Yochi, Jenn, and Zack discuss Israel's killings of dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and why many Arab countries seem willing to give Israel a pass and instead focus on what they see as a growing threat from Iran. On Elsewhere, they look at Vladimir Putin's recent opening of a $4 billion bridge between Russia and the portion of Ukraine that Moscow had conquered and illegally annexed. Yochi stumbles over his Russian pronunciations, Jenn remembers watching beauty pageants as a child, and Zack defends the manliness of truck drivers. References! Yochi went on Today, Explained to give you all the background you need on the events in Gaza. You can also read Alexia Underwood’s explainer for that backstory.   Yochi picked 2014 as a concrete example of past protests held in reaction to Israel-Palestine tensions. Jenn walked through some of the smaller protests we saw this time around. She also talked about protests in Iran that weren’t related to the events in Gaza. A more in-depth look at “Linkage theory,” which Zack brought up as an older model for the Israel-Palestine conflict. Jenn was talking about the surprising alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Here’s a little more information about that. More context on the tweet from Bahrain’s foreign minister about Israel’s “right to defend itself by destroying sources of danger.” Zeeshan Aleem has this explainer on BDS in Palestine and more about the movement’s apartheid roots. We pulled the clip of Mustafa Barghouti from this BBC interview. Yochi gave a shout-out to Zack’s piece “Trump, Gaza, and the ‘blank check’ approach to Israel.” If you want to see Putin’s dramatic truck ride for yourself, there’s a video here. And finally, the Instagram celebrity cat that upstaged Putin. 

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