Let me start with a statement that should be obvious: deliberately starving 2 million people – half of whom are children – is indefensible. It is not complicated, it is not a nuanced situation that requires a PhD to parse. It is not an unfortunate and unavoidable part of war. It is quite simply indefensible. I would say that it is also very much prohibited by international human rights law, but that doesn’t seem to exist any more, does it?

As I write this, no food, water or medicine has been allowed into Gaza for almost two months. It is impossible to know just how bad the situation really is because Israel has imposed a media blackout on the region. However, aid organizations have said: “The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months” since the war began. Thousands of children are malnourished. Childhood malnutrition, I can’t stress enough, has long-term consequences. An entire generation’s future has been violently stolen from them.

“Starving kids to death is bad, actually” isn’t a statement that should require any debate. Over in the White House and the hallowed halls of Yale, however, they seem to think otherwise. On Wednesday night, an organization called Shabtai, which is based at Yale though not officially affiliated with it, hosted Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for a talk.

Ben-Gvir has had the red carpet rolled out for him by the US. The extremist politician came to New Haven following an extravagant dinner, presumably paid for by US taxpayers, at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort the night before. While he ate fancy food with Republican party officials they all reportedly discussed how they could starve kids in Gaza more efficiently. “[Lawmakers] expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and........

© The Guardian