Learning Nothing From A Genocide

The U.S.' Mideast coalition really expects the Palestinians to accept permanent subjugation. I discussed it on podcasts and in articles 

Edited by Sam Thielman 

THERE I WAS, trying to finish my book, when my immensely talented friend Zach Stafford invited me to speak about the Gaza ceasefire on Vibe Check, the podcast he hosts with the distinguished poet and writer Saeed Jones. Before Zach's meteoric rise in journalism and culture—editor-in-chief of The Advocate, Tony award-winning producer of A Strange Loop, I could go on—he was my Chicago-based reporting partner for our expose of Homan Square. One of Zach's pieces is among my favorites in that series. I'm not going to say no to him, particularly since it's been years since we caught up. 

By the time we recorded on Tuesday, Israel had already broken the ceasefire, though few mainstream publications reported it that way. Zach and Saeed asked me whether this truly is the end of the genocide, as well as what I made of the U.S. press coverage of it over the past two years. I'm grateful for the opportunity they provided. You can listen to our conversation here.

In the course of preparing for the episode, I looked over the communiqué that came out of the Sharm El Shaikh conference on Monday. Predictably, it mentioned Palestinian statehood not at all, and in its silence, heralded a return to precisely the same circumstances that produced October 7 and then the genocide. It accordingly paves no path out of this nightmare but accordingly back in at some point in the future. Those thoughts became this piece, published today by The Nation. A sample: 

In pursuing the Abraham Accords, both Trump and Joe Biden confused the quiet of the Palestinians with their quiescence. When Israel’s supporters claimed there was peace on October 6, they succumbed to the same delusion. It led only to October 7 and genocide. The horrors of the past two years should have taught Israel and its declining-superpower patron that the only path to peace runs through a free Palestine. Instead, it chose the image of an illusory stability over the lives of at least 67,869 Palestinians, and likely tens if not hundreds of thousands more buried in the ruins of Gaza. Unless they learn the real lessons of the genocide and what preceded it, another October 7 is an inevitability.

But why learn something when your entire model for sustained regional hegemony, with all the material benefits that flow from that, requires not learning that precise thing? What are human lives compared to a seamlessly interoperable hub-and-spoke system of defense and surveillance platforms, supplied by the U.S. arms industry, uniting the militaries of the U.S., Israel and compliant Arab tyrannies? 

Anyway, you get a second newsletter this week out of all of this before I have to get back to my manuscript. Before we go, some other people's work to read: 

Danny Postel reporting for New Lines on the ICE-led invasion of his hometown of Chicago: "There is a pervasive sense across the city that ICE agents could be anywhere. … Schools and churches are on high alert. A priest at a largely Latino Catholic parish in my neighborhood of Rogers Park delivered an unusual warning to his parishioners during a recent Sunday mass, urging them to leave cautiously because immigration officers were reportedly in the area. Several schools have gone into lockdown, following active shooter-style protocols."

Muhammad Shehada for Zeteo on four ways the genocide might continue under cover of the "ceasefire": "This is not a peace plan; it’s a blueprint for perpetual domination. Behind every clause, every delay, and every redefined term in the Trump-Netanyahu ceasefire lies a calculated effort to ensure Gaza never rises again. From the cynical weaponization of hostage remains to the creation of proxy gangs and the freezing of Israeli military withdrawal lines, Israel has laid the groundwork for indefinite occupation, aerial bombardment on demand, and the possible return of settlers to a land reduced to rubble. As the world applauds a ceasefire in name, the machinery of dispossession grinds on in practice."

One of the points Shehada makes concerns Israeli proxy criminal gangs like the Abu Shabab network that have slain Palestinian journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi and which Hamas is confronting. Hours after Shehada's piece went live, smoothbrained CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper characterized the gangs as "innocent Palestinian civilians" and urged Hamas to stand down. This is after an erratic Trump seemed to acknowledge that Hamas was within its rights to "take out a couple of gangs that were very bad."

As I was preparing this edition, I saw the news that the longtime respectable-right Carnegie Endowment think-tanker and one-time National Security Council South Asia official Ashley Tellis has been arrested and charged with espionage-related crimes in connection with China. I have no idea what to make of this. On the one hand, the charges come out of the Eastern District of Virginia, where Trump has installed a crony prosecutor. On the other, I don't know why she would go after Tellis in particular, and the affidavit's reported timeline suggests years of surveillance preceding her underpinned his indictment. All I know is that I've spoken and had coffee with Tellis occasionally over the years, as have innumerable D.C.-based foreign-policy reporters, and his arrest accordingly went into my brain's "damn, that's crazy" file. 

Finally, don't forget to get free tickets to the Francis Kite Club reading on Nov. 12 celebrating Luke O'Neil's new book with me, Kylie Cheung, Edward Ongweso Jr. and Grace Robins-Somerville.