The University of California vowed to develop programs with a “viewpoint-neutral history of the Middle East.” Some professors see it as a first step toward thought police. Who decides what’s neutral? To foster greater understanding, more viewpoints are needed, not fewer, they say.

Former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced today that he is resigning. An unusual number of members of Congress are leaving – even those in high-ranking positions. It speaks to the changing political environment.

How close is Israel to reestablishing a sense of safety? The Israeli border town of Sderot is an interesting case study. It has been the target of Hamas rockets for years. Now, the town is largely empty, and rockets are still flying despite Israel’s massive offensive. 

To help more people obtain a four-year degree, one initiative started with a simple idea: What if you make it easier for top community college students to connect with selective schools? 

Prisons in the United States do comparatively little to prepare incarcerated populations for their release. Norway is on the opposite end of the spectrum, even letting some incarcerated people cook their own meals. Several U.S. prisons are taking notice. 

Romania’s cultural heritage is crumbling, so one man is bringing Romanians together to fix it – local craftspeople to build and restore, community members to provide food and support. The result is not just historical preservation, but also national pride.  

The front lines of the war in Gaza are not always the military front lines. Also present in the intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants is an invisible force known as the “rules of war,” backed up by international law.

While often ignored by combatants, these rules nonetheless have probably shaped the war in the treatment of civilians, hostages, captured fighters, and detainees. For evidence of these laws in action, just note the visit to Gaza on Tuesday by Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

As the world’s leading neutral intermediary and custodian of the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC has used confidential dialogue with both sides to help set up a temporary truce and exchanges of hostages and prisoners. Last month, the Red Cross president met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar to “advance humanitarian issues.” She was in Gaza yesterday to de-escalate tensions and further promote respect for the rules of war aimed at protecting the innocent.

She has not been alone in representing the institutions of humanitarian law. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, was in Israel and the West Bank in recent days, encouraging both Hamas and Israel to avoid war crimes and provide aid to civilians.

He said the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 were “some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity.” And he advised Israel that “this is the time to comply with the law. If Israel doesn’t comply now, they shouldn’t complain later.”

Changes in the nature of war have required the ICRC and the ICC to keep adapting the universal principles behind the Geneva Conventions and similar international laws. Yet the ICRC has also lately tried to highlight the positive examples of compliance with such laws. “Collecting such examples and transforming them into lessons learned for militaries and armed actors more generally will become more important,” Peter Maurer, the recent president of the ICRC, told the International Review of the Red Cross last year.

The ICRC’s work is driven by what it calls “fundamental principles,” such as impartiality during a war to protect innocent people and help heal wounded people. “Principles are particularly important, because of the complexity of situations we are navigating,” said Dr. Maurer.

And nothing is more complex than the war in Gaza, in which those who represent humanitarian law are providing an invisible force making sure this war has limits and the innocent have the right of protection.