A short reading list about Palestine

progressive israelis, student activism, and geopolitics

NMJC: we’re continuing to focus this newsletter (nominally about hanging out) on what is going on in Gaza and Israel right now. We were not expecting this turn in our focus, but right now it just doesn’t feel right to write about anything else. Here are some words from Randa on what she’s been reading this week.

RS:

I am getting my news from Al Jazeera. They just reported that phone signal and internet have been cut from Gaza. Access to the internet is the last thing they have. It’s the only way the world has been able to rally support. I am scared for what happens next.

Besides the news, I have spent the week reading conversations and analysis from researchers, analysts, authors, and professors. I am trying to understand why the U.S. is facilitating this, what the potential outcomes are, and how we can most effectively push for a real solution. As we continue to plead for a ceasefire, I want to share some writing and analysis that I found informative:

Substacker Peter Beinart facilitated a conversation between a Palestinian born in Gaza and an American Jew who has lived in Israel. I don’t fully agree with everything they say, but I personally haven’t read many progressive Israeli opinions so I thought it was worth sharing. I’m going to quote a couple passages below:

Leifer: If what the people whom I’ve criticized actually want is for Israeli Jews to leave – basically the Algeria solution – I don’t think this is viable or just. There are generations of Israeli Jews who have been born there. They also deserve the right to live there. If it’s just rhetoric, then I think it’s bridgeable. And I hope to do the work of bridging it.

Moor: I don’t believe in a Jewish state. I believe in a state that is composed of equals, whether they be secular or Jewish or Hindu, who cares. I believe in liberal democracy, which is a point of view at odds with the Muslim Brotherhood and segments of people in Hamas. I think that one of the things that gets lost here is that we’re pluralistic, like anybody else. We have divergent points of view. We have points of view which are informed heavily by our material reality, like anybody else.

Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi did an interview for The Drift. He touches on something I have personally wrestled with – the cost of American student activists in competition to be the most “revolutionary.” I think he makes a compelling case:

The other thing I would say to student activists is you have to understand what your political objectives are. If you believe that this is a settler colonial project, then you are in the metropole of that colony, here in the United States or in Western Europe, and national liberation movements have won not only — sometimes not primarily — by winning on the battlefield in the colony…If you believe this theoretical construct — the colony and the metropole — then what activists do here in the metropole counts. You have to win people over. You can’t just show that you are the most pure or the most revolutionary or can say the most extreme things and demonstrate your revolutionary credentials. You have to be doing something toward a clear political end.

Author Iyad el-Baghdadi shared his analysis of the geopolitical situation on X. If you want to understand why each country is doing what it’s doing, it’s an illuminating read. Here’s one small excerpt:

Thanks for reading.