No Flags, No Slogans
The metaphors that attempt to render Palestine complicated obscure the simple brutality of Zionist colonization.
Palestine is not a minefield. Palestine is not complicated. Palestine is not a morass. Palestine is not tricky. Palestine is not a quagmire.
Palestine is not almost impossible to navigate.
Continue reading “Palestine is not a Quagmire”A generation of compradors has learned that Palestinians are valuable raw material for careerism.
A few days ago, I finally managed to synthesize an observation that has bothered me for decades: “Being an asshole to Palestinians is an excellent way to launch a media career in the United States.” From Martin Peretz to Bari Weiss, the strategy has rarely failed writers seeking bylines in prestigious newspapers.
Continue reading “The Muslim Zionists”On the importance of mythology to presidential campaigns
With the Democratic primary in full swing, the outlines of public debate are pretty much entrenched. Common wisdom on the left says that all of the candidates are bad on Palestine except for Bernie Sanders. Despite some problems, pundits declare, Sanders is still the best. Is the statement true, though, or is it a convenient truism?
Continue reading “How Bernie Sanders Became a Fighter for Palestine”What must a radical candidate do to get some love?
For various reasons, I avoid political campaigns. I just can’t get excited about them, in part because electoralism has so thoroughly colonized the US left. In a healthy intellectual culture, its predominance would be automatic cause for skepticism. Unfortunately, these days sickness feels compulsory. Rejecting electoralism invites disdain and derision.
Amid the bickering on the US left about the utility of voting, a compromise usually emerges: voting is merely a form of damage control that one performs every few years before returning to the serious stuff. But the rhetoric of voting supersedes the physical act. In turn, elections have become a nonstop preoccupation. The off-season no longer exists.
Continue reading “Andom Ghebreghiorgis and the Limits of Left Electoralism”Gabbard’s views on Palestine appear to have evolved, but that doesn’t mean they’re good.
People in the Palestine solidarity community have been debating the merits of Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign. Gabbard has earned the sympathy, or at least the interest, of some activists, while others (including myself) dismiss her as a Zionist.
Gabbard’s supporters point to occasional tweets and comments critical of Israel (most of them actually critical of Netanyahu). The best of them came during the Great March of Return in 2018: “Israel needs to stop using live ammunition in its response to unarmed protesters in Gaza. It has resulted in over 50 dead and thousands seriously wounded.”
Continue reading “Tulsi Gabbard and the Art of the Half-Sentence”A rant about the stupidity of electoral discourse in the United States.
I’ve long deployed what I consider a simple viewpoint about US elections (congressional and presidential): if leftists choose to participate, they should do it without making certain people disposable. In other words, don’t commit to movements that require the downtrodden anywhere in the world to remain in states of hardship or dispossession. US electoralism, by design, assiduously elides the needs and aspirations of communities whose freedom would disrupt imperial and colonial accumulation. Few groups are more familiar with this culture of disposability than Palestinians.
Continue reading “Find Me Someone Better”
