John Foster

I wasn't previously aware of this: Theodor Herzl explicitly using the antemuralis christianitatis argument to support the colonization of Palestine (from Rashid Khalidi's Hundred Years' War, p.10)

the sheer refusal of those in power to see tragedy authored with American weapons as not just a stain that can never be washed out but even an error and a tragedy that the US could stop facilitating at any moment is exhausting, bleak, damning. It does not have to be this way, this is a chosen hell.

Interesting choice of phrase in the Guardian, about Galloway and Rochdale

Sonia Sodha has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza

Cabin crew: Is there a Dr on board?

Me: I am a Dr

Cabin crew: Thank God. We have a question about the 18th century textile trade in Northern Africa

Me: Ah. I'm afraid my PhD is in the ceramics of Northern Europe, 1672 - 1701

The collective determination to ignore this is a catastrophe for the Palestinians, of course. But once they've finished exacting their revenge, it's hard to see how Israel emerges from this with any kind of safe or secure future

And this is about vengeance, not security: until very recently it was a thoroughly uncontroversial position that massive violence can't solve political problems, that force in fact makes it harder to establish lasting solutions

When people say that Israel has the right or obligation to respond to Hamas, what they mean is that Hamas's atrocities on 7 October were so extreme that extreme vengeance is permissible

For conservatives it's not about commemorating the horrors of war any more (they're pretty comfortable with war after all): instead it's the closest thing they have to a national day

The fury on the Right at the notion that a Palestine protest might coincide with Remembrance Sunday is just further proof that it's become an expression of British nationalism above all else

Yes I thought long and hard about my first post here

I have a new favourite footballer