Alex Press

Now out in paperback! Contemplating Judith Butler’s “tragic trilogy”—readings of Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Bacchae, and Aeschylus’ Eumenides—Telò’s book explores not just how Butler interprets Greek tragedy, but also how tragedy shapes their thinking. With an afterword by Professor Butler.

The best people are being killed and slandered by the worst people. Abolish ICE. Put Trumpism in the dumpster.

Beyond Borders Reclaiming the Politics of Bodies in Motion

As we cross over from a dismal year, hopefully, to a better one, let us raise our eyes to the brave people who cross over land, sea, and racialized borders. In our xenophobic time, Debarati Sanyal’s Arts of the Border looks toward migrant lives and art that renders “the force of bodies on the move.”

Amman in Love Exilic Longings (and 3eib) in “Every Direction”

“Amman in Love”: What is it like to grow up gay as a Palestinian Christian in Jordan? Tareq Baconi’s new memoir channels adolescent angst, generational trauma, and the longing for home.

Some news from the past few days: the genocide continues (per Amnesty International), recorded Gaza deaths surpass 70,000, torture of Palestinian prisoners is systematic, and 32,000 people have been displaced in the West Bank.

The ultra-hawkish right and anti-Zionist left have drowned the American Jewish majority Every U.S. Political Pathology – on the Left and Right – Is Reproduced in American Jewish Politics, Effectively Rendering Invisible the Plurality of U.S. Jews. That's Bad for U.S. Jews, for a Democrat...

The centrist fallacy: If people disagree with me both on the left and the right, I and like-minded people must hold the only sensible position. Leifer refers to "strident partisans" and "left-wing groups" with "an ideology far out of step with most Americans." Justice does not depend on polling.

Sarah Hurwitz: "So when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising they think, Oh, I know, the lesson of the Holocaust is that you fight Israel, you fight the big powerful people, hurting the weak people." Yes, that's the lesson.

Future Imperfect Notes from a Tense Present

Congratulations to the recipient of the National Book Award for nonfiction, Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.

Progressive including Palestine A Historical View of Jewish Anti-Zionism

“I’m not a Zionist; I’m a Jew”: With Gaza in ruins, West Bank settlers on the rampage, and the ADL pledging to “monitor” New York City’s mayor-elect, four recent books recover the Jewish critique of Zionism through the years—and its ruthless suppression.

Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks directly to the fundamental sadism of the Republican-appointed Supremes: "This court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification.”

The Struggle Is Real Two Establishment Voices Grapple with Jewish Identity, and Identification with the Jewish State

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove is in the news because of his fearmongering sermon about Zohran Mamdani. For anyone who might be interested, I reviewed his recent book, For Such a Time as This, back in April, along with a similarly titled book by Noah Feldman. jewishnonidentity.substack.com/p/the-strugg...

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say International Association of Genocide Scholars resolution backed by 86% of members who voted

The genocidal intent was clear from the beginning.

“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will always have been against this.”

A review of Omar El Akkad’s new book.

jewishnonidentity.substack.com/p/future-imp...

Joe Biden is complicit in Gaza’s starvation. Blood is on his hands | Mohamad Bazzi At several points during his presidency, Biden could have stopped starvation from spreading in Gaza. He didn’t do that

We should never forget this.

Pile of Debris Backward into the Future of an “Entangled Alliance”

Does history repeat itself, or does it rhyme? To read Amy Kaplan’s recently re-released Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance (originally published in 2018) is to experience the uncanny sense that all that followed October 7 had already happened. A new review.

Mass starvation stalks Gaza as deaths from hunger rise Aid agencies warned for months that Israel’s harsh limits on food aid would bring acute malnutrition and widespread suffering to Gaza’s 2.1 million people.

From today's Washington Post, pictures to sear the conscience. Let's be frank. Israel is not a people; it is a state formation, and no such formation has a "right to exist." Israel is also not a democracy. If everyone from the river to the sea had equal rights, this genocide would not be possible.

Child Amputees, Aid Massacres, Mass Starvation—the Israeli War Crimes NYT Covers Less than Mamdani and 'Globalize the Intifada' Theoretical, third order, speculative violence must be condemned while actual, real world mass violence, that actually exists in reality, is seen as normal and unworthy of sustained coverage.

Adam Johnson always nails it.

When Derek Penslar, a professor of Jewish history, was appointed as co-chair of Harvard’s Antisemitism Task Force in January 2024, all hell broke loose. But why was the appointment so triggering? “Hooked on a Feeling”: a review of Penslar’s Zionism: An Emotional State. jewishnonidentity.substack.com

Diaspora Means Carrying the Corpses Too A Doctor’s Visit, a Necklace, and the Conversations That Never End

"She told me it is complicated.... She mentioned human shields, Hamas, the recycled talking points that dehumanize my people even as we speak. She sat beside me, speaking,...as if I was not carrying every funeral, every demolished home, every disappeared child, folded quietly into my chest."

Liberal Zionism: The Forward's antisemitism beat reporter, Arno Rosenfeld, is bemused by Zohran Mamdani’s formulation that Israel “has a right to exist as a state with equal rights.” As Rosenfeld puts it, “Were his opponents supposed to say that Israel shouldn’t exist as a state with equal rights?"

“Third Person Plural: The Syntax of a Moral Panic.” A review of Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender?

As a bugbear of the Right (and target of fearmongering), “gender” sits alongside “critical race theory.” Butler explores the phantasms behind the demagoguery.

jewishnonidentity.substack.com

Harvard appears to think all Jews support Israel. That is discriminatory | Barry Trachtenberg, Victor Silverman, Atalia Omer, Raz Segal, Rebecca T Alpert We are Jewish scholars who filed an amicus brief with the US supreme court on Harvard’s discriminatory assumption that being Jewish means supporting Israel

Glad to see this. Thank you to all who signed.

”It’s Not Complicated: Getting ’The Message’ on Israel-Palestine.” A review of The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Part of my ongoing exploration of Jewish (non-)identity. jewishnonidentity.substack.com

How to Write About Palestine A concise guide to proper media behavior when discussing the “complicated” situation.

Sisonke Msimang, on "How to Write About Palestine," sums it all up.

“One-State, Two-State...
In the Midst of a Genocide, Dreaming of an ‘After.’ ” A review of Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel, by Omri Boehm. Part of my ongoing exploration of Jewish (Non-)Identity. jewishnonidentity.substack.com

" 'God Wants Relationships.' But Are We Too Clingy?" A review of Judaism Is about Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life, by Shai Held. Part of my ongoing exploration of Jewish (Non-)Identity. jewishnonidentity.substack.com

"It Starts with a 'G': 'Your Friendly, Local, Anti-Zionist Jewish Anarchist' Wants to Have a Word With You": A review of "Genocide Bad," by @simkern.bsky.social. Part of my ongoing exploration of Jewish (Non-)Identity. (Link in my bio.)

The Struggle Is Real: Two Establishment Voices Grapple with Jewish Identity, and Identification with the Jewish State." A review of Noah Feldman's To Be a Jew Today and Elliot Cosgrove's For Such a Time as This. Part of my ongoing exploration of Jewish (Non-)Idenity. jewishnonidentity.substack.com

50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. This is how it happened, day by day הארץ

Words fail.

In Haaretz, Hanin Majadli, examines the blackout of Gazan deaths. Meanwhile, in The Forward, Rob Eshman touts Israel's ranking "the 8th happiest country on earth" but does not consider indifference to slaughter as a way to stay happy—for him, it's just a matter of "airstrikes and ground operations."