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TAOS, New Mexico, Aug 24 (Reuters) - After two arson attacks at a Starbucks (SBUX.O) construction site in Taos, New Mexico, a developer is trying again to build the chain's first drive-through cafe in the mountain town with a history of revolts and opposition by some to national chains.

It did not take long for locals in this community of 6,500 to come up with a nickname for the would-be coffee shop: "Charbucks." Meanwhile, the building contractor from Albuquerque, the state's largest city, has installed video cameras and a security guard sleeps at the site in a camouflage trailer.

Just over a mile north of the site of the store, which Starbucks hopes to open in the spring of 2025, patrons at one of Taos' oldest independent coffee shops are tight-lipped about the attacks.

"We don't know who did it, but we loved it," said Todd Lazar, a holistic healer, as he chatted with other regulars on a bench outside the World Cup, just off Taos' central plaza.

As criticism mounted over Israel's assault and siege on Gaza—which has left more than 144,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and has flattened most of the coastal enclave while stoking deadly famine and the spread of preventable diseases including polio—Resnick helped expedite the flow of U.S. arms to the key Middle Eastern ally.

She also worked with the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan wants to arrest for alleged war crimes including "extermination," to allow private citizens to donate equipment to the Israel Defense Forces.

Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who resigned earlier this year over Biden's support for Israel amid a war for which the key ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, told HuffPost that Resnick's appointment "reflects a doubling down on the administration's determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel's genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza."

Massive pro-Palestine protests have been organised on a regular basis, activists have targeted arms manufacturers, and dozens of student-led Gaza solidarity encampments popped up on university campuses across the country since the war began.

Electorally, two major Muslim and Arab-led initiatives have emerged out of the response to the war.Though these groups appear to be aligned and are often seen as interchangeable, the groups are quite distinct.

The first group, Abandon Harris (formerly Abandon Biden), has vowed to do everything in its power to get voters to turn away from Harris and the Democratic Party for its continued support for the war on Gaza.

The other group, the Uncommitted movement, began by urging voters to choose "uncommitted" during the Democratic primary cycle as a protest vote against US President Joe Biden. Since Harris replaced Biden for the Democratic ticket, the movement has called for an arms embargo on Israel but is maintaining its support for the Democrats despite not winning any of the concessions it has asked for.

Noa Argamani, an Israeli woman freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza in June, said on Friday that her injuries were caused by an Israeli air strike during her rescue operation, not by a Hamas attack.

Speaking to diplomats from G7 countries in Tokyo on Wednesday, Argamani detailed her ordeal after she was taken captive by Palestinian armed groups during the 7 October attack. However, two days later, she issued a statement on Instagram, saying that some of her remarks had been misquoted and taken out of context.

Contrary to some Israeli media reports, Argamani clarified that she was not beaten or had her hair shaved by Palestinian fighters.

"[Hamas members] did not hit me while I was in captivity, nor did they cut my hair; I was injured by the collapse of a wall caused by an [Israeli] Air Force pilot," she added.

ICJP said it had informed the UK Charity Commission that the JNF’s charitable status could mean that UK Gift Aid may be funding Israeli settlements and war crimes.

The ICJP’s Senior Legal Officer Dania Abul Haj said, "For too long, the JNF has been allowed to fund illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli military, throughout a genocide. Not only have they been allowed to continue operating for over a century, but they actually receive tax exemptions from the British government."

Egyptian seaports have turned into important stations for cargo and cement ships transporting goods to and from Israel during the Gaza war period, according to an open source investigation.

The investigation, published Thursday by Arabi Post, tracked the activity of 19 ships over the past three months, using open source maritime data to trace the sea routes of these ships, which were limited to travelling back and forth between Israeli and Egyptian ports.

During the same period, no ships from Arab countries other than Egypt arrived at Israeli ports, the online news outlet reported.

For anyone paying attention, it is now abundantly clear that the U.S.-led Gaza ceasefire talks have become a tool for the perpetuation of Israel’s genocidal war.

What began as a liberatory demand by Rep. Cori Bush and grassroots peace advocates has now been fully co-opted by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The bad-faith terms of the latest proposal are just the beginning. Hamas is unlikely to agree to the terrible new conditions that Blinken has put on the table, and that rejection will in turn enable Biden, Harris, Blinken, and Netanyahu to further blame Hamas for “rejecting peace.”

This will then buy Netanyahu more time to continue bombing, starving, and killing Palestinians. Then the cycle will repeat itself again, with Blinken soon returning to the Middle East for yet another round of so-called ceasefire negotiations, while the U.S. continues to send Israel even more weapons for its war.