This year saw the release of two memoirs concerned with the Palestinian diasporic experience. Tareq Baconi’s Fire in Every Direction is a story of queer adolescent unrequited love, braided together with a family history of displacement from Haifa to Beirut to Amman. Sarah Aziza’s The Hollow Half is a story of surviving anorexia and the ways that the body holds the intergenerational grief of the ongoing Nakba. In this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Baconi and Aziza about what it means to claim Palestinianness as a political identity, not just a familial one, and the radical necessity of turning silence—around queerness, Gaza, the Nakba—into speech.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Books Mentioned and Further Reading

The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza

Fire in Every Direction by Tareq Baconi

Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi

“Al-Atlal, Now: On Language and Silence in Gaza’s Wake,” Sarah Aziza, Literary Hub

“The Work of the Witness,” Sarah Aziza, Jewish Currents

“The Trap of Palestinian Participation,” Tareq Baconi, Jewish Currents

Black Atlantic by Paul Gilroy

“Selling the Holocaust,” Arielle Angel, Menachem Kaiser, and Maia Ipp, Jewish Currents

Transcript forthcoming. 

In spring 2023, journalist and filmmaker Antony Loewenstein published The Palestine Laboratory, a book tracing the way that Israeli military technology and weaponry, battle-tested on Palestinians, is exported around the world. Lowenstein argues that as Israel’s surveillance and combat technologies are sold far and wide, we can expect to see the forms of violence carried out in Gaza, for example, appear elsewhere in the world. Last month, Jewish Currents published an article by Rhys Machold called “The Myth of Israeli Innovation,” which takes a critical look at what Machold has termed “the laboratory thesis” and examines how it obscures Israel’s dependence on powerful allies, while doing PR for the overhyped Israeli tech sector. 

On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel hosts Loewenstein and Machold for a comradely debate about the “laboratory thesis” and whether it serves a narrative of Zionist exceptionalism. The guests discuss how advanced Israeli weapons really are; how “Israeli” they are, given the role of Western governments and corporations in their development; and how much of Israel’s “innovation” should be considered technological as opposed to political. They also explore whether or not Israel is on the verge of collapse, and how to characterize the balance of power between Israel and the US.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein

The Palestine Laboratory, documentary series by Antony Loewenstein on Al Jazeera

“The Myth of Israeli Innovation,” Rhys Machold, Jewish Currents

“Reconsidering the laboratory thesis: Palestine/Israel and the geopolitics of representation,” Rhys Machold, Political Geography

“How Palantir, Google & Amazon armed Israel's genocide in Gaza,” interview with Antony Loewenstein on The Big Picture, Middle East Eye 

“‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza,” Yuval Abraham, +972 Magazine

“Profiting from Terror in Cold War Latin America: Bishara Bahbah’s Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection,” Alexander Aviña, Liberated Texts

“From Domination to Extermination,” Shir Hever, Phenomenal World

“Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus,” Frontline, PBS

“Zionism is an anachronism,” Makdisi Street

“The rot is very, very deep,” Makdisi Street

Israel on the Brink by Ilan Pappé

“How Israel’s War Economy Defied Economic Predictions,” Assaf Bondy and Adam Raz, Jacobin

The Israeli Connection: Who Arms Israel and Why by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi

Drop Site reporting on “Epstein and Israel” by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussein

“On Jeffrey Epstein,” On the Nose

“Survey: Young, diverse generation of evangelicals shows growing ambivalence toward Israel,” Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service

Transcript forthcoming. 

“Real life conspiracies pose a certain challenge for political analysis,” wrote Jewish Currents contributors Noah Kulwin and Ari Brostoff in their 2019 piece on Jeffrey Epstein, the child sex trafficker, financier, and international rainmaker. As recently reported in a series of articles at Drop Site News, Epstein had close ties to the Israeli intelligence community, and frequently brokered meetings for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, including meetings that resulted in the establishment of security ties with Mongolia and the sale of mass surveillance infrastructure to Cote d’Ivoire’s authoritarian government. What do these revelations tell us about the flows of power and money across the billionaire class? And what do we do with the extent to which Epstein’s story reads like an antisemitic conspiracy come to life? To explore these questions, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel spoke with Kulwin, a co-host of Blowback, a podcast about US empire and interventionism, and Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News and the co-author of multiple recent reports about Epstein.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

Drop Site reporting on “Epstein and Israel” by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussein

“The Right Kind of Continuity,” Ari Brostoff and Noah Kulwin, Jewish Currents

“The worst thing about Davos? The Masters of the Universe think they are do-gooders,” Hamilton Nolan, The Guardian

Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence by James Bamford

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills

Doppleganger by Naomi Klein

The art of Marc Lombardi

“Jeffrey Epstein Claimed to Have Meddled in Israel’s Elections,” Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

“JPMorgan Alerted U.S. to Epstein Transfers Involving Wall St. Figures,” Matthew Goldstein, David Enrich, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Steve Eder, The New York Times

“The Book of Epstein,” Chapo Trap House

Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers by Gus Russo 

Transcript forthcoming.

On November 11th, Israeli soldiers who had admitted to raping a Palestinian detainee at the now infamous detention camp Sde Teiman were met with applause and a standing ovation as they entered an Israeli courtroom. The scene ricocheted around the world, the latest portrait of the depravity that has gripped Israeli society. Accounts of the torture taking place at Sde Teiman were among the first things to emerge from testimonies collected from soldiers by the Israeli group Breaking the Silence in the aftermath of October 7th. The 21-year-old group has long encouraged soldiers to speak candidly about what they have perpetrated during their service; for this, they have been vilified and discredited within Israeli society, which largely prefers to celebrate the soldiers as heroes—a narrative that can only be maintained through their silence.

On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Breaking the Silence executive director Nadav Weiman about the testimonies they have collected over the last two years of the Israeli army’s annihilatory campaign in Gaza. Breaking the Silence’s testimonies have uncovered clear evidence that contrary to official reports, many of the war crimes we have seen are not the result of rogue soldiers, but protocols that come straight from command. In this episode, Weiman details the dehumanizingly named “mosquito protocol,” in which soldiers used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza—a chilling echo of the Israeli government’s oft-repeated accusation about Hamas. Weiman paints a picture of the mindset of the average Israeli soldier, ensconced in a “bubble” of support. He also fields questions about what accountability might look like for those who have perpetrated the genocide in Gaza—not just for top brass but for foot soldiers—and what the deradicalization of Israeli society could entail.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

“Abuse in Israeli jails caused deaths of more than 90 Palestinians,” Simon Speakman Cordall, Al Jazeera

“Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center,” CNN

“Mosquito Protocol: Ex-Israeli Soldier on Army’s Systematic Use of Palestinians as Human Shields,” Democracy Now!

“Some Israeli soldiers traveling abroad face action for alleged war crimes in Gaza,” Molly Quell, PBS

Transcript forthcoming. 

Last week, the Holocaust-denying, white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes sat down with former Fox News host turned podcaster Tucker Carlson on The Tucker Carlson Show, where the two discussed Fuentes’s trajectory, the evolution of his “America First” ideology, and the ways his rejection of the neoconservative common sense on Israel put him at odds with parts of the right-wing establishment. For many, Carlson’s seeming embrace of Fuentes on his popular show signaled a shift, a recognition that what was once taboo on the right has arrived in the mainstream. Cementing the sense of a sea change, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that has crafted many of Donald Trump’s most destructive policies, refused to disavow or scold Carlson, saying in a video that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. He asserted that Americans should support Israel as long as Israel’s action are in American interests—and that there is no obligation to support Israel if they are not. (Since this taping, he has had to walk back this statement, particularly the use of the phrase “venomous coalition” to describe those trying to “cancel” Carlson over the interview with Fuentes.) 

That same week, far-right talk show host Candace Owens, dismissed from her Daily Wire post over antisemitism, sat down with left-wing former academic and Palestine advocate Norman Finkelstein. In a conversation laced with Owens’s many antisemitic conspiracy theories, they attempted to find common ground. 

In this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and publisher Daniel May are joined by Ben Lorber, researcher of antisemitism and white nationalism, and Andrew Marantz, a New Yorker writer who profiled Carlson last year. They discussed the uncomfortable resonances between right and left anti-Zionism in this moment, and the even more disturbing antisemitic, white and Christian nationalist divergences. 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

JD Vance is asked about American support for Israel at a Turning Point USA event

“The Tucker Carlson Road Show,” Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

“Nick Fuentes Has Officially Breached the MAGA Gates,” Ben Lorber, The Nation

Transcript forthcoming.

Last week, a group calling itself The Jewish Majority published a “Rabbinic Call to Action” aimed at New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the last weeks of the campaign. “We cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalization throughout our nation,” the letter reads. Signed by over 1,100 rabbis, the letter quotes New York rabbis Ammiel Hirsch and Elliot Cosgrove, who had each issued their own anti-Zohran sermons and videos, insisting that Mamdani poses a danger to the safety of the city’s Jews and that Zionism is an inextricable part of Jewish identity.

On this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, editor-at-large Peter Beinart, senior reporter Alex Kane, and advisory board member Simone Zimmerman discuss this rabbinic campaign, what it means for the sizable Jewish minority who supports Mamdani, and what it says about the priorities of institutional Judaism at a moment of profound political instability.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

Rabbi Cosgrove’s sermon on Mamdani

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch on Mamdani

“Why Mamdani Frightens Jews Like Me,” Bret Stephens, The New York Times

The Jewish Majority, “A Rabbinic Call to Action”

“Brad Lander’s Campaign of Solidarity,” On the Nose

“Tax the Rich” post on X by Maria Danzilo

Halachic Left High Holidays reader

“Zohran Mamdani is not antisemitic, Satmar’s Brooklyn leadership says,” Jerusalem Post

“Jewish New York’s reckoning with Zohran Mamdani,” Noa Yachot, The Guardian

“Many American Jews sharply critical on Gaza, Post poll finds,” Naftali Bendavid, Scott Clement, and Emily Guskin, The Washington Post

“‘The Issue is Not the Issue’ – The Free Speech Movement 1964 - The Anti-Mamdani Craze,” Shaul Magid on Substack

Mamdani’s video “My Message to Muslim New Yorkers—and Everyone Who Calls This City Home”

“The racism and Islamophobia behind many of the attacks on Zohran Mamdani,” Richard Luscombe, The Guardian

“Religion, Secularism, and the Jewish Left,” On the Nose

“The Anti-Soros Strategy at the Heart of Trump’s War on Progressive Nonprofits,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents

“Trump’s war on the left: Inside the plan to investigate liberal groups,” Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Jeff Mason, Tim Reid, and Ted Hesson, Reuters

Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman on Zeteo

Transcript forthcoming. 

For the second year in a row, Rabbis for Ceasefire held a Yizkor service on the streets of Brooklyn, using the traditional Yom Kippur memorial service as a means to mourn the dead in Gaza, to atone for American and Jewish communal participation in the genocide, and to refuse further complicity. After the Yizkor service—attended by 1,500 people and watched online by ten times that number—rabbis and others blocked the Brooklyn Bridge while performing the Ne’ilah service that closes the holy day; dozens were arrested. In this episode, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with Rabbis for Ceasefire organizers Alissa Wise and Elliot Kukla about their experience planning and carrying out this ritual action, and what it revealed about the nature of the tradition itself. They also discuss the power of collective grief, and the difference and interrelation between Palestine solidarity work and the work of building a Judaism beyond Zionism. 

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Arthur Waskow. 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

Rabbis for Ceasefire Yizkor service on Instagram

“Jewish activist and leader Rabbi Arthur Waskow dies at 92,” Deena Prichep, NPR

“‘Chronic traumatic stress disorder’: the Palestinian psychiatrist challenging western definitions of trauma,” Bethan McKernan, The Guardian

“Can the Palestinian Mourn?,” Abdeljawad Omar, Rusted Radishes

“‘They Destroyed What Was Inside Us’: Children with Disabilities Amid Israel’s Attacks on Gaza,” Human Rights Watch Report

“The Right to Grieve,” Erik Baker, Jewish Currents

“Synagogue Struggles,” On the Nose

“We Need New Jewish institutions,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents

Transcript forthcoming. 

Last week, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire deal. A series of momentous events followed the announcement: First, Israel halted its military assault on Gaza—widely considered by international legal experts to be a genocide. Then, 20 Israeli captives who had been held by Hamas for two years were returned to Israel, while Israeli authorities released around 2,000 Palestinians from prison, 1,700 of whom had been detained without charge or trial. 

The events led Trump to declare that the “war is over.”  But Israeli troops are still stationed deep in Gaza, controlling over half of the enclave, and many questions remain about the future of Gaza.

In this episode, senior reporter Alex Kane talks to Middle East experts Khaled Elgindy and Daniel Levy about the ceasefire. They discuss why Trump forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire, why former President Biden failed to stop Israel’s bombardment, whether Hamas will disarm, and how the deal impacts efforts to hold Israeli officials accountable for genocide.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“How Fury Over Israel’s Qatar Attack Pushed Netanyahu on Gaza,”  Mark Mazzetti, Adam Rasgon, Katie Rogers and Luke Broadwater, The New York Times

“Read Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the war in Gaza,” Associated Press

“Why Hamas Agreed to Release the Hostages,” Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker

“Arab Mediators Believe Hamas Could Be Open to Partially Disarming,” Adam Rasgon and Ronen Bergman, The New York Times

As media figures reacted to the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk last month, a movement to purge those critical of President Trump and his MAGA movement found success. The most prominent censorship case came when ABC, bowing to pressure from the head of the Federal Communications Commission, pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air for his anti-MAGA remarks during his opening monologue. This clampdown on speech critical of Trump comes amid a broader attempt to reshape mainstream media in the right’s image. 

In this episode, senior reporter Alex Kane discusses the media’s right-wing turn with Karen Attiah—a journalist fired by the Washington Post for her comments following Kirk’s assassination—and Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host and founder of independent news outlet Zeteo. They spoke about whether Kimmel’s removal signifies full-blown autocracy, the takeover of TikTok by pro-Trump and pro-Netanyahu billionaires, and the role of independent media in this moment. 

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced,” Karen Attiah, The Golden Hour Substack

“Matthew Dowd’s firing begins flood of people facing consequences for their comments on Kirk’s death,” David Bauder and Ali Swenson, The Associated Press

“Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million subscribers during Kimmel's suspension,” Amanda Yeo, Mashable

“The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News,” William Cohan, The New York Times

“CBS Taps Conservative Policy Veteran for New Ombudsman Role,” Benjamin Mullin and Michael Grynbaum, The New York Times

“Israel wins TikTok,” Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft

Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, Evgeny Morozov

“Jared Kushner’s firm and the Saudis are taking video game maker EA private in a massive deal,” Jordan Valinsky, CNN

Charlie Kirk, influential right-wing commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated on September 10th. Since then, he has been made into a martyr on the right, and the Trump administration has vowed to crack down on the left, despite details about the shooter’s motivation remaining hazy. Among liberals, there has been a baffling rush to hold Kirk up as a paragon of democracy—despite his participation in the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election—and to demonstrate their own grief at his death. In this episode, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, contributing editor David Klion, assistant editor Maya Rosen, and contributor Ben Lorber, a researcher of antisemitism and white nationalism, discuss reactions to Kirk’s assassination across the political landscape, the mostly imagined specter of left violence versus the reality, the meaning of Kirk’s deification in Israel, and the ways reactions to his death have become a proxy for conversations about the genocide in Gaza. 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles Mentioned and Further Reading

“Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way,” Ezra Klein, The New York Times

“How to mourn in our polarized age,” Rachel Cohen Booth, Vox

“Charlie Kirk’s Murder Is a Tragedy and a Disaster,” Ben Burgis and Meagan Day, Jacobin

“JD Vance threatens crackdown on ‘far-left’ groups after Charlie Kirk shooting,” Rachel Leingang, The Guardian

Sarah Schulman on the sublimation of the Palestinian genocide into mourning for Charlie Kirk on X

“Light Among the Nations,” Suzanne Schneider, Jewish Currents

“The Group Forging a ‘Judeo-Christian’ Zionism for the New MAGA Age,” Ben Lorber, Jewish Currents

“A Jewish clothing brand is making Charlie Kirk yarmulkes,” PJ Grisar, The Forward

“In Israel, public tributes to Charlie Kirk include a street naming, a mural and a missile in Gaza,” Grace Gilson, JTA

“The Measure of the World,” Claire Schwartz, Jewish Currents

“Since the Hamas attack, Israelis have begun arming themselves the American way,” Jonathan M. Metzel, The Los Angeles Times

Transcript forthcoming.