Weekend reads
Content warning: Gloom.
Everything is terrible. OK, the Bay Area weather right now is kind of perfect, but everything else is bad. And when I’m miserable, I like to share.
Here’s some weekend reading that really pours on the pessimism. (I’ll give you a tiny break at the very end.)
First up: Israel and Gaza, a subject I’m grieving, and wrestling with, not only because I’m a Jew and a sentient being but also because I lived, studied, and worked in Israel for more than two years. My father was born in Israel when it was part of the British empire; my grandmother was born there when it was part of the Ottoman empire. How much longer, I wonder, will imperial Israel survive? A few perspectives:
Israel’s Calamity—and After. “The Israeli leadership believed it didn’t need to resolve the conflict with Palestinians in Gaza so much as ameliorate living conditions with occasional modest economic incentives. Its strategy was essentially to try to render the Palestinians invisible. After the Hamas attack, a Haaretz editorial described it as the consequence of a foreign policy that was keyed to “annexation and dispossession” and that “ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.” (David Remnick, The New Yorker)
The War Inside. “The only thing I know for certain is that many more people will die in the coming days. Our lives here in America can and will go on, while Israel and Palestine burn. And the definition of what it means to exist as a Jew in this world may have changed forever.” (
, The Handbasket —worth a subscription)The Israeli Army Wasn’t Ready for This. “The intelligence failure—which you can be sure Israelis will carefully review—does not surprise me. Few Americans fully appreciate the trauma that the Second Intifada, from 2000 to 2005, left behind. Israelis built walls, both physical and mental, between themselves and their Arab neighbors. I remember asking multiple Israelis in Jerusalem for directions to Ramallah, a Palestinian city roughly 12 miles away, in 2009. None of them had any idea how to get there.” (Andrew Exum, The Atlantic gift link. Exum is a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy.)
In Gaza and Israel, Side with the Child over the Gun. “So how do we confront this violent ideology? For one thing, we can recognize that when Israeli Jews are killed in their homes and it is celebrated by people who claim to be anti-racists and anti-fascists, that is experienced as antisemitism by a great many Jews. And antisemitism (besides being hateful) is the rocket fuel of militant Zionism.” (Naomi Klein, The Guardian)
And finally: I saw the new documentary Israelism in August at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It’s a sobering look at how young American Jews are taught to hate Palestinians and uncritically admire Israeli militarism. A couple of those young Americans decide to look deeper. The film is currently being screened on college campuses throughout North America; find the schedule here.
Next, let’s mourn the loss of Twitter and other formerly good(ish) internet things.
So Long, Twitter—I’m Outta There. “The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World is not surprised by the enshittification of X given Elon Musk’s intellectual predilections and Linda Yaccarino’s managerial incompetence. The scope of it has gotten way worse, however, to the point where I need to reduce my already limited engagement with the Birdsite That Was..” (
—also worth a subscription. Drezner is a professor of international policy at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.)Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore. “Remember having fun online? It meant stumbling onto a Web site you’d never imagined existed, receiving a meme you hadn’t already seen regurgitated a dozen times, and maybe even playing a little video game in your browser. These experiences don’t seem as readily available now as they were a decade ago. In large part, this is because a handful of giant social networks have taken over the open space of the Internet, centralizing and homogenizing our experiences through their own opaque and shifting content-sorting systems.” (Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker)
Feeling blue yet? How about some retail therapy? Nope: Clothing is bad now, too.
Your Sweaters Are Garbage. “As the sheer quantity of clothing available to the average American has grown over the past few decades, everything feels at least a little bit flimsier than it used to. Seams unravel after a couple of washes, garments lose their shape more quickly, shoes have to be replaced more frequently.” (Amanda Mull, The Atlantic gift link)
But wait—is there an antidote? Maybe, and it’s the glimmer of hope and dash of levity I promised at the top.
We Could Be Wearing Garments Made of Human Hair. No, really. “Once you start digging, the idea of wearing human hair is everywhere.” Check out the photos of clothing made from human hair! (
, Articles of Interest—a Substack newsletter and a podcast, both completely wonderful even when everything else is terrible.)