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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/lebanon-conflict-voices-israel/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" target=_blank>Civilian war accounts in Lebanon</a>, plus <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/03/gaza-famine-family-soupkitchen/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" target=_blank>a contributor’s death in Gaza</a>

Cases against <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/trump-abolish-federal-intelligence-agency/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>the ODNI</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/01/kash-patel-fbi-nomination-trump-unqualified/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>Kash Patel</a>. RFK Jr. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/29/rfk-judged-kennedy-legacy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>leaves Kennedydom behind</a>.

Building a bigger <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/seniors-service-americorps/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target=_blank>senior service base</a>

Biden’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/biden-pardon-hunter-lie/?itid=lk_inline_manual_7" target=_blank>lame-duck pardon</a> and his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/van-hollen-biden-gaza-history/?itid=lk_inline_manual_7" target=_blank>last chance on Gaza</a>

‘You will not hear the strike that will kill you’

Thaier Al-Sudani

The war between the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and Israel has been devastating for the people of Lebanon, including civilians: Israel’s attacks, theoretically targeted at combatants, have killed thousands and displaced more than a million people. Last week, the two sides declared a ceasefire, although Israeli strikes <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/30/israel-war-news-lebanon-hamas-gaza-palestine/" target=_blank>have continued</a>.

What has it been like to live under the bombardment? In a project from Opinions staff, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/lebanon-conflict-voices-israel/" target=_blank>civilians in Lebanon describe what they’ve experienced</a>. The intelligent, pained voices of these regular people bring the war home. “As long as you hear the bomb, then it’s not landing on you. You will not hear the strike that will kill you,” said Mihad Haidar, a young writer.

A public policy expert named Diana Menhem gave her perspective. “We lived through a very difficult civil war from 1975 to 1989,” she said. “As a nation, we always said that we’d never allow proxy wars — the wars of others — to take place on Lebanese soil again. Then, on Oct. 8, Hezbollah tied Lebanon’s fate to Gaza’s, with zero thinking about how to protect the Lebanese people.” The conflict has led to a profound collapse in social functioning. “This country needs a software reset,” Bana Bashour, a professor of philosophy, told our editors.

Notably, one person interviewed for the project has since been lost. Bilal Raad, a member of Lebanon’s Civil Defense Forces, evacuated his family early in the war; his 2-year-old daughter “was terrified because of the constant sound of the airstrikes,” he said. On Nov. 14, Raad was killed by a strike against a civil defense center.

Chaser: In April, we published an essay by Mahmoud Almadhoun, a shopkeeper and chef in northern Gaza <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/03/gaza-famine-family-soupkitchen/" target=_blank>who had opened a soup kitchen</a> to feed what he described as “a seemingly endless line of hungry families” left without resources by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Israel-Gaza war</a>. He was reportedly <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/palestinian-chef-behind-gaza-soup-155404095.html" target=_blank>killed by an Israeli drone</a> this past weekend.

Josh Rogin recently wondered <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/15/gabbard-intelligence-propaganda-judgment-disqualified/" target="_blank">how on earth Tulsi Gabbard could be seen as a good pick</a> to run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “Her long-standing pattern of embracing and amplifying Russian propaganda speaks to her poor judgment and tenuous allegiance to the truth.” But author and former Post reporter Ronald Kessler has a more galaxy-brain take: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/trump-abolish-federal-intelligence-agency/" target="_blank">Why do we need an ODNI at all</a>? “There’s hardly a more bloated or unnecessary bureaucracy in the entire federal government,” he argues.

Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/01/kash-patel-fbi-nomination-trump-unqualified/" target=_blank>Ruth Marcus writes</a> that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> putting forward hyper-loyal conspiracy theorist Kash Patel for FBI director — when, ahem, there is already a Trump-appointed director, Christopher Wray, with years to go in his term — is a “hair-on-fire moment.”

Matt Bai writes that, by becoming independently infamous for his counterfactual medical beliefs and willingness to cozy up to Trump, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/29/rfk-judged-kennedy-legacy/" target=_blank>RFK Jr. has finally become more than just a Kennedy</a>. Congrats, I guess?

In the latest in Dan Pink’s “Why not?” series, he proposes another bright idea: Now that we live longer, what if we radically expanded the ranks of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/seniors-service-americorps/" target=_blank>national service volunteers over 65</a>? Dan outlines how such a program could contribute to meeting urgent national needs as well as provide meaningful work, structure and connection for the volunteers themselves.

So hey, how are things going over at the lame-duck Biden presidency? Let’s check in.

Ruth Marcus has another column on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/biden-pardon-hunter-lie/" target=_blank>Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter</a> for crimes including being a gun-form liar. (Ask me about previous reporting I edited about <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/21/us/gun-form-liars-atf-invs/index.html" target=_blank>how very, very rarely this crime is prosecuted</a> — in less than .1 percent of cases!). Ruth finds the pardon understandable but Biden’s broken promise not to provide one unforgivable.

Chris Van Hollen, meanwhile, notes that Biden has just a precious few weeks left in which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/van-hollen-biden-gaza-history/" target=_blank>to try to make a difference in the Middle East</a>: “The president has a chance to correct some of the mistakes he has made both before and during the war in Gaza,” the Maryland senator writes, “but only if he acts quickly and decisively.”

Colby King delivers a grateful and historically informed tribute to one of the best features of D.C.’s home rule system: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/29/advisory-neighborhood-commissioners-dc-home-rule/?itid=lk_inline_manual_33" target=_blank>its advisory neighborhood commissioners</a>. “For the past five decades, ANCs have been the spawning ground for would-be mayors, D.C. Council members and other public officials,” he writes. “ANCs are where 50 years of self-government come alive.”

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/29/trump-election-hometown-fall-river-massachusetts/?itid=lk_inline_manual_34" target=_blank>E.J. Dionne takes a look at his home city</a>, the beautiful-if-falling-apart old mill town of Fall River, Massachusetts. A longtime Democratic stronghold, it went for Trump this year, and the Democratic Party should be paying close attention, he says: “Winning back the working-class voters it lost is not just a strategic necessity. It’s a moral imperative.”

Jen Rubin has a suggestion for a Democratic candidate for 2028: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/02/harris-stay-relevant-presidency-2028/?itid=lk_inline_manual_35" target=_blank>How about that promising young Kamala Harris</a>?

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.

Have your own newsy haiku? <a href="mailto:amanda.katz@washpost.com?subject=Opinions+Newsletter+Feedback" target=_blank>Email it to me</a>, along with any questions/comments/compliments/concerns. See you tomorrow!

Amanda Katz is a senior assignment editor for Opinions, where she has worked since 2022. She was previously an editor at CNN, the Boston Globe and Bloomsbury Publishing, and has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Slate and other publications.

Amanda Katz

Today’s Opinions: Life under Israeli bombardment in Lebanon

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A man walks near the site of the historic 'Al-Manshiya' building damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, near the Roman ruins of Baalbek

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