🎗️ It’s so different from the media narrative’: telling a different story of 7 October www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se... @batzili.bsky.social @julianborger.bsky.social

Trump, with his endless wisdom, pushes India into China’s dragon hug. www.cnn.com/2025/08/31/c...

🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics. The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.

The Trump Administration joined the Netanyahu regime in support of Hamas by undermining their moderate rivals and unlawfully preventing officials of the PA from attending the UN meeting in NY. apnews.com/article/isra...

The IPC reports famine in Gaza City and soon in other parts of the Gaza Strip. This is a result of a deliberate policy of the Netanyahu regime. A policy that is not only cruel but makes no security sense whatsoever. Israel has been hijacked by Fascists. www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-webs...

We are looking for a scholar of international security to come work with us at the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security. Is that you? american.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/AU/job/Main-...

Former Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF leaders join most of the world in demanding an immediate end to the Gaza war, saying it’s now an unjust, immoral and futile war of destruction guided by 'messianic and extremist goals' and threatening ‘the loss of Israel's security and freedom.’ It must end now.

This is really a rather remarkable document (which Times of Israel links to) - what seems to be a serious effort within the int'l community to take back the Israel/Palestine question. Of course, the US is missing - for the moment. www.timesofisrael.com/in-1st-entir...

This is a superb discussion -

A leading Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, with a new comprehensive report: "Our Genocide" 😥 www.btselem.org

Awdah was murdered yesterday by an Israeli extremist settler. I didn't know Awdah, but several of my friends did know him well and attest to him being the nicest person and a dedicated activist for Palestinian human rights and for peace. May he rest in peace.

In Sakhnin, a mass march was held against the starvation of the population in Gaza. A joint event by Jewish and Arab peace organizations. 🇮🇱🕊🇵🇸 Credit: Liora Binyamin

Emanuel Macron declared that France will recognize Palestine as a state. Like in many countries' recognition of Kosovo, atrocities against civilians can lead to exactly the opposite of what the perpetrator (here, the Netanyahu regime) wants. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

I spoke with a Palestinian friend of the shame I feel that "my people" are starving other people, just several generations after the Holocaust. He said I should not feel ashamed, in the same way that he is not ashamed of Hamas's doing- it's them, not us. But still... www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

A Tel-Aviv protest of "Standing Together" yesterday with posters of Gaza's starving kids. The hunger in Gaza is reaching a breaking point, and the international community must force Israel to open the gates to all international aid. The Netanyahu government will not do it of its own volition.

Important piece on Israel interceptor resupply challenges. Other side of the equation is Iranian ballistic missile stocks. Short thread. 1/6 www.wsj.com/world/middle...

I wrote about the history of Iran’s nuclear programme: when it began, what was shut down in 2003, what weapons-related work continued thereafter & whether this was “accelerating” in recent months as Israel claims. Short answer: more evidence needed. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

What a tragedy in Ahmedabad, India. Hoping beyond hope that there are survivors.

Read or listen to this NYT interview with Liat Atzili, who survived Hamas captivity and lost her husband to its violence. Liat seeks reconciliation rather than revenge. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/o... @holdingliat.bsky.social @voices4justice.bsky.social @truahrabbis.bsky.social

More photos from today 💔 @batzili.bsky.social

This podcast features and interveiw with Brandon Kramer, the director of Holding Liat, which won the best documentary in the Berlin Film Festival, and will premiere in the US on June 11.

An immediate ceasefire and influx of food into Gaza are essential, but we also need to change the situation more permanently. The Saudi-French initiative brings many states and civil society bodies, including Palestinians and Israelis, together for this purpose. parispeaceforum.org/press-releas...

Israel began (yet again) the ground offensive on the northern Gaza Strip. It seems that Witkoff gave up on pushing Netanyahu to reach an agreement, and Trump again brought up his fantasies of US control, while the Saudis have other priorities. Collective stupidity.

Deliberately starving civilian population is an illegal, immoral, and horrible method of achieving national goals. It is even worse when it aims to achieve domestic political goals, like in Netanyahu's government case. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/w...

It's not uncommon that states agree on a ceasefire and then breach it. It might be an action of an overzealous low-level officer. It might come from higher levels as parties try to prove a point. It's even more likely with Pakistan's fraught civil-military relations. apnews.com/article/indi...

Eran Etzion, former Deputy Head of Israel’s National Security, in a very good analysis of what at stake for the Middle East in Trump's coming visit to Saudi Arabia: x.com/eranetzion/s...

IR profs: I'm developing a new Causes of War MA course. If you have taught something similar recently, are you willing to share your syllabus? 🙏

“Eight missiles, fired from Pakistan at the Jammu region towns of Satwari, Samba, Ranbir Singh Pura & Arnia, were intercepted by air defence units, added an Indian military source …They were part of a wider attack, the source added” www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

US and China are positioned on the two sides of the India-Pakistan conflict. The US was historically a Pakistan ally and weapon supplier, but it gradually moved, since the end of the Cold War, to India's side, while China is now a staunch ally of Pakistan. www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Clashes between India and Pakistan escalated with drone attacks by both sides. The problem with mutual deterrence when each side sees it as a one-sided deterrence. www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-a...

Dangerous escalation as India strikes targets in Pakistan as a response to a major terrorist attack two weeks ago. Pakistan claims it downed 5 Indian airplanes. Let's hope it stays limited. The fact that both US and China called for restraint is encouraging. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Israel is planing to escalate its campaign in Gaza. It has nothing to do with the hostages (it will kill them) or with defending the country (it will worsen the security situation). It has everything to do with preserving Netanyahu's extremist government. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Today, a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day event in DC. Because this dispute will never end if we continue to pretend that grief is one-sided in order to gain points in public opinion. Conflict resolution is not a debating club. secure.nif.org/a/joint-isra...

Hamas is proposing to release all hostages and give up governance in Gaza to end the war. I write here that any lsraeli leader that is not up to his neck in trial and is not dependent on corruption can extremist parties would have taken it. news.walla.co.il/item/3744917

Listen to Noa!

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted and is being held in a notorious prison in El Salvador — barred from contacting his family or lawyers. I’m speaking to the press now after we were denied access to the prison to check on his condition. Tune in:

נתניהו עושה שימוש רטורי מתוחכם בהפרדה בין החטופים למלחמה. תמיד מדבר על עסקאות חטופים חלקיות ולא כוללות את סיום המלחמה, ותמיד מדבר על המשך המלחמה כאילו אינה קשורה לחטופים (אלא אם זה ״כדי להפעיל לחץ״, שכמובן אף אחד לא קונה). news.walla.co.il/item/3742087

The Wilson Center has been effectively shuttered by Trump and Musk. This saves taxpayers almost nothing, while erasing space for policy research, dialogue, and exchange, all things I gained from and made a small contribution to. For shame. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/u...

Netanyahu and his extremist government again uses the Israeli hostages as an excuse to expand the war on Gaza- and the large scale ethnic cleansing and war crimes it includes- while clearly threatening the life of the remaining living hostages. 😡 www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/m...

Israee’s renued assault on Gaza is insane. How much more for Netanyahu’s personal and political interests? www.cnn.com/webview/worl...

בראיון ב״כאן 11״ אני מנסה להסביר למה חייבים לסיים את המלחמה, גם בכדי להחזיר את החטופים, וגם בכדי לקדם את ביטחון ישראל: www.kan.org.il/content/kan/...

In Cairo today, the Arab League summit adopted the Egyptian plan for “the day after” in Gaza. It is a blueprint for the reconstruction of post-war Gaza without a Hamas governance and is the only real alternative to Netanyahu’s back-to-war plan. www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/m...

Over 10,000 in Jerusalem near the Prime Minister’s residence, determined not to let Netanyahu break the ceasefire/ hostage deal (again). Calling for an end to the war and a return of all remaining hostages. www.kan.org.il/content/kan-...