I gave my brother a New York Times subscription.
We changed articles, and so having read the same article,
we can discuss it. - She send you your long subscription so I have access to all the games.
“- The New York Times contributes to our quality time together.”
- It enriches our relationship. - It was such a cool and thoughtful gift. - We're reading the same stuff, we're making the same food, we're on the same page.
- Learn more about giving a New York Times subscription as a gift. At nytimes.com/gift. - Hello. - Hi, Louis. This is Rachel Abrams from the Daily.
- Hi, Rachel. - Thank you so much for making time to speak with us. - Thank you. - Where are you physically right now? - I am currently in my house in the West Bank
under siege by Israeli settlers extremists. - We are now allowed to leave the property. The settlers once my family, the neighbors family to leave.
“So simply they can steal the houses and take over.”
They want the entire land, the entire mouth in all the houses. - What's happening right now, Louis? Like are there settlers outside that you can see from inside your house right now? - Yes, I am watching them as we speak.
There's three settlers, that's about 300 to 400 yards from me. They brought couches and they sit in the sun and moments ago. There's three soldiers and I was watching. What's the soldiers going to do to them? Are they going to arrest them?
They're going to move them? Are they going to tell them it's a closed military zone because this is what they told me yesterday. - Absolutely, absolutely, they did nothing. They just looked around, they talked to them,
probably for five minutes. And they just left them, it's insane. - From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams and this is the daily. For the past year, there's been a huge increase in violence
in the West Bank. Israeli settlers have been terrorizing Palestinians, setting fire to their property, abrooting their all of groves, and stealing their animals, all in an effort to drive them off their land.
According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been injured and more than 20 killed so far just this year. That's more than twice the number of killings, as in 2025. But the settlers seldom face any consequences for their actions
in part because they received broad support from the Israeli government. Today, we talked to Palestinian-American, Louie Readie, in the West Bank, about the settlers that have arrived at his doorstep.
It's Wednesday, September 2nd. When we called Louie Readie, he was in his house in Kusra, a small village of about 5,000 people in the Northern West Bank.
Louie talked to us from his bedroom, and we could look at the window, and keep an eye on what was happening outside. I wonder whether you ever expected that this would be your view?
- I'm slowly not. - This is actually Louie's second home. He normally lives in Ohio, where he immigrated to in 2004. The Kusra is where Louie grew up
and never used to be like this.
- Back in the days, we did not have no issues with the settlers. They were not aggressive as happening right now. We did have settlement, extra village.
“I remember that settlement when I was a kid,”
but we always told that it's gonna be temporarily, and there is gonna be a peace agreement, and there will leave. Soon, none of 'em will be here. So just never dealt with any of 'em,
never interact with any just driving and past them. You know, let's say it. - Given that this was kind of a quiet period, Louie, what was it like to grow up in Kusra, the town of Kusra?
- So our town is really a good special town. It's about 850 meters above sea level, so you can be on the mountain and looking down. You see the entire village. The weather here is beautiful.
No matter how hot it is,
you always have a breeze coming directly from the sea.
Most of the people was a farmers.
So there's a lot of olive trees, pigs, and grapes, and each is, and my family, we are nine brothers and one sister. - Oh wow. - My dad, he used to have a junkyard with cars
and part of parts, and my mom stayed in at home.
We always gave her a hard time dealing with nine brothers
when we were kids. - Boys really outnumbered her. - Yes, with only one sister. - One of my favorite memories was school. Once a year, they used to arrange a road trip.
It's like a vacation all day, a vacation, to take us to the dead sea. - Oh yeah. - Because in that time there's Mediterranean sea, it's only one hour.
But none of that was bank residence allowed to go to the beach. And we always see on TV kids jumping in the pools, swimming, but whenever experienced it.
- So, in that time probably was my first time
this swimming a lot of, and it was like a dream become true to us probably one of the most wonderful experience. - So, we did have a lot of good memories in Kostra. - Do you remember Louis when you first started
thinking about immigrating to the United States? - My older brothers, they were in the United States
“early 90s, and that's why I thought I would have”
a better future and opportunity if I go to the United States. So, I applied for the University of Toledo, and I learned English there. So, yes, I was the fortunate one to be in the United States
and become a successful businessman. And even more fortunate, I end up for love and marry my wife. Now, I have a beautiful family, I have two girls, I have an 18 years old, she just started
second year in college, Sam University Toledo.
- Oh, you must be so proud. - Yes, and I have a 10 years old, she's started fifth grade two days ago. And, you know, they're born and raised in America. They know the American way,
but we like to know the Palestinian culture as well. So, we take when we bring them to visit often here. And they like it. And one time, I bring my daughters here,
“and they ask me, how come we can have our own house here?”
- That's not thinking about it. I said, you know, we come here more often. Maybe that would be a good for my retirement, the future, maybe I'll start spending more time here in Kosovo and I get older.
And I made my decision and I started building it on the beautiful mountain. It has a beautiful view. You can see Jordan, which is the country next to us, Jordan. I can see clearly, if I look to the left to the west,
I can see Tel Aviv, and sometimes I can see the sea from the same spot. And the house, the way I design it, it's the American style. Everything is open, there is no doors whatsoever.
I cared about the outside, the front yard, the backyard, the trees, I just wanted to be my peaceful and my retirement vacation at home. Now before I did this, I made sure that it is 100% legal. I started the blueprint, I took the proponent
to the coverment. - These really government? - No, the Palestinian government because this is a designated area B under the Poestina Authority. Under Oslo agreement, B area, they gave it to the Poestina
to control it. So if I need to build and pull permits, I don't need to go to the Israeli. It is the tell me, it goes to the Poestinians. - Okay, so you go and you check with the Palestinian Authority
“to confirm that you had the legal right to build this house?”
- Correct, yes. So I went to the Poestina Authority. They gave me the authorization in 2023, and I started the house. And I probably, one of the most beautiful things
I ever done, I was proud of it,
but never crossed my mind.
The one day, the settlers will be able to come in area B and claim that it belonged to them. - Can you just describe the moment, the first moment, that you learned that settlers were encroaching on the house,
“that these tensions had really arrived at your doorstep?”
- This started in January. - My brother called me, said the settlers came on top of the mountain. They start coming down the hell driving those ATVs. Every night, checking out the areas
who which houses have people which house is empty. So I told my brother, I want you to be so security cameras, 'cause it looks like it's not safe.
So I put the security cameras and in March,
two, 30 in the morning. I got notifications on someone at my house. It was like four or five set or a mask. This was jumping over the fence. They brought ladders, they bought tools,
damn, and they start doing the damages. - What kind of damage did they do?
“- Well, I had an automatic motor for the gates.”
They damaged the sub-rickened lights around the old yards. They stole all my router's modems. They caught the main electricity panel wires, they damaged it. They cut in and damage in my security camera,
as they won, I'll fly them one by one, one by one. Believe or not, I watched them live. - Back in Ohio. - Yes, back in Ohio. After this incident, I talked to my brother
and said, okay, we're gonna fix it. We're gonna put more security guard on the windows, so they can't get in. Brand new security cameras, fix the gates, fix the internet, fix the lights, and he did all this.
Now he said, I'm gonna move in. I'm gonna move in with my family to protect the house. - Wow. - And he did. - Louis, all of this sounds unbelievably stressful,
but when do the settlers actually start camping outside of your house? - That was August 9th. - It's really settlers, extremists. They brought like four ATVs.
They parked in the front of the house and they built a tent in front of the house. They started jumping over the fence. And again, when this happened, you know, I was back in Ohio and every movement,
again, an oddification. - How did it feel, Louis, to be so far away, and watching all of this happening?
“- That was honestly, it was very stressful.”
Imagine that someone is at the deck and you're family member and you want to knit life from distance, literally, you want to knit life. That's what happened to me. And in that moment, my brother and his son,
they were terrified. They were going to attack him inside the house. So my brother called the police that night and they dispatched an IDF vehicle but instead of helping my brother,
they went straight to the tent. They celebrated with those settlers.
They sat down with them and were basically chilling out
with them and drinking, and they conducted prayer with those settlers. - And I'm talking to my brother and we passed. My brother passed and I passed you and I asked him, "Boy, you're going to do it next
"because we felt they are only few feet away "taking over this house." And my brother, he said, "I'm not leaving this house. "I don't want to leave it, but I have an issue. "I have no food."
When he said this, I said, "You know why? "I can't handle it anymore. "I can't sleep, I'm gonna book my flight. "I'm gonna come, I'll do whatever it takes for me "to provide you food and protection
"and try to end the siege."
- We'll be right back.
- We gave times employees a preview of cross-playing from New York Times games.
And here's what they had to say.
- I can finally play with other people. - Play with friends that you already know, or you can just be matched with someone else in the world. - I have a J for 10 points, and I can put that on a double letter.
So, J, A, and that's 24 points. - I'm going to take facts, and make it facts is for 30 points. - I'm guessing Tanga is not a word, let's see. Tanga is a word, oh, I don't know what Tanga means. So, I'm gonna press down on the word, and oh,
definition popped up as an English as a second language speaker. I like to learn new words. - I'm pretty competitive, it's fun to beat friends and co-workers. - New York Times games subscribers get full access to cross-play.
Our first two-player word game.
Subscribe now for a special offer on all of our games.
“- Louis, how did your wife and your children feel about you flying back to the West Bank at a moment where it is so much more dangerous?”
- Well, it was a tough decision to be honest with you, yes. They were terrified, they were stressing out, especially in my 10 years old. Asking me, is the settlers going to go inside the house while you were there? It's going to happen to you, are you going to be safe? And sometimes they have to like to say, I'll be okay, I'll be safe, even though that's not the case.
I do feel for my own safety here because it is not safe. - If I'm getting this right, I think you arrived about a week after the settlers first put that tent up outside of your house. That's when you first saw your brother after all this time knowing he was under threat. What was it like to see him for the first time? - Well, we are brothers.
- Yeah, that's my brother of the site. - So to be with him and hug him for the first time. - It was a lot of emotion. Then I grabbed the American flag. - This is what I brought.
- I brought it with me from Ohio all the way to Kusra to my house. - And I put it on the house over there. - And I went on top of my house and I raised American flags on my house. - Oh, what were you trying to tell a graph? - Usually when settlers steal a house, the first thing they do there is they're on a flag on top of the house.
They say yellow flag.
And I said, if it were cut for a bit, if this happens, if they want to raise it, they have to take the most powerful flag in the world.
The American flag and raise their flag. That's what's going to happen in theory. And that's the reason I put that American flag. - Was any part of you also hoping that maybe the settlers would be more intimidated knowing that an American was there? - They did not care because the next day, a settler started coming down toward me.
- And he dared to tell me myself, I need to leave because that's his land. - That's my house. - That's my land. And I told that he's a really soldiers they were present. - He needs to be on the move from here. He's illegal here.
- He needs to be on the move because he's illegal. - Was this Louis, was this your first interaction with a settler ever? - It is. This is the first time I talked to a settler like this face to face, yes.
“- I'd love to be in my house. - This is okay, that's what?”
- And I told them, that's belong to me. - That's my land and I'm staying here. - I thought this happened. - Yeah, if the one came to me, I didn't go to them. - Since then, the IDF decided to come and move the tent front of the house.
- But now we are unable to leave freely in and out of our houses from the IDF. They claim it's closed military zone. - What does that mean, exactly? - There is an IDF tent right now. Like actually I'm watching it as we speak.
- One of my house. That one is but cannot leave in our own house or walk in the New York. - And have you asked the IDF, like why are you keeping me in my house? Like what's the reasoning behind this?
“Have you talked to any of the military people there?”
- Yes, that was yesterday when I was walking in my yard. - Please, walk right back to the villa.
- I said why can't walk in my yard, my own yard.
- I'm not trying to argue. - I hope it's my commanding officer. And he just said whoever's here has to go back into the villa. Please don't make me use force, right? - Please go unless we get used force, I guess you.
- Wow.
“- That's what he literally told me yesterday.”
- Thank you. - Can you tell me your name? So when I call, I can tell him whoever's trying to... - Name is IDF, all right? - IDF spokesperson?
- No. - IDF commanding. - IDF commanding. - Okay, I would listen, I'm not here to argue, no, no.
- So, you know, first we're dealing with the settlers.
Now, the IDF is here, it's still not able to move freely. So, you know, the same situation, the same results, either way, settlers or IDF, they're doing the same thing on us. - Right. You want the soldiers to leave because they're enforcing this close military zone
where you can't move freely, but you also fear what will happen with the settlers if the soldiers leave. It's an impossible situation. - Exactly. And we still as if they're able to spot settlers, able to walk around the house almost every day.
- I just want to mention here that the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee said that the IDF and Israeli police did go to your house to remove what he described as, quote, "israeli terrorist." At Huckabee's request, at the U.S. is request.
And I guess I wonder whether you feel like in this moment
“the U.S. authorities could have or should have done more?”
- I watched all Mike Huckabee's interview, and every time he did condemn it, he did say that they're terrorist. And I appreciate all these comments, but that's not, wasn't enough,
because nothing happened on the ground. - I really wish that Mike Huckabee himself or Syndity and from the U.S. embassy to come visit my house, so then can witness what's going on here. What happened in the American citizen in the West Bank?
- But Louie, don't you think that they know what's going on? I mean, there are videos on the internet. They've clearly made statements in response to this. I mean, it doesn't feel like the issue is that they don't know what's happening. - I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do.
And that's a question I always ask myself.
- Why everybody on the news, including the U.S. officials, including the Israeli officials, including the army, even the settlers, the leaders of the settlers. They condemned whether Israeli did in Kusrah. Okay, why not a view able to move five to ten settlers
just go ahead and arrest them, put them in jail, prosecuted them, and lift the siege on the residents in Kusrah and let them live in peace. I don't have the answer. - I'm thinking Louie of the person who might be listening
to this and thinking at the end of the day, it's just a building. It's just materials, right? Why is it so important to put yourself or your brother, anybody in your family and harms way to protect a piece of property that isn't even your primary home?
It's like your second house.
How would you explain why you and your brother
“and anybody else feels the need to put yourself at risk for this place?”
- Well, it's not really just the home. It's not about the home. It's about the entire land. And you know, just maybe five years ago I was walking, my father's land.
And I know he inherited this from his father and from his grandfather. And I looked at a wall. And I thought looking at it and imagine it's about how many years is it like 200 years, 300 years?
And I took the rocks. - A rock? - A rock, yes. It just felt there's an emotion to that rock. Maybe one of my great grandpa's touched it. And I grabbed it.
And I just said, "I'm going to take it." I took it home. And I had it in my office in Ohio. It just reminded me again. This is our land.
The settlers are trying to steal. And what's been going on changed a lot of people dreams. And that's on one of them. The dream that I thought of that I'm going to live in this house
Peace.
While I see soldiers surrounding my house,
and settlers still available and come harassing me. To be honest with you, the general mode in the West Bank, it's hopeless. It doesn't mean that we have to give up. We have to fight to protect our houses and stay in our land.
“Do you have any idea when you're going to go back to Ohio?”
My wife asked me this question. I told her I'm living day by day. I will update her. It could be a couple of weeks. It could be a couple months.
I have no idea.
But I'm staying here until I make sure my house is saved.
My family is safe. I'll do my best on that. Louis Ridi, thank you so much for giving us all this time. Thank you. Thank you for having me. When we reach out to the Israeli military for comment,
they told us that the IDF is operating in Kusra with the aim of "protecting its residents and preventing confrontations."
“They also said that Louis Ridi is free to come and go from his house.”
But the family remains there and free to leave. The IDF is still stationed just outside the property as are some settlers. When we asked the IDF if anyone has been arrested and connection with the case, they told us to ask the police.
We did ask the Israeli police, but they didn't respond. The US ambassador to Israel might cuckabee, told us that the US is a very strong engagement with the IDF to act on behalf of US citizens. Over the weekend, there were more violent attacks on Palestinians
by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. And the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has largely played down these attacks as the actions of a small minority. issued a rare review,
condemning the attackers and calling their actions criminal. He said that their cause and quote immense harm to the law abiding settler community and damaging, quote, "is real standing in the world." We'll be right back.
“Here's what else you need to know today.”
On Tuesday for the second time in three days,
the US attacked Iran, puncturing a month long break in fighting between the two countries. Iranian officials said the latest American attacks caused significant damage to sites across Iran's southern shores, including a military base.
In a social media post, President Trump threatened even bigger strikes of Iran decides to retaliate. And the global market for government bonds experienced a massive sell-up on Tuesday, pushing borrowing costs which are closely tied to bonds
to some of their highest levels in decades. Analysts blamed the sell-off on a growing consensus that officials across the world will raise interest rates to tamp down inflation, lowering the value and the appeal of existing bonds.
Today's episode was produced by Claire Tennis Getter, where Sheldonja and Lindsay Garrison, who was edited by Maria Bern with help from Paige Cowett, and fact checked by Susan Lee. He contains music by Pat McCusker and Alyssa Moxley,
and with engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Wonderland. Special thanks to David Helpinger, Aaron Boxerman, and no one blanks. That's it for the Daily.
I'm Rachel A. Burns. See you tomorrow. This week's episode of The Wirecutters Show is for the bidet curious. There is clearly a bidet for every budget.
You can get a cold water model for maybe 25 dollars, or you could get something like the Toto Neo Rest, and there's one of those models that costs 25, 25,000 dollars. Is it time to upgrade your bathroom situation? Find out on The Wirecutters Show in the near times app,
or wherever you like to listen.
