I really think Hesgeth believed Iran would get knocked out in the first round and there was no need to plan for everything that was obviously going to happen next, Israel knew better but kept that to itself, Trump was incurious and easy to persuade, and nobody in administration dared push back.
Seems grotesque to pitch a futuristic AI-generated promise focused on glitzy real estate while you are unwilling or unable to implement a real end to Gaza's humanitarian crisis or even end daily Israeli attacks that, just the day before, killed 11 people, including 2 children and 3 journalists.
…It allows some of those carrying it out to ignore the overarching intent, even as leaders like Netanyahu and Haliva articulate it openly. To invert the old saying: In focusing on each tree, they miss the forest of genocide.”
“The mission-driven mentality fragments the destruction of a people and place into thousands of isolated acts, each justified on its own terms, none acknowledged as part of a larger campaign of genocide…
The international community needs to ensure that “transitional” governance arrangements in Gaza are just that, transitional.
The last time transitional measures were put in place (Oslo), they became permanent due to Israel’s deliberate obstruction of any pathway towards Palestinian statehood.
“[T]he Biden administration failed to impose serious costs on the Israeli government for allowing & even encouraging a widening campaign of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. In this vacuum, Israel appropriated more West Bank land in 2024 than in the previous 20 years combined.”
“The story of poverty reversal in Bangladesh is a complex one, but it has one simple moral. Growth that leaves people behind is fundamentally fragile; stability that breeds injustice is ultimately wobbly, and data that does not reflect reality is ultimately unsustainable.”
“[T]he U.S.-Israeli plan excludes [the PLO] from any governance role in Gaza until it has implemented certain ill-defined reforms [including] ones referenced in Trump’s 2020 peace plan, which requires the PA to terminate pursuit of legal accountability against Israelis for war crimes.”
From Assad to today’s transitional government — how have Syria’s religious minorities interacted with the state?
Read more here:
🔗: theoldquarter.substack.com/p/syrias-fra...
From Assad to today’s transitional government — how have Syria’s religious minorities interacted with the state?
Read more here:
🔗: theoldquarter.substack.com/p/syrias-fra...
“Diplomatically, recognition inscribes the Palestinian narrative onto the international political map and restores the principle that Israeli occupation is not a permanent destiny and that the Palestinian people hold an inalienable right to self-determination.”
New Substack post on The Old Quarter.
In this piece, I examine the relationships between Syria’s religious minority communities and the state, during both the Assad era and under the transitional government.
open.substack.com/pub/theoldqu...
New Substack post on The Old Quarter.
In this piece, I examine the relationships between Syria’s religious minority communities and the state, during both the Assad era and under the transitional government.
open.substack.com/pub/theoldqu...
“It is reasonable and just to reject any “security consensus” in any country that rests on apartheid and leads to genocide. Indeed, by deferring to Israel’s bipartisan commitment to crushing Palestinian rights, Western states have helped create the crisis we face today.”
“[I]n Bangladesh, despite the uprising led by students, Gen Z is often portrayed as leaning towards the far right..this image is misleading. A dysfunctional political culture and limited civic education pushed many young people towards reactionary views.”
www.thedailystar.net/opinion/view...
What next for Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East?
My Substack article:
theoldquarter.substack.com/p/the-axis-o...
Civilians made up 15 of every 16 people killed by Israel in Gaza since March, data suggests. That's 94%! Internal data from the IDF indicated a civilian death toll of 83% between the outbreak of war in October 2023 and May of this year.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
“Israel’s Gaza disengagement was never about pursuing a two-state solution..It was an exercise in conflict management that sought to indefinitely freeze the conflict & torpedo pressure to negotiate with the Palestinians.The disengagement’s flaw wasn’t that it failed, but that it was too successful.”
The failed effort by a handful of London Awami Leaguers to disrupt a talk @soasuni.bsky.social last Friday triggered further thoughts about the poor state of Bangladesh Studies more generally. 🇧🇩
en.prothomalo.com/opinion/w6ke...
“Doha hosted Hamas at [the US’] urging, funded it with Israeli facilitation & mediated talks with everyone’s approval. For Qatar, these moves were meant to amount to an implicit security guarantee. Cultivating the US & hosting its biggest base in the [region] was supposed to deliver an explicit one”
“We will likely see more investment in air defence, a greater push for a GCC security umbrella, and a diversification of strategic partnerships beyond the United States.”
- Dr Andreas Krieg, King’s College London
The strike "will also put further strain on US-Qatar relations, which is exactly what Israel wants to do", said
@andreaskrieg.bsky.social
"It wants to drive a wedge between Qatar and the United States."
www.france24.com/en/live-news...
History will remember that this picture of a warm embrace between the leaders of the UK and Israel was taken two years into Israel's genocide.
Short photo essay on #Petra, #Jordan.
This is part of the newly-launched Passages series on The Old Quarter, on Substack here👇
theoldquarter.substack.com/p/petra-the-...
“One of the UAE’s key demands when negotiating the Abraham Accords was that…Netanyahu rescind his threat to annex the West Bank. Israeli officials have revived the threat…in response to several European countries’ recent pledges to recognise Palestine.”
Will the UAE withdraw from the Accords then?
What next for Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East?
My Substack article:
theoldquarter.substack.com/p/the-axis-o...
UN’s emergency relief co-ordinator, Tom Fletcher:
“[F]ood stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land…It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war.”
The Israeli public opinion poll data in this Foreign Affairs article is truly horrifying.
“[T]he fact is that when it comes to Israeli intransigence regarding Palestinians, [Netanyahu] alone is not the problem. The problem is Israeli society, politics, & culture as it has evolved over decades.”
“Israel is determined to deny [Iran] time to replenish its missile arsenal,restore air defenses,or deploy improved systems.That logic is central to Israel’s strategy:strike preventively & repeatedly to prohibit adversaries from developing capabilities that could challenge Israeli military dominance”