prize in economics prize has been awarded to American Claudia Goldin, for her work on women’s employment and why they get paid less than men. She is only the third woman to receive the prize, and the first not share it with male colleagues.

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