/headdesk

If you can’t pass the Syria test then you don’t have any business calling yourself an internationalist, IMO.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

The release of Alaa Abdel Fattah is a light in the dark, truly. May we see similar days for Osman Kavala, Selahattin Demirtaş and political prisoners the world over.

Alaa Abdel Fattah: Egypt's president pardons prominent activist Amazing news!!

The picture we've all been waiting for: #AlaaIsFree h/t: Mohamed Elbaqer

I'm way less interested in the arguments vis a vis whether or not she could have broken with him than I am in the structural incentives which exist today with regards to throwing Biden under the bus for being too pro-Israel. Did Harris have to write any of this? No. But why did she?

There was some debate before November 2020 whether Trump was the worst presidency or merely the worst person to have been president. I think it’s pretty clearly no longer a debate.

Yair Golan and Yair Lapid both oppose recognition of Palestine lol, the "Israeli left" is nonexistent outside of the literal 48-Palestinian parties

As @seanyom.bsky.social put it, state recognition is mostly meaningless if it doesn’t come with any correlated obligation to hold Israel accountable for war crimes.

Any Palestine analysts who might be willing to respond to a few simple questions on UK/Aus/Can recognition for an Al Jazeera article? on a tight deadline

Squinting in Middle East Studies

It really can’t be overstated how expert and disciplined Trump’s media strategy is. Carefully planned Friday PM rage bait every week. Libs everywhere freak out. Sunday shows dominated while Trump golfs. Courts get tied up and slow things down by midweek. Rinse, wash, repeat.

People keep talking about tech firms in relation to the H1-B $100k fee but it’s gonna really sink universities.

Interesting answer to a question I’ve been asking about the material crisis of masculinity in the present from @pkrugman.bsky.social.

This is quite good. I think we make a mistake, too, if we assume the manner of religious conflict described here is not a live one, or merely confined to Christianity.

The Trump administration giving the largest grant in the history of the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) to the Tikvah Fund represents an attempt to construct a parallel infrastructure for the academic study of Judaism, explicitly allied with ethnonationalist, Christian nationalist forces.

Very, very close between G and D.

A very thoughtful review of the most important new book on the Abraham Accords by @keshavarziana.bsky.social.

Me, every Sunday.

Handing the keys to the national party to the New York wing was such a disastrous own goal…

Only in America are we so naive to not recognize militant fascism when it’s staring us in the face.

Fascinating thread from Ohio State Senator Beth Liston, who is a Democrat. Liston was prepared to go on a trip to Israel and occupied Palestine but declared her intention to not do so after being pressed by constituents.

Egypt is supposedly re-introducing a proposal to establish a "Joint Arab Force", a NATO-like mutual defense pact within the Arab League and OIC in the face of heightened Israeli aggression. Egypt is also prepared to supply an initial 20,000 soldiers. The idea was originally considered back in 2016.

Say what you will about Johnny Knoxville, but he knew what grass felt like.

I weep for our future.

from Corey Robin on FB:

Bear with me, trying out an idea. Perhaps one reason we’ve seen this hopelessly naive reaction from centrists to CK is that we have in this country an overly broad conception of grassroots activism and a too narrow one of militant activism. CL fits the former in the US, which codes positive.

If they were serious about finding this guy, they’d send Pablo Torre.

No better time to post Hunter S. Thompson on 9/12/2001. www.espn.com/espn/page2/s...

I had to read this paragraph a dozen times, it is that jaw-droppingly naive. Really have to ask @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social if he would have written this about the Westboro Baptist Church…

Among the things I am presently resentful of is having to explain to normal people in my life (my wife, probably my mother and sisters) who this guy was and why he was bad.

what if the shooter’s name is mario

NEW: The European Commission will immediately suspend €32 million ($37.5M) in bilateral funds to Israel, a Commission official told AP — part of Ursula von der Leyen’s plan to pressure Israel, the violent settlers and far-right officials. This does not require EU member state approval.

A new scholarship fund for Palestinian students, led by university faculty and staff here in the U.S. Please share far and wide and encourage colleagues to give generously! leonardeducation.org/the-palestin... (HT @nsdoud on X)

peace through strength lethality warrior ethos bros when Russia starts firing UAVs at a NATO member state with impunity:

UPDATE: The Global Sumud Flotilla says their ship - the “Alma” - was attacked by a drone as it was docked in Tunisian waters. The boat was sailing under the British flag and sustained fire damage on its top deck. The fire has since been extinguished, and all passengers and crew are safe.

Huge news. I am so happy that Elizabeth Tsurkov is free at last!

Find us on Apple here: buff.ly/zNBCuV6

Have you checked out The MERIP Podcast yet? Our latest episode on the Houthis and Israel's recent assassinations was released last week. Check out other episodes on Syria, Palestinian recognition, the US Embassy in Beirut and more on Spotify below! buff.ly/HUDQzHG

My new piece in @ForeignPolicy : Erdoğan once hoped post-Assad Syria would ease his domestic & foreign headaches. Instead, it’s created bigger ones—chief among them Israel. To counter, he’s falling back on old tools: threats of military action in Syria or reliance on Russia.++

SUPPORT MERIP: Show your support for MERIP by picking up a tote bag or poster of a recent issue today! All items are printed locally at a union-run shop! Shipping is included.

I’m surprised by my continued capacity to be shocked. But this is stunning.

That makes it, what, the fifth? sixth? country Israel has decided it has a right to bomb since 10/7?

Not great, Bob.

Snapshot of narrow interests terrorising popular will with the support of the iron fist.

Spent the day with this essay. An absolute tour de force. There was no one like Berman, and won’t be again.

The good news for some in Turkey, the US has left Incirlik. The bad news? The base is now in Ankara.

The notion that “war” is somehow more honest than “defense” is really scraping the bottom of the sane washing barrel.

Idiocracy was a prophecy, part 4,765.