43% of Democrats (52% of 18-29 voters) say foreign policy and Israel will play a role in their vote in the 2026 primaries. (81% say the economy and healthcare, of course.) 80% want to reduce support for Israel 74% want an arms embargo 72% say it's a genocide 65% want sanctions

Palestinians in Gaza are human beings entitled not only to life and security, but also to self-determination and political rights. Anyone who advocates for the militarized technocratic despotism that the Trump-Blair plan would put in place is rejecting all those basic premises.

Notice how in all int'l proposals for a "day after" in Gaza there is not even a pretense that Palestinians in Gaza should have a say in their own political future. No lip service even to self-determination or democratic rights.

As Netanyahu addresses the United Nations in New York City this morning, the world recoils in horror at the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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

And the world remains silent, almost 2 years into this horror

We have visually confirmed to clients that a fourth load of crude oil has reached #Syria from #Russia. Comparing the YoY numbers, Russia is almost filling the void left by #Iran. No deliveries so far from any of the Arab nations. #OOTT

This new edited volume looks great. Chapters on energy history in colonial, anticolonial, and communist contexts. www.sup.org/books/politi...

Lots of rumors going around about Syria-Israel normalization. Israel has said it has no intention of ending Golan Heights occupation. US won’t push them either—Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over Golan in 2019. But no Syrian leader can capitulate on this issue & remain politically viable.

What could go wrong?

Turkey's Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat in a visit to Damascus calls for Turkish-Syrian economic integration modeled on NAFTA and EU www.enabbaladi.net/749553/%d8%a...

This seems to have sent Lebanon into a spiral.

I grew up with stories of the civil war. Many of those stories were connected to photos that hung on the walls of my dad's office or in his archives. Here are a few www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025...

Just returned from a trip to Syria. I visited the destroyed suburbs of Damascus - Jobar, Harasta, Arbeen, Douma, Yarmouk. Nothing prepares you for the extent of the devastation - it goes on for miles. If Syrians are to return home the sanctions must be lifted so that people can rebuild.

Reuters reporting that Saudi Arabia plans to pay off Syria's $15m World Bank debt www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Katz keeps saying 'we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.' But what made southern Lebanon become southern Lebanon? www.dropsitenews.com/p/syria-occu...

woke and DEI get removed, economy instantly crashes.

Syria's new constitutional declaration is said to be inspired by the 1950 Syrian Constitution. I wrote some belated thoughts on the different economic visions of these two documents and what that tells us. naderatassi.substack.com/p/the-spirit...

Funny thing is this is probably what Israel fears most but due to their persistent aerial bombardments and aggressive expansionism in the south, they have all but guaranteed this outcome. www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-...

Tariffs won't achieve any of their stated goals. Cheap imports didn't deindustrialize the US and they certainly won't reindustrialize it in two years. This is just Trump's personal dogma turned into disastrous policy, only consolation will be watching the rest of his party go down with the ship.

Welcome back protectionism starter pack

Keep The Meter Running: Ramadan Edition! I hopped in a taxi with Kareem from Subway Takes and longtime cab driver Mouhamadou, who I went on hunger strike with in 2021 to win historic debt relief. Here's an excerpt:

Just got these, excited to read

My colleague Rashid Khalidi: "We are approaching the status of Chilean universities under Pinochet, where on the orders of an authoritarian government, ideas and books were banned, students were expelled and arrested, departments were taken over & faculty fired." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The brave people of Daraa province are standing up to Israeli expansionism in Syria and paying with their lives www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/li...

The only good book on "abundance"

In a targeted attack on his car, Israel has killed Al-Jazeera's Hossam Shabat, who was only 23 years old and was one of the last remaining journalists in Gaza. There are no words.

I wrote about the border clashes between Lebanon and Syria www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

New Dig! First in two-part series w @iliasalami.bsky.social & @70sbachchan.bsky.social: analysis of entire (poly)crisis-ridden world capitalism system, Trump’s militarism and tariff wars, the new Cold War with China, Europe after the liberal international order… www.thedigradio.com/podcast/glob...

"The battle is an uphill one. But the fact remains that neither the centre nor the far right can offer a pathway out of America's institutional decay. A left cultural world has been built before, in the US & elsewhere,& there is no alternative to building it again." newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Heartwarming to see Newroz being celebrated in Damascus for the first time in decades. Such expressions of Kurdish identity were prohibited under the Assad regime. Newroz Piroz Be!

Just like the suggestion that Egypt should take in refugees in exchange for debt write-offs, I wouldn't be surprised if the US tried to use sanctions relief as leverage to pressure Syria into accepting this. A terrifying prospect. www.cbsnews.com/news/gazans-...

A Russian tanker heads to Syria, carrying a million barrels of crude oil. Third one since Assad’s fall. Syria desperately needs oil to stave off economic ruin, and USA/EU aren’t helping—perfect opening for Russia to make itself useful, aiming to save its bases. www.enabbaladi.net/744876/%d9%8...

I'm not sure it will be apparent to outsiders how many of these items are basically grievances from extremist alumni group chats, translated directly into federal policy, just as with the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. bsky.app/profile/jame...

Inshallah Zohran wins and NYC becomes Red Vienna.

Today's scenes have me thinking about Abdul-Aziz al-Khair, a Syrian left opposition figure who was disappeared by the regime in September 2012. Hope he sees freedom soon. www.syriahr.com/en/268636/

ICC arrest warrants welcomed as 'a glimmer of hope' in Gaza www.middleeasteye.net/news/icc-arr...

New mapping of Israeli attacks on Beirut. The mapping done by Beirut Urban Lab shows that Beirut's southern suburbs, Dahiya, have been the target of 186 Israeli announced strikes, demolishing at least 262 buildings between 27 September and 17 November 2024. beiruturbanlab.com/en/Details/2...

Good article examining the Lebanese political affiliations of Trump's father-in-law Massad Boulous. Seems to have no real allegiance and to have tactically migrated between factions, but notable that he does not rly seem to be close to the pro-US camp (the Lebanese Forces). tcf.org/content/comm...

Funny how in the US "isolationism" never entails lifting sanctions or closing military bases, it only means defunding the UN.

Looking forward to reading this

Sounds about right. Obvious at this point that the Democrats would rather lose an election than cede any power to their left flank. All that matters is that they are able to keep financially reproducing themselves, even as an eternal minority party. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/t...

Why has nobody made a movie about the Fourth Crusade? The Crusaders set out to reconquer Jerusalem but then, after a series of side-quests and broken promises, end up sacking (Byzantine) Constantinople instead. A comedy that writes itself.

The bar is now so low that if Hochstein gets a ceasefire agreement this week for Lebanon then the Biden admin will surely celebrate this as some major diplomatic achievement and redemption of their ME policy, as if their policy isn't what led to the destruction of Lebanon in the first place.