I spent some time today crafting a Q&A on "two fundamental flaws in your thinking" about Hamas, Palestine, and Israel. It draws on my comment to the De Luca/Cavazuti piece on Hamas, below. There is, of course, zero chance that Biden's going to tell Netanyahu: hey, maybe Hamas has a point after all, so let's talk about it a bit, before we get too carried away with this war thing.
Like I said, zero chance. Which leads me to ask an even deeper question: what's the use of having all this wealth and power if it just locks you into doing senseless things that are stupid and cruel? I can see where Hamas might use their power to do something so self-destructive, because they don't have enough power to get noticed otherwise. But Israel and the United States have so much wealth and power, they could actually put it to some good, and people would love it. Instead, they just blow things up and kill and starve people. And maybe they wonder a bit why so many people despise them, but not so much really, because no one else has the power (or the death wish) to stop them.
Israel: The "pause" for exchanging prisoners (aka hostages) ended on Friday, with Israel immediately resuming its bombardment of Gaza. The number of Palestinians confirmed killed and the number of displaced passed the total levels of the 1948-50 war (aka Nakba) -- although the displaced are still locked in besieged Gaza, instead of scattered in the exile Israel is working so hard to promote. The euphemism "ethnic cleansing" has become a common term for the forced expulsion of people from their homes (in Gaza, many of which were already refugee encampments, set up as temporary during the 1948-50 war). But the more formal legal term is "genocide," which is still the most accurate description of the war Israel is waging, and of the professed intentions behind this war. The whole world should find this alarming, especially those in the democracies that have long given Israel their support, even in its project to turn a haven for oppressed Jews into a fortress of ethnic supremacy.
Mondoweiss:
[11-27] Day 52: Palestinians in Gaza brace for resumption of Israeli attacks as truce reaches final day.
[11-28] Day 53: Hostage exchange continues, Israel, Hamas agree to extend truce.
[11-29] Day 54: Two children killed by Israeli forces in Jenin amid discussions of truce extension.
[11-30] Day 55: Palestinians in Gaza are once again counting down the hours until the bombing restarts.
[12-02] Day 57: 'Not an inch' of Gaza is spared by Israeli strikes after truce ends.
[12-03] Day 58: Israel kills 700 in Gaza over 24 hours as Palestinians get forced further south toward Egypt.
Yuval Abraham: [11-30] 'A mass assassination factory': Inside Israel's calculated bombing of Gaza: "Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an artificial intelligence system have enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza."
Aja Arnold: [12-01] The case against the Merrimack Three is an attack on the Palestine movement as a whole: "Three activists are facing possible decades in prison for taking non-violent direct action against an Israeli military company."
Avishay Artsy:
[12-01] How Israel fractured the left and united the right. Transcript of a podcast interview with Washington reporter David Weigel, which means it's about Washington politics, not the real left. Democrats aren't fractured so much as stunned: torn between the blind love and loyalty they swore to AIPAC and the horrifying reality on their screens and in their feeds, something they simply lack the tools to process.
[12-03] Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, briefly explained.
Jaclynn Ashly: [11-28] The grim reality of Israel's corpse politics: "Israel is the only country in the world that has a policy of confiscating and withholding human remains, which is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law."
James Bamford: [11-17] Israel's war on American student activists: "For years the Israel on Campus Coalition -- a little known organization with links to Israeli intelligence -- has used student informants to spy on pro-Palestinian campus groups."
Ross Barken: [11-30] The pro-Palestinian left is booming: Not a term I'm happy with. Pro-Palestinian can mean several different things, and not all (or even most) of them align with the left. You can be on the left and not give a toss about any nationalist movement. On the other hand, some people on the left do identify as pro-Palestinian, primarily because they believe in solidarity with the oppressed, and hardly anyone is more oppressed than Palestinians these days. But no one on the left wants to pick sides in a war. We want peace, and with peace, equality and freedom. Describing that as pro-Palestinian, or even as anti-Israeli, really misses the point.
Barkan continues his effort to muddy the waters with this: "The left is split over what it wants to see in the region: One or two states." That's a false dichotomy, imposed by powers with ulterior motives. What we on the left want is equal rights for all people in whatever nations exist. As for how this relates for forming viable electoral coalitions in America, it probably doesn't. Here, too, the left faces the problem of achieving more equitable rights.
Daniel Brumberg: [11-30] How Hamas has made life harder for Iran and its allies: "The October 7 assault has shaken the assumptions of every player in the Middle East, including Tehran."
Jessica Buxbaum: [11-30] 'Erase Gaza': How genocidal rhetoric became normalised in Israel.
Samantha Chery: [12-02] Julianna Margulies apologizes for saying Black, LGBTQ people hate Jews: That's nice, and no doubt sincere, but it does rather prove the point, which is that when atrocities occur, not everyone has the presence of mind, let alone the tact, to say precisely and clearly the right things first. Actually, that's quite rare, which is why one should be generous enough not to try to hang people for their rash, out-of-context quotes. There is another example in this piece, a quote from Susan Sarandon that is bad on several counts, for which she, too, has sincerely apologized. I could point out a few differences, like that consequences (at least in America) seem to be more more severe for insensitivity and disrespect to Jews than to Palestinians, and that many of the people (not just Jews, and not only Jews) who are so quick to remind us of the evil of antisemitism have shown similar concern for Palestinians, despite (how shall we put this?) ample evidence on numerous occasions in the 75 years since the Nakba.
Thalif Deen: [11-27] How the US made Israel's military what it is today: "Washington has provided over $130 billion in unrestricted aid and weapons to Tel Aviv, more than any other country, ever."
Dan De Luca/Lisa Cavazuti: [10-25] Gaza is plagued by poverty, but Hamas has no shortage of cash. Where does it come from? "Hamas has an investment portfolio of real estate and other assets worth $500 million, say experts, and an annual military budget of as much as $350 million." I found this piece when I was looking for some backup reference for a reader's assertion that "at its core Hamas is essentially a criminal enterprise which made nearly a billion in the last few years. Pornography, drugs and human trafficking." (Also: "Hamas merely acts as a beard for Iran.") This piece provides some support for those assertions, but even here the headline gets trimmed down pretty fast: "Estimates for its annual military budget range from $100 million to $350 million, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources." (Article says $100 million, of which $40 million "goes to terror group's tunnel digging work." The "Palestinian sources do not include Hamas.)
We're supposed to react to such numbers by thinking they're huge (and wasteful, and a shade demonic), but are they really? Israel's military budget is more than $23 billion (and they're spending at a much higher rate right now -- the $14 billion Biden requested gives you an idea how much), so even by these lavish estimates, Hamas is spending at most 1% as much as Israel, probably less than 0.5%. Moreover, while labor costs may be cheap in Gaza, the cost of goods must be very dear, as they have to be purchased illicitly, then smuggled into Gaza.
As for all that cash, the article points out that Qatar is a major source, but all Qatari cash passes through Israel, with its safeguards against redirection to Hamas. The US and others have been sanctioning Hamas for years. While that never seems to work 100%, it does strain credibility to think that Hamas leaders are sitting on huge cash reserves in foreign resorts. And if they were living so high on the hog, why did they blow it all up by launching that Oct. 7 revolt?
Connor Echols: [11-30] The myth of the 'surgical' war: Interview with Sam Moyn "about what international law really means."
Rabea Eghbariah: [11-21] The Harvard Law Review refused to run this piece about genocide in Gaza.
Thomas L Friedman: [12-01] I'm not going to try to argue the points, but this is basically similar to the Gaza separation proposal I've been pushing since the war started (and, effectively, for many years prior). Not exactly the same: it's meaner-spirited, and more petulant (renewing the post-Munich assassination teams). But he's got a good lede, quoting Confucius: "'Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves' -- one for your enemy and one for yourself." Israel has no solution for Gaza, nor even any help. Just ever-renewing problems, not least for itself.
Melvin Goodman: [12-01] Mainstream media largely ignore Israel's duplicity and deceit: Examples go all the way back to 1948.
Bassam Haddad/Sinan Antoon: [11-28] This open license must be revoked: The "license" refers to the charge of "antisemitism against any and all critics of Israel." Who granted it, and how it can be "revoked" aren't clear. But its use to defend Israel is at best confusing. (So, the people against genocide are the antisemites? And the people who support Israel's militarized apartheid state aren't antisemites? Even the ones who sound so much like antisemites of yore?) And in the long run, it's likely to backfire, either by making antisemitism seem like not such a bad thing, or turning it into a badge of honor.
Tareq S Hajjaj: [11-30] 'They shot her son in her arms and forced her to throw his body': testimonies from the death march on Salah al-Din Street.
Imad Abu Hawash: [11-22] 'If you don't leave, we'll kill you': Hundreds flee Israeli settler violence in Hebron area.
Noah Hurowitz: [11-27] Not in Their Name: "Jewish Voice for Peace doesn't just oppose the war; it challenges the link between Jewish identity and support for Israel."
Ellen Ioanes: [12-02] Israel moves into southern Gaza after a week-long truce -- and its goals are murkier than ever.
Hebh Jamal: [11-30] How Israel's war is deliberately making Gaza uninhabitable.
Nadim Khoury: [11-30] Israel-Palestine war: Why the West can't conceive of a Palestinian right to security.
Menachem Klein: [11-28] Israeli arrogance thwarted a Palestinian political path. October 7 revealed the cost: Explains a 2021 Fatah-Hamas agreement, which "offered a different political horizon," but was quashed by Israel and the US, refusing to allow Palestinians to elect new leaders to represent them in talks with Israel.
Ken Klippenstein: Joe Biden moves to lift nearly every restriction on Israel's access to U.S. weapons stockpile.
Dan Lamothe/Alex Horton: [11-27] Thousands leave behind American lives to join Israel's war in Gaza.
Zach Levitt/Amy Schoenfeld Walker: [12-02] What the scale of displacement in Gaza looks like.
Eric Levitz: [11-28] In Bibi's Israel, Musk's brand of antisemitism is kosher. This article touches on a number of important points -- more than I feel up to unpacking at the moment: the decline and resurfacing (largely after Trump encouraged the crypto-nazis to pop up) of antisemitism in America; the historic pact of convenience between antisemites and Zionists, who before Israel were opposed by left and orthodox Jews, and ignored by the masses who preferred emigration to America; the hardening of Israel as a racist colonial project, with alliances to right-wing political movements around the world; the propaganda war that seeks to discredit opposition to Israel's apartheid and emergent genocide by branding critics as antisemitic. But for now, here's a paragraph to mull over:
There is no inherent conflict between the interests of Jews in Israel and those who live everywhere else. Yet there is an inescapable contradiction between the values of Israel's far-right government and those that best serve the Jewish diaspora. As minority populations, diasporic Jewish communities have an interest in pluralism, egalitarianism, and inviolable human-rights protections. By contrast, as the vanguard of a Jewish supremacist project that aims to either ethnically cleanse Palestinians in the occupied territories or subject them to unending apartheid, the current Israeli government is hostile to all of those values. Therefore, its search for allies abroad inevitably leads it into the arms of parties and political figures who are bad for the (diaspora) Jews.
Gideon Levy:
[11-12] Children are children, whether in Israel or Gaza. They never deserve to die: "In the fascist reality now sweeping Israel, even such a statement is considered treasonous and an expression of Israel hatred."
[11-29] "There is nothing cheaper than Palestinians' lives in Israel".
Charisma Madarang: [11-30] Israel knew Hamas' attack plan a year before Oct. 7: Report. Draws on Ronen Bergman/Adam Goldman: [11-30] Israel knew Hamas's attack plan more than a year ago: "Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignored specific warnings."
Joseph Massad: [11-30] Why Israeli claims have no credibility outside of the West.
Nicole Narea: [11-22] The many, many times Israelis and Palestinians tried to make peace -- and failed. Useful checklist, but the reason all these "tries" fell through is almost always Israel refused or reneged. For another piece on the same subject, see Jon Schwarz: [11-28] All the times Israel has rejected peace with Palestinians.
Jonathan Ofir: [12-01] Israel's Gaza onslaught is the next stage of the Dahiya Doctrine: "The Dahiya Doctrine was coined by current Minister Gadi Eisenkot when he was Chief of Northern Command in 2008. The military doctrine, named after the Dahiya quarter of Beirut that Israel targeted and leveled during the 2006 war, outlines 'what will happen' to any enemy that dares attack Israel." In other words, it calls for massive collective punishment of any neighborhood where anyone defies Israel.
Yumna Patel: [11-30] Israel has a long history of taking Palestinian children captive.
Mitchell Plitnick: [12-02] Biden works to create plausible deniability as he backs Israel's assault on Gaza. With their leaked notes advising caution and prudence, it's almost as if they're seeding their defense brief for eventual trial in The Hague.
Maria Rashed: [11-29] UK protests expose wide gulf between gov't and public on Palestine.
Dan Sabbagh: [12-01] Israel's military strategy threatens to make a desperate situation utterly dire.
Jeremy Scahill: Israel's insidious narrative about Palestinian prisoners.
Areeba Shah: [11-24] "Powerful influence of wealthy lobbyists": Right-wing group pressures lawmakers on pro-Israel bills: "ALEC, the group behind a wave of bills to crack down on Israel boycotts, urges states to unconditionally back war."
Richard Silverstein:
[11-30] Language, social media, and the Gaza information war: "Mainstream media no longer dominate battle for hearts and minds in Gaza war."
[11-30] IDF efforts to eliminate Hamas have failed: Much ado about body counts.
[12-01] Israeli claims of Hamas sexual assaults lay its credulity on the line. I usually find Silverstein to be pretty credible in his detailed pieces about how Israel operates, but will note here that Eric Levitz is now saying "there is no excuse for denial now," citing this article. While I'm sure any rapes were horrific, as indeed was the mere appearance of armed Palestinian intruders in any Israeli home, this strikes me as a small matter in the broad scheme of things. It is, however, the sort of detail that propagandists love to pounce on.
[PS: In a later tweet, Levitz backs down a bit, admitting the article he cites is a bit fishy. In the meantime, I was reading the part in Viet Tanh Nguyen's Nothing Ever Dies where he talks about the inevitability of rape in war, in much the same terms Levitz uses. As a general rule, sure, but do the rapes really start on the first day of a war (which for Hamas was the only day out of their cage, where they had potential victims, at a time when their position was so precarious that most were bound to die)? My impression is that war rapes mostly happen after the war has ground down, in secure but still alien territory, with the complicity of your fellow troops.]
[PPS: Mondoweiss also has a piece debunking the rape reports.]
[12-01] Netanyahu plan to "thin out" Gaza population to "bare minimum": "Israel claims it is not ethnic cleansing, but a humanitarian gesture."
[12-03] Israeli MKs, messianic evangelicals lobby Congress for ethnic cleansing.
Margaret Sullivan: [11-28] The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth: "At least 53 journalists have been killed since 7 October, the deadliest figure in the 30 years of keeping these dire statistics."
Philip Weiss: [11-29] Biden became 'Genocide Joe' thanks to the Israel lobby.
Sammy Westfall/Helier Cheung: [11-30] Here are the hostages released by Hamas and those remaining in Gaza.
Jason Willick: [12-01] What Chuck Schumer gets wrong about antisemitism on the left: This piece has been bugging me, and it's probably not worth the trouble trying to figure out why. Obvious first point is that anyone who talks about antisemitism in the left doesn't know the most basic definitions. If you're on the left, you believe that all people deserve the same rights and respect, and there's no reconciling that belief with discrimination on race, ethnic group, religion, creed, sex, or any other arbitrary division. But also, and this is the part that right can't wrap their minds around, you also don't believe that people who have been oppressed should have the right to oppress others.
Schumer and Willick are slightly at odds here, but Willick is reluctant to attack such a reliable mouthpiece for Israeli interests. His own views are more clear from his recent columns:
The latter is most relevant here, as it confuses the left with the Democratic Party, echoing a common (mostly from centrist elites) complaint about intersectional coalition building. Also note a better critique of Schumer's speech:
Dave Zirin: [11-29] Chuck Schumer is antisemitism's great enabler. In his speech, Schumer refers to Zirin's previous article: [11-15] The March for Israel was a hate rally: "What kind of gathering against antisemitism invites antisemites?"
Trump, and other Republicans:
Zack Beauchamp: [11-29] Nikki Haley's "rise" and the Republican flight from reality: The Koch political arm, Americans for Prosperity Action, endorsed Haley. Given the current polls, Beauchamp thinks this utter folly. But there is still a non-trivial chance that Trump's candidacy could simply implode, leading to a desperate search for any kind of replacement. The current Republican field screams "none of the above" -- the obvious contenders from 2016 chose to sit this one out, leaving it to a few perishables and extreme longshots. But of the field, Haley is the one who's managed to get serious press support, and without compromising her stake on evil. So I'm not sure this is such a bad bet (except for America, of course). Speaking of Haley, here's some of the latest:
Jonathan Chait: [12-02] Nikki Haley's rocket ride to second place.
Paul Krugman: [11-27] Nikki Haley is coming for your retirement.
Harold Meyerson: [11-30] Nikki wins the Wall Street primary: "Unlike Trump, Haley's not crazy, merely far (far!) right." After recounting Haley's anti-union militancy, Meyerson notes: "South Carolina is one of the six states that has never enacted a minimum-wage law, and boasts the lowest rate of unionization (1.7 percent) of any state, in keeping with its history as the staunchest defender of slavery in antebellum America."
Catherine Rampell: [12-01] Supposed 'moderates' like Nikki Haley would blow up the government, too. As Steve M. explains, "This is why the Koch network endorsed Haley."
Kyle Cheney/Josh Gerstein: [12-01] Trump may be sued over Jan. 6 incitement claims, appeals court panel rules.
Chauncey DeVega: [12-01] The violence is Trump's goal: "It is both the means as well as the goal of Trump's fascist political project."
Hailey Fuchs/Heidi Przybyla: [11-28] Leonard Leo firm received $21M from Leo-linked group.
Margaret Hartmann:
[11-28] Melania Trump adds awkward touch to Rosalyn Carter funeral. What's awkward is the whole "presidential wives club" concept. And while it's easy to separate Melania as the odd duck out, isn't there a deeper divide between Democrats and Republicans: the Democratic wives feel more like partners (Clinton more in the spotlight, Carter less, but every bit as solid), whereas the Republicans have more constrained, specialist roles -- a feminist critic could have a field day deconstructing all that.
[11-30] Gag order can't derail Trump's tirade about judge's wife.
Robert Kagan: [11-30] A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. Long, serious piece, but yes, that Robert Kagan, so just noted in passing, without the scrutiny to root out its rotten core. Seriously, warmongers like Kagan make Trump look not so bad (but then he hires ones like McMaster, Pompeo, and Bolton, and screws up even worse).
Ed Kilgore:
[11-28] Iowa kingmaker Vander Plaats thinks state will 'rise up' against Trump: Having picked Republican caucus winners in 2008, 2012, and 2016, he's coming out for DeSantis now.
[12-02] Trump plans to make civil service a MAGA spoils system.
Paul Krugman: [11-30] Donald Trump still wants to kill Obamacare. Why? Probably just because people still call it Obamacare. He could just pass the same law again, maybe with a couple extra loopholes for graft, and call it Trumpcare, and he'd be peachy keen. (That's basically what happened when NAFTA became USMCA.) Also:
Catherine Rampell: [11-28] Efforts to kill Obamacare made it popular. Trump says he'll try again.
Heather Digby Parton: [12-01] Newsom humiliates DeSantis on Fox News. Also:
Lloyd Green: [12-01] His debate with Gavin Newsom showed Ron DeSantis will never be president.
Ellie Qujinlan Houghtaling: All the things that went wrong for Ron DeSantis in his latest debate failure.
Amanda Marcotte: [11-30] Students for Trump founder said guns made "women equal" -- before allegedly pistol-whipping a woman: "Ryan Fournier repeatedly said MAGA are women's true protectors -- he's under arrest for hitting his girlfriend."
Donald P Moynihan: [11-27] Trump has a master plan for destroying the 'deep state': I.e., the "administrative state," the professional civil servants, who work to serve the public, according to the laws they are sworn to uphold, regardless of the political interests of the president.
Timothy Noah: The GOP showed again how anti-worker it really is.
Christian Paz: [12-01] Can the party of Trump really become a multiracial coalition? Patrick Ruffini is pushing that line, especially in his book, Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP.
Beth Reinhard/Manuel Roig-Franzia/Clara Ence Morse: [12-02] Trump pardoned them. Now they're helping him return to power.
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Ryan Cosrtello: [12-01]
Andrew Prokop: [11-27] Is Biden doomed in 2024? 3 theories about the president's bad polls. None very good, but they cover the range, and reveal the limits, of conventional wisdom.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Gabrielle Gurley: [11-30] Abortion confusion in Texas: "State courts must now decide how to handle life-threatening pregnancy issues that state attorneys, lawmakers, and medical officials refuse to clear up."
Ian Millhiser:
Cristian Farias: [12-02] The Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor left behind is dead, too: "Her successors abandoned the principles of pragmatism and compromise she represented." She just died, at 93. Just think: if she hadn't resigned, we wouldn't have gotten Samuel Alito, and Biden would be able to appoint her successor. But she was a Republican partisan, a Reagan appointee, who proved her bona fides in throwing the 2000 election to GW Bush. Our friend Liz Fink was always a shrewd judge of Supreme Court justices -- she was the first I knew who suggested that David Souter might not turn out to be so bad -- had this take on O'Connor: that while she would allow states to hassle women seeking abortions, she would never rule against that right of well-to-do white women, like herself. She never did, but she did pave the way for her Party to take away your rights.
Stephen I Vladeck: [11-28] The Fifth Circuit is making the Supreme Court look reasonable.
Climate and environment:
COP 28 Climate Summit: Updates on the global warming talks.
More on COP 28:Elizabeth Kolbert: [11-25] The road to Dubai: "The latest round of international climate negotiations is being held in a petrostate. What could go wrong?"
Anatol Lieven: [12-01] COP28: Will there be an honest stocktaking on climate?
George Monbiot: [11-29] Here's a question Cop28 won't address: why are billionaires blocking action to save the planet?
Kevin Crowe/Brady Dennis: [11-30] Extreme weather helped fuel surge in malaria cases last year.
Scott Dance: [11-30] This year will be Earth's hottest in human history, report confirms.
William B Davis/Judson Jones: [12-02] 2023 hurricane season ends, marked by storms that 'really rapidly intensified'. Somehow, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean got spared (aside from Idalia), despite record warm temperatures, with a lot of storms turning north far out in the Atlantic. But also there were a lot of storms in the eastern Pacific -- and, though not detailed there, in the western Pacific, and for that matter in the Indian Ocean.
Oliver Milman: [11-27] US oil and gass production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals: 12.9m barrels of crude oil. That's more than double since 2009, when Obama became president, after 8 years of declining production and soaring prices under GW Bush.
Economic matters:
Eric Levitz: [11-30] You don't want 2020 prices back: Why deflation is usually not a good thing, with one counterexample to make a point.
Emily Stewart: [11-28] Why Diet Coke got so expensive: "The economy, explained by Diet Coke, kind of."
Ukraine War:
Connor Echols: [12-01] Diplomacy Watch: New revelations shed light on early talks.
Jen Kirby: [11-30] There are now more land mines in Ukraine than almost anywhere else on the planet: "Ukraine is staring down a massive humanitarian challenge -- now and into the future."
Around the world:
Aparna Gopalan: [11-28] Israel's brutality is stoking the imagination of India's far right: "As the genocide in Gaza continues, India's Prime Minister Narenda Modi is taking notes." The mutual affinity of the world's foremost racist/ethnocrats is striking: "In the past four decades, Hindu nationalism has become the dominant political ideology in India, and the country's support for Zionism has risen in tandem."
Jeet Heer: [12-01] If Narenda Modi is running a global death squad, he'll be protected by the Kissinger doctrine: "Trying to murder American citizens on American soil is no big deal -- so long as the foreign policy elite likes you."
Phillips Payson O'Brien: [12-02] The U.S. keeps thinking it's a greater power than it is.
Hans Steketee: [12-01] The sensible Dutch take a sharp turn to the right: "Far-right anti-immigrant campaigner Geert Wilders emerged as the leader of the largest party in the new parliament."
Henry Kissinger: He died, a nice round 100 years old, elites sucking up to him to the very end. Which raises the question: who is the new worst person in the world? (Here's a reddit thread, which still needs some work -- although I'd keep Murdoch and Netanyahu for the short list, maybe Putin too. More fun is who Kissinger succeeded? If not his partner-in-crime, Nixon, I'd nominate Winston Churchill, who exceeded Kissinger not only in the amount of damage he caused, but also in the amount of praise -- if not necessarily money -- he collected along the way. One difference was that people kept forgetting Churchill's disasters, allowing him more chances, whereas Kissinger's crimes were studiously documented (as will be evident below), even though people in power never seemed to care.
Dylan Matthews: [11-30] What Henry Kissinger wrought. The bullet points (subheds):
Spencer Ackerman: [11-29] Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America's ruling class, finally dies.
John Bartlett/Uki Gońi/Julian Borger: [11-30] Latin America remembers Kissinger's 'profound moral wretchedness'.
Daniel Boguslaw: [11-30] Members of Israel's ruling Likud Party once planned to assassinate Henry Kissinger: This was in 1977, "according to a news report from the time." One should recall that in 1948 Lehi, led by future Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, assassinated UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte.
Greg Grandin:
[11-29] A people's obituary of Henry Kissinger: "For decades, Kissinger kept the great wheel of American militarism spinning ever forward."
Grandin previously (2015) wrote: Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman. He also wrote the introduction to a Jacobin book expected to ship later this month: The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger.
Jonathan Guyer: [12-01] The 4 final acts of Henry Kissinger: "Accountability never came, only more birthday cake." Many good lines here, like: "He said a lot of words and told anecdotes that in the moment riveted the room, but there was no great substance about how to solve perennial problems that would explode again in less than 48 hours."
Brian Karem: [12-01] My conversations with Henry Kissinger, a man I abhorred.
Charisma Madarang: [11-30] Media, conservatives team up to lionize war criminal Henry Kissinger.
Joseph Massad: [11-30] The murderous legacy of Henry Kissinger.
Tom McKenna: [11-30] Scathing obituaries of Henry Kissinger don't mince words about his bloody legacy.
Ben Rhodes: [11-30] Henry Kissinger, the hypocrite.
Jon Schwarz: On top of everything else, Henry Kissinger prevented peace in the Middle East.
Choire Sicha: [11-29] Henry Kissinger, the devil at the dinner party: "His long final act -- after Harvard and D.C. and Cambodia -- was spent at New York's more rarefied tables."
Norman Solomon: [11-30] Henry Kissinger was the definition of elite impunity.
Tatyana Tandanpolie: [11-30] "Murderous scumbag": Anthony Bourdain's brutal takedown of "war criminal" Henry Kissinger goes viral.
Nick Turse: [12-01] Ask brutalized Cambodians what they think of Kissinger.
Travis Waldron/George Zornick: [11-29] Henry Kissinger, America's most notorious war criminal, dies at 100: "The titan of American foreign policy was complicit in millions of deaths -- and never showed remorse for his decisions."
Responsible Statecraft: [12-01] Symposium: Peace or destruction -- what was Kissinger's impact?: "Wide range of experts and commentators weigh in on the conflicted legacy of an American statesman." George Beebe is one of the few to applaud Kissinger, in terms that Tom Blanton immediately punctures in the next entry:
The declassified legacy of Henry Kissinger undermines the triumphant narrative he labored so hard to build, even for his successes. The opening to China, for example, turns out to be Mao's idea with Nixon's receptiveness, initially dissed by Kissinger. His shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East did reduce violence but it took Anwar Sadat and then Jimmy Carter to make the peace that Kissinger failed to accomplish. The 1973 Vietnam settlement was actually available in 1969, but Kissinger mistakenly believed he could do better by going through Moscow or Beijing. Meanwhile, Kissinger's callousness about the human cost runs through all the documents.
Tim Alberta: [12-01] The bogus historians who teach evangelicals they live in a theocracy: "A new book on the Christian right reveals how a series of unscrupulous leaders turned politics in to a powerful and lucrative gospel." That would be Alberta's own book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.
Jeremy Barr: [11-30] MSNBC draws backlash for canceling Mehdi Hasan show. Also:
John Nichols: [12-01] American discourse needs more Mehdi Hasan, not less.
Ryan Cooper:
[11-30] The Cybertruck is the dumbest thing I've ever seen: "Elon Musk enters his Caligula era."
Chas Danner/Nia Prater: [12-01] George Santos has been expelled from Congress: Live updates. The House vote was 311-114: Democrats voted 206-2 (2 present) to expel; Republicans 112-105 to not expel. The measure required a two-thirds supermajority (282 votes). Five Republicans (including Kevin McCarthy) and three Democrats (including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) did not vote.
Li Zhou: [12-01] George Santos's messy expulsion vote, briefly explained.
Michelle Goldberg: [12-01] Farewell to George Santos, the perfect MAGA Republican.
Adam Serwer: [12-01] Expelling George Santos was a mistake.
Matt Stieb/Margaret Hartmann: [12-01] Here's every single lie told by George Santos: This article has been kicking around ever since shortly after the 2022 election, with many updates. I've never bothered reporting it, but now seems like the time.
Kara Voght/Ben Terris/Jesús Rodriguez: [12-01] The last days of George Santos, U.S. Congressman "Scenes from the final act of a Washington farce."
Silvia Foster-Frau/N Kirkpatrick/Arelia R Hernández: [11-16] Terror on Repeat: "A rare look at the devastation caused by AR-15 shootings."
Penelope Green: [11-30] Larry Fink, whose photographs were 'political, not polemical,' dies at 82. I noted Larry's death last week, and complained that the New York Times didn't have an obituary up. (When his sister, Elizabeth Fink, died a few years back, her obituary appeared, at least briefly, above that of Yogi Berra.) Here it is, complete with a nice selection of his photographs ("the chilly anomie of Manhattan's haute monde, the strangeness of Hollywood royalty and the lively warmth of rural America").
Jeet Heer: [11-26] Garry Wills and the real Kennedy curse: Unfortunately, this is a 1:43:30 podcast with no transcript, so I can't imagine myself slogging through it, but I want to at least note that my interest was piqued by "our shared love for Garry Wills's The Kennedy Imprisonment, a revelatory book about not just the Kennedy family but also the nature of 'great man politics.'" I've read a number of Wills's books, starting (long ago) with Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man, which at the time I saw as a brilliant dissection.
Anita Jain: [12-01] How Franklin Roosevelt tamed Wall Street: Review of Diana B Henriques: Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism. Over the course of American history, there have been few cases where presidential leadership actually meant something, but the most brilliant of all was Roosevelt's handling of the banking panic in the first weeks of his administration. He ordered a "banking holiday" to stop the withdrawals, and addressed the nation via radio, where he explained in authoritative detail how banking worked, why it was vulnerable to panics, and how they can be avoided with a little patience. When he reopened the banks, the panic had subsided, but he still moved quickly to pass a new law to make sure such panics wouldn't happen again (as they had regularly throughout American history). This law was the Carter-Glass Act, which worked brilliantly -- especially federal deposit insurance -- for 65 years, until Citibank got the Republican Congress and Clinton to repeal it, a mere ten years before the biggest banking crisis since 1933. This was the cornerstone of Roosevelt's famous "100 days," which remains the "gold standard" for what Democratic government can do with a large majority in Congress and business back on their heels. (And yes, one of the most important things they did was get rid of the gold standard, which had become a dead weight on the world economy.)
A good book to read on this is Adam Cohen: Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America. As someone who was born in 1950, I grew up with little sense of what Roosevelt accomplished, even though it was all around me. Democrats were way too modest. This contrasts starkly with the Republicans' systematic efforts to memorialize Lincoln and Reagan.
Sarah Jones: [11-29] The infidel turned Christian: "When Ayaan Hirsi Ali renounced Islam for atheism, her conversion made her a global star." Now, she's reinventing herself.
Ezra Klein: [12-03] The books that explain where we are in 2023. A noble undertaking, but a hard one for anyone to read enough to undertake. None here that I've read, but half or so I've reported on. Still, isn't it a bit strange that when he looks for a book on Israel, all he comes up with is Ari Shavit's 10-year-old My Promised Land? I did read a substantial extract from that book, where he describes in considerable detail the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from Lydda and Ramle -- we'd call that "ethnic cleansing" these days -- and rationalizes it as essential to the founding and glory of his beloved Israel.
I could complain that much more has been written on Israel/Palestine since then, but the book I still most recommend came out in 2004: Richard Ben Cramer's How Israel Lost: The Four Questions. The most enduring of those questions is why Israel keeps pushing the parameters of a peace settlement beyond what Palestinians are willing to accept. But he also has some insights as to why Palestinian leaders have proven so inept at negotiating with Israel.
More book lists/reviews:
The New Yorker: [11-29] The best books of 2023.
Keren Landman: [11-29] US life expectancy no longer catastrophic, now merely bad.
Clay Risen: [11-30] Pablo Guzmán, Puerto Rican activist turned TV newsman, dies at 73: A name I recognize from back in the 1970s, involved with a group called the Young Lords.
Nathan J Robinson: [11-28] Why you should primarily focus on your own country's crimes: "Why don't U.S. activists focus on the crimes of the Chinese government? Because we're responsible for what is done in our name, and what we can most affect." Well, also because echoing a moral critique by Americans in power is taken to ratify and promote hostile foreign policies that often only make the problems worse, and in any case are beyond what the US should be doing abroad. And also because, regardless of how pure your intentions are, you're not likely to be heard beyond the din of American saber-rattling. As for other countries that are allied with America (like Israel and Saudi Arabia), you have no business interfering with them, but you can certainly question why the US helps them oppress their own people.
Aja Romano: [11-17] The Crown increasingly becomes a fantastical apologetic for the royal family.
Jeffrey St Clair: [12-01] Roaming Charges: The Dr. Caligari of American Empire: Title refers to Kissinger, the opening subject here, with much more to follow.
Washington Monthly: [11-28] Remembering Charlie Peters: A useful compendium of articles and other tributes occasioned by the death of Washington Monthly's founder and long-time editor. I cited James Fallows: Why Charlile Peters matters last week. No need to list them all here, since that's what this article is for, but let me point out:
Robert Kuttner: [11-27] Charlie Peters and the odyssey of neoliberalism.
Clinton Williamson: [11-23] You have "the right to be lazy": "Paul Lafargue's anti-work manifesto is newly relevant in a time when the very idea of labor is changing." Lafargue (1842-1911) published his book in 1883.
Scattered tweets:
The irony of conflating anti-zionism with antisemitism is that in the beginning, zionism's most essential backers, the British government, supported zionism because they were actively antisemitic and wanted to make sure Jewish refugees from Russian pogroms didn't come to Britain
Eye for an eye is now twenty eyes for one eye. And ever trending up. Gotta stop. Hamas' taking of the first eye was horrific. How much more horror will Israel and the US now inflict in response? Gaza is being vaporized. For what?